Mountain Xpress 08.23.17

OUR 24TH YEAR OF WEE KLY INDEPE NDE NT NEWS, ARTS & EVE NTS FOR WESTE RN NORTH CAROLINA VOL. 24 NO. 5 AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

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C O NT E NT S OUR 24TH YEAR OF WEEKLY INDEPENDENT NEWS, ARTS & EVENTS FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA VOL. 24 NO. 5 AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

Asheville’s Paddle Shop

PAGE 12 ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT While most of us are sleeping, latenight workers — from pitmasters to police officers — are hard at work throughout Asheville. From the perks to the hazards, Xpress takes a look at what life is like for those on the third shift.

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OPINION

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Recontextualize the Vance Monument What should the city do with the 65-foot-tall obelisk honoring prominent citizen and slaveholder Zebulon Vance towering out of our center?

The word “monument” comes from the Latin “monere,” which means to remind, to warn. I read this in a Mountain Xpress article [“Bought & Sold: Forgotten Documents Highlight Local Slave History,” April 9, 2013] about Buncombe County’s efforts to digitize its original slave records, the first in the country to do so. Acknowledging the crimes of the past in this way makes me proud to live here. In light of the brutal events in Charlottesville [recently], I think we should follow the county’s lead and use the monument to acknowledge the past as a reminder and warning.

The Vance Monument and its surrounding plaza are a vital part of the city’s public space. It is a free-speech zone where I personally have stood in vigil and protest many times. It’s the site of the bleachers for the holiday parade and dozens of art and music festivals all year round. It’s an easily spotted landmark for tourists and locals alike. To tear it down would not only erase Vance’s story, both his crimes and his contributions, but it would turn a highly visible public space into a boring median strip. It would also cost a lot of money, far bet-

ter spent on community needs.

I think the monument needs recontextualizing. The quickest option would be to make the name much smaller and combine it with a plaque giving accurate historical context. More expensive, but more evocative, would be to commission sculptures to go around the base that portray local African-American history.

I spent an hour Googling slavery monuments and found many inspired artworks.

Try looking up “freedman cemetery statues,” “Underground Railroad memorials,” “slave market markers.” Definitely look at the new lynching memorial being built by the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala. We are supposed to be a creative city; let’s apply that to this situation. I think we should put out a request for proposals from artists and community members, and create a panel of local activists, artists and historians to assess them. Get the new equity manager involved. Something fitting and beautiful will come out of that.

While we are at it, the Vance Monument is the most obvious, but we also need to consider the many street names, buildings and parks named after prominent slaveholders like Woodfin, Patton, McDowell, Baird, Weaver, Vance, Merrimon and Reynolds. The ugly stain of slavery should not be hidden anymore but stand as a warning. Creative, sensitive treatment of this history will make our city stronger.

— Jennifer Murphy

Asheville

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OPINION

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

Room for everyone to counter racist fascists

Affordable housing claims fall flat

The article [on] the Mountain Xpress [website, “Community Turns Out for Charlottesville Solidarity Rally at Pack Square,” Aug. 14] doesn’t reflect my experience at the rally on [Aug. 13] night. I haven’t been to many protests, but this felt far from a riot.

Sometimes love is a chant of resistance. Because revolution isn’t a selfish act. Because putting one’s body between neo-Nazis and clergy (http:// avl.mx/414) is the right thing to do.

Because being the first on the scene to deliver aid, while the police send in tanks and weapons pointed at the dying, is intensely courageous. (The tanks [in Charlottesville] arrived before the ambulance — let me be very clear.)

I can’t imagine, in a town where the police shot and killed Jerry Williams in the street, why anyone might feel police are unwelcome at an anti-racist rally.

Taking the streets is a demonstration of solidarity. When police corral protesters behind their lines and cars, they are saying to the flag-waving, overly compensating, engine-revers that the protesters are the problem, to be caged in. They give space for the Trump trucks to own the streets.

But whose streets are these?

(Our streets!)

No one has more legitimacy to claim this rally than anyone else. Neo-Nazis killed a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, a radical union that seeks to unionize all elements of the working class except the police — an organization founded by anarchists (although ascribing to no political philosophy as an organization now). What I’ve read is that Heather [Heyer] was a Social Democrat, and my understanding is that she died walking alongside comrades from all across the spectrum of the left.

The anarchists I saw at the [Asheville] rally spent a considerable amount of effort advocating that everyone has a different way of mourning and combating neo-Nazi violence (despite the fact that anarchists who were present at the crash were prevented from speaking here).

I don’t know Heather Heyer, but it seems that she was not on the sidelines lighting candles and singing to the alt-right. Light candles for her.

Hold hands and remember her name.

But let the Antifa take the streets and show solidarity for her, too. There’s room for everyone to counter racist fascists in this town.

— Charlotte Taylor

Asheville

I believe the euphemism I’m looking for is,“Are you kidding me right now?” An Asheville rental at $3,160? This can only happen in a city government that has created an atmosphere and completely acquiesced to developers and special interests.

Even people in New York are saying WT. This is what happens when you have people in government who preach “affordable” housing and give you The District.

I find it hard to believe that somewhere among all the new hotels, cranes hovering over the city and $3,000 apartments, that somewhere there is not a quid pro quo as in “follow the money.” Perhaps a special counsel is needed in Asheville.

Sadly, the people who allowed this to happen will most likely be re-elected.

Voters have short memories, rarely do their due diligence when it comes to candidates and are naive and clueless about the issues. Candidates rely on that.

The next time you hear someone running for office say the words “transparency,” “affordable housing” and “living wage” — run, don’t walk. As Tessio said, “It’s only business.”

— Jesse Junior

Fletcher

MOUNTAINX.COM

The big bait and switch Recently released and already delivered for your viewing pleasure is a new “stealth thriller” — your 2017-18 property tax bill.

It includes a new city-imposed tax hoax produced, directed and choreographed entirely by our good friends at City Hall.

Remember that new property tax placed in the city’s 2017-18 annual budget — the special new tax “dedicated” to finance the $74 million in city bonds from the November 2016 bond referenda?

Well, believe it or not, City Hall has just officially announced: “That ain’t gonna happen, folks!”

As our tax bill payments begin to replenish the city coffers, these “dedicated” new tax revenues will not be placed into a separated “debt service fund” to pay for interest and principal on the proposed bonds. Instead, in a July 27, 2017, affidavit filed under oath in the Buncombe County Superior Court by City Manager Gary Jackson, the city’s new official position is that: “The $.035 (the new 3.5 cents tax/$100 in property value) … is allocated instead to the General Fund’s Capital Reserve Fund, which can be used for many different purposes” (emphasis added).

Gotcha’ again, folks!

This outlandish “bait and switch” reversal and blatant misrepresentation by City Hall (by both staff and City Council) as to the intended purpose and use of the revenues from this new tax should remind us all of Sir Walter Scott’s classic poetic

warning: “O what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.”

— Sidney M. Bach

Asheville

Williams supports sustainable policies for all I am excited about the recent announcement of candidates running for Asheville City Council. I look forward to local elections this fall when I can vote for a candidate I wholeheartedly support. If you value sustainable living in Asheville, please join me in voting for Dee Williams for Asheville City Council. Asheville’s continued growth and development is inspiring and also reminds us of the importance of taking care of our local community to keep Asheville a wonderful place to live and an exciting tourist destination.

Dee Williams supports sustainable policies for all the people of Asheville such as a living-wage minimum and affordable housing. She is an educated, smart, strong African-American woman, a successful local business owner and an inspiration in advocating for sustainable practices. I saw Dee at several local rallies supporting the environment, equality and diversity in Asheville. Dee knows politics, budgeting and the local movers and shakers. I see her serving on the City Council and making exciting changes.

As a mental health provider in town, I encounter firsthand the daily struggles of people working full time and more than one job, yet struggling to make ends meet.

Many Asheville locals often cannot make the rent, fix the car, pay for therapy, just the basics of survival. It leaves no room for luxuries like the occasional movie, concert or weekend trip. I believe that a living wage feeds our local economy.

It’s simple. When people make enough for the basics and have some extra, they go out on the town, feed the arts and spend money at local businesses. Just last month, Minneapolis passed an exciting $15 minimum-wage law. Let’s follow their lead, Asheville!

— Eman Moustafa

Asheville Editor’s note: Moustafa reports that she has occasionally volunteered with Williams’ campaign.

Vote Bothwell If you want to make downtown’s grating, gravel Pit of Despair into a pinnacle of pastoral park pleasure, vote for Cecil Bothwell for Asheville City [Council]. If you want a counselor with the courage of their convictions and more — leading the dangerous charge to convict a corrupt Buncombe County sheriff, standing up to the inquisitional fundamentalists of Western North Carolina

C A RT O O N B Y B R E NT B R O W N by refusing to swear on the Bible — vote Bothwell.

If you want a philosopher-king counselor who has written 10 insightful books, who paints landscape masterpieces with one hand while spinning out lyrical guitar songs with the other and who can poetry slam dunk with the best, vote Bothwell.

If you want a counselor who has helped replace all city streetlights with economical and environmental LEDs, certify the city as a living-wage employer and secure Asheville an affordablehousing subsidy program that stresses energy efficiency, vote Bothwell.

That is — vote Bothwell.

— Bill Branyon

Asheville

Celebrating local trailblazer Holly Boswell It is with great loss that I need to announce the passing of an amazing trailblazer and activist, and on a personal note, the great love of my life for the past 10 years. Holly Boswell — you are missed!

Holly T. Boswell was born on Nov. 19, 1950, and studied English literature and music composition at Oberlin College in Ohio. Boswell graduated as a senior scholar in 1972 and later became ordained to perform nature-based ceremonies. Holly acknowledged the

importance of the spiritual aspect of transformation and transcendence within the journeys of transgender people.

[As reported in a 2016 Asheville CitizenTimes article] “Holly came to Buncombe County in 1976 as a flower child with the intention to survive off the land and ignore the establishment. Then a young man, she settled in Sandy Mush and planned a simple life of gardening.”

That worked for a while, but after a split with her partner in the 1980s, “She moved to Montford and started going to clubs dressed as a woman. She met people from all across the spectrum. … But there was no word for someone like her, someone in the middle.”

Holly co-created the first support group in the country here in Asheville that was all inclusive, meaning [cross-dresser], transsexual, trans men and gender fluid would all be welcomed. The Phoenix Transgender Support Group was about 20 years ahead of its time and is still offering support 25-plus years later.

Holly also [helped to] form the Asheville Repertory Theatre, where she would sometimes take part in local theater and play female roles onstage. “’That was palpable to people; people could handle that,’” she [told the Citizen-Times]. “’The secret was to be a good liar.’

“In the 1990s, Holly submitted an essay called the ‘Transgender Alternative’ to the Boston magazine Tapestry, [the article continued.] ”The piece, which was the first to use the label ‘transgender,’ gave a word to

the way Holly was feeling. And the word“ — her use of the word transgender — ”became a label used by thousands struggling to find the right pronoun and their space between the he and she binary. “’It was a relief,’” Holly said. “’People could speak about themselves in a more transcendent way. “’I spent 30 years as a man, 25 as a woman, and now gender bores me,’” she told the newspaper. “’No one is 100 percent comfortable with the gender roles put on them.’”

“Her rallying cry today is as simple as it was when she drafted her landmark essay decades ago: live your truth,” the article continued. “’We need to recognize that each of us, in our own small way, are makers of our culture,’” Boswell wrote then. “’We can exercise that function best by expressing our true selves, not by simply fulfilling our culture’s expectations. We are all in transition ...’”‎ Holly passed away from a sudden heart failure; she was almost 67. She was one of the greatest people I have ever known. I am grateful for our 10 years of committed love but am truly lost without her.

A celebration of life ceremony will be happening on Aug. 26 at 2 p.m. and will be held at Eyes of Blue Farm in Weaverville.

For more information, contact Jennifer Barge at jenniferbarge@outlook.com.

— Jennifer M. Barge

Asheville area

Editor’s note: Boswell penned an essay, “Reflections of an Asheville Counter-culture Explorer,” for Xpress in October 2014, which sketched a picture of her own evolution and that of Asheville in its renaissance (http:// avl.mx/40q). She wrote in part: “My message has evolved to one of gen-

IN REMEMBRANCE: A celebration of life ceremony for transgender activist Holly Boswell will be Aug. 26 at 2 p.m. at Eyes of Blue Farm in Weaverville. © Mariette Pathy Allen

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Nominate a candidate for the

INNOVATOR ISSUE

Xpress is working on its second special issue aimed at showcasing people who are helping make our community a better place to live. Last year’s theme was Asheville’s influentials; this year we are highlighting innovation.

We want to hear about people working on the cutting edge, thinking outside the box and implementing unorthodox methods to great effect. It might be an innovative program for transitioning people experiencing homelessness into stable environments or pioneering technology like an app connecting needs with available resources.

Innovation can take many forms and Xpress wants to hear about those who are creating and utilizing new ideas to shape our community. Our panel of judges will make the final decision and then feature the winners in a special issue this fall focusing on Asheville’s innovators for 2017.

Nominating a candidate is easy. Just email us at dhesse@mountainx.com: 1. Name of person.

2. Name of their organization.

3. The person’s role, e.g., whether they volunteer, work for or are the founder of the organization, business, etc.

4. Nominee’s contact information.

5. A statement about how the person is using innovation in the Asheville area.

Please send nominations by Friday, Sept. 15.

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OPI N I ON

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

der transcendence — not simply opting between two gender identities, but rather exploring free gender expression for all people, which arguably may further our human evolution. Animals and plants have been manifesting this since life began on Earth. So thank you, Asheville, for honoring the greater diversity of all beings in nature.”

Push for more equitable dental care As a staff member at Youth Empowered Solutions, or YES!, I have become critically aware of oral health as a severe issue in North Carolina. In July, the N.C. Oral Health Collaborative released the Portrait of Oral Health in North Carolina, which provides a solid overview of North Carolina’s current oral health status by focusing on the social, economic and political determinants that prevent many people from obtaining proper oral health care.

North Carolina was the first state to implement an oral health program in 1960 and has since made tremendous progress in delivering care. However, North Carolina ranks 47th nationally in dentist-to-population ratio, so there is clearly still work to be done.

Additionally, living in a state known for its beauty, tourism and Southernfamily feel, I find it astonishing that we are continually seeing statistics like “three counties in N.C. don’t even have dentists” or “in comparison to privately insured, children with public health insurance are less likely to have had a dental visit in the past 12 months.”

In many ways, good oral health is determined by how much individuals are able to pay, their geographic location and their ethnicity.

Being at YES!, I have become aware of these things. But what about everyone else who doesn’t work specifically around social justice issues? Proper oral health for all shouldn’t be seen as something only in a perfect world. We should fight for it, for our neighbors, our elderly, our youth, for everyone who thinks one’s health is important.

According to the Portrait of Oral Health, there are opportunities to improve access dental care and improve the policies that are contributing to oral health inequalities. I urge you read the Portrait of Oral Health, call your legislators and the N.C. Board of Dentistry to push for a more equitable dental care system.

— Crystal Guevara-Alday

High school senior

Youth staff, YES! (Youth Empowered Solutions)

Asheville

2 cents’ for Xpress’ movie reviewers Reading someone’s comment re: the reviewers that have shouldered the Hanke legacy, I had to let you know that I am 66, I love romance and comedy, and my taste in movies is probably very different than that of your reviewers (or Hanke’s, for that matter). But I like folks who can write well, and when they turn their talent toward a movie I might want to see, I delight in it.

These guys clearly know their stuff. I appreciate their reviews, but then I have learned to appreciate my way through life, because it is ever so much more enjoyable when I do, LOL. (I know they would love that LOL, LOL). So I wanted them to know that I like their writing, Scott’s reply to that comment, their heartfelt opinions and their humor. It is still my main reason to pick up Mountain Xpress. So that is another reader’s 2 cents’ worth.

— Carol-Lani Rose Weaverville

Xpress movie critics lack gender balance “I’m the new guy around here...” — Francis X. Friel Two male film critics joined by a third.

Color me dismayed.

What percentage of movie audiences are women?

What percentage of movie choices are made by women?

What percentage of your readership are women?

— Patricia Darcy Asheville

Less academic film reviews, please Following up on Joe Mason’s letter to the Xpress [“Missing ‘Cranky Hanke,’” July 26], which [reviewer] Scott Douglas doesn’t really seem to get, I’ve been saying the same thing after every movie I’ve seen for the last months. I noticed right away that the new reviewers were more erudite but less accessible than ol’ Hanke was. Lots of times, I felt Hanke was leaning too far on the simplistic end of the spectrum, so thanks to the new guys for helping me appreciate him more now. I may have sometimes disagreed with him, but I never was misled by Hanke.

Fast-forward to recent times, and I can’t follow the twists and turns of unnecessarily erudite language that often comes across like a message for film academics rather than an advisory for ordinary people who like films. For

example (and I honestly almost wrote you about this), I went to see The Little Hours because the review made it sound cute, if bawdy. The reviewer never mentioned that it let itself get out of hand, only that the weak script was uplifted by fine performances. The film got ugly, actually, and I finally walked out. I don’t mind bawdy, I don’t even mind porn. But cruelty and hatefulness need a warning, thank you very much.

Anyway, without belaboring the point, I’d like to echo a request for more thorough and less academic reviews that are addressed to those of us in the Asheville area who look forward to getting some good ol’ useful, if cranky, advice from reviewers at the Xpress.

— Arjuna da Silva

Black Mountain Editor’s note: In light of recent criticism about excessive erudition, Xpress movie reviewer Scott Douglas is considering limiting his reviews to haiku form.

A sampling: The Little Hours Boccaccio meets Raunch-com in this black-hearted Black Death sex satire An Inconvenient Sequel Al Gore does his thing.

Is he preaching to the choir?

Yes, but he’s not wrong.

Alien: Covenant Ridley Scott f***s up But not as bad as last time So I guess there’s that.

Perpetuating ‘scientific’ myths about biotechnology Your May 17 article about genetic engineering [“Facts, Fears and the Future of Food”] is so chock-full of glib falsehoods that I hardly know where to begin. I would have far more respect for the “science” behind biotechnology if it didn’t depend so heavily on half-truths, double standards, unwar-

ranted assumptions, blurred distinctions and conflicts of interest.

Jack Britt says that the same microorganisms move genes between species both in nature and in genetic engineering, and therefore the methods are the same. This is half true.

In the latter, various techniques are employed to either bypass or weaken the natural immunity of the organism being manipulated, often literally forcing the DNA into the cells in ways that would never occur in nature. Stating that “many” organisms are naturally GMO, and therefore implying that we have carte blanche to do whatever we wish, isn’t just a stretch, it’s a whopper.

Britt and Leah McGrath emphasize the “precision” of these techniques. Again, this is a perversion of the truth. In fact, this is merely a precision of abstractions, because the living organism is then going to move these genes around in ways that can’t possibly be controlled or predicted. The only way to even begin to achieve complete control or precision would be to kill the organism, which would obviously be counterproductive. A technology that treats living organisms as though they were dead has extremely questionable scientific validity, not to mention morality.

Both the tone and title of the article perpetuate the same old “scientific” myths about biotechnology: The facts are with the “scientists,” the fears (“beliefs”) are with the uninformed public, and the future of food requires the widespread adoption of these techniques. The public is misinformed, largely because news media like the Xpress have allowed themselves to be used as soapboxes by academic cheerleaders for corporate interests.

As long as we continue to assume that: 1. The deterministic gene we’ve been taught in school and through the media is real.

2. The kind of science we now have (which is mostly technology rather than science proper) is the only science possible. And

3. Everything a scientist says is scientific by definition, we will continue to make catastrophic mistakes.

Substantive criticisms of biotechnology do exist, but for some reason, they almost never find their way into the mass media. The opposition only seems weak because its strongest arguments are ignored.

— Andy Shaw

Easton, Md. Editor’s note: Freelance writer Nick Wilson responds in part: “I thank you for

your passionate response. I appreciate criticism and view it as an opportunity to learn through grappling with different perspectives. Ultimately, I’m more than happy to admit my past errors if I come to a new understanding that falls more in line with what I believe to be true. If it comes to my awareness that I have put forth falsehoods, I’d absolutely like to remedy that. This is to say that my perspectives are evolving, not fixed.

It’s important to me to keep learning and growing in the pursuit of truth. …”

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NEWS

ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT “You meet a lot of interesting individuals at night.”

FIRST THINGS FIRST: COFFEE The third shift varies in start time and duration, depending upon the profession. Nurses at Mission Hospital, for example, clock in at 6:38 p.m. and clock out at 7:08 a.m. Meanwhile, night auditors at motels and inns typically begin at 11 p.m. and conclude between 7 and 8 a.m. Others, however, dabble in both worlds, blurring either the second and third shift or the third and first shift.

Since 1980, baker Fred Dehlow has made his living in the hybrid space of third and first shifts.

Originally from Long Island, N.Y., he and his wife relocated to Asheville in 2013. Since then, Dehlow has owned and operated Geraldine’s Bakery on Merrimon Avenue.

The alarm clock generally goes off at 2 a.m. Even after more than three decades in the business, Dehlow says the wakeup call never ceases to come as a shock.

But once the body is up and running, the early hours possess an elusive, recondite quality that Dehlow struggles to put into

Shedding light on Asheville’s third shift words. After a moment, he says, “You’re pretty much in your own little world.”

More recently, however, Dehlow’s world has expanded. At 59, the baker is beginning to phase out of these early morning hours. Two years ago he brought on apprentice Ryan “RJ” McCarthy, and four months back he added a second baker, Matthew Bruno. On an average morning, the three will knead, weigh, roll and bake 10 dozen doughnuts, 10 dozen pastries, a couple hundred hoagies and upward of 1,000 rolls.

Before any of this can be accomplished, though, coffee must be made.

Along with their hot beverages, the crew likes to start the day with Pink Floyd. The music, which is typically blasting, carries on throughout the early hours. It ranges from Jimi Hendrix to Louis Armstrong, from Otis Redding to The Doors.

All three are family men. Dehlow’s children are grown, but McCarthy has a stepdaughter in elementary school, and Bruno has a infant son. The biggest perk, they note, is child care. When your day ends at 11 a.m., you’re available when the kids get home from school.

KEEPING THE STREETS CLEAN: “I’d rather get dog-bit than get up early,” says Todd McMahan. For the past 17 years, he’s punched in at 11 p.m. Photo by Cindy Kunst

BY THOMAS CALDER tcalder@mountainx.com Todd McMahan thinks of himself as a vampire. It’s not that he has fangs or an aversion to garlic or an insatiable appetite for blood. It’s because for the past 17 years, the 45-year-old labor crew supervisor for Asheville’s Public Works Department has clocked in at 11 p.m. In fact, among city employees, McMahan holds the title for longest-serving night shift employee. On account of this, McMahan says, “I’ve been called Dracula forever.”

He’s seen a lot of personnel come and go during his tenure with the city.

During the daylight hours, the department has about 50 employees on the clock. But come nighttime, McMahan and his two-man crew — John Taylor and Rodney Hepner — make up the entire shift. McMahan notes that in the course of his tenure he’s gone as long

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as six months sweeping the streets solo.

Meanwhile, the longest any of his sidekicks have lasted is four years.

When it comes to nights, McMahan says, “Lots of folks just cannot do it.”

Throughout Asheville this sentiment is shared by many who work third shift. The odd hours can be challenging to acclimate to — whether it’s learning to sleep during the day, finding a healthy work-family balance or forgoing the social components that are more readily available to those who work traditional hours.

But, as McMahan and others state, the third shift does have its perks. Rarely does an evening employee worry about traffic. When eating dinner out at 4:30 p.m., there’s hardly a wait. Grocery stores are fairly easy to navigate at 7:30 in the morning, as well. And there’s a certain lift that comes when your day is ending while the rest of the world is sipping their coffee, heading into work.

But above all, McMahan notes, the late hours offer colorful encounters:

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TIME WAITS FOR NO DOUGHNUT: At Geraldine’s Bakery, work begins at 3 a.m. for, from left, Ryan “RJ” McCarthy, Fred Dehlow and Matthew Bruno. Photo by Thomas Calder

I’m happiest,” he says. “It’s where I’m most comfortable. It’s where I feel like I reach the most people.”

ASLEEP ON THE JOB

ENGINE 1-B SHIFT: Firefighters with the Asheville Fire Department work 24-hour shifts, followed by a minimum of 24 hours off. Unit members, from left, are Phillip Padilla, Rich Rauschenbach, Jimmy Mengel and Welker Taylor. Photo by Thomas Calder Of course, when your day starts at 2 a.m., bedtime comes early — generally around 7 or 8 p.m. for these three bakers. This limits social outings. “The bands don’t start playing until 10 o’clock at night,” Dehlow laments.

Perhaps this is why the music plays so loud at Geraldine’s at 3 in the morning. But no matter the soundtrack, and no matter the amount of caffeine, the shift has a way of weeding out those who aren’t committed to the profession.

“If you’re going to work these types of hours, you better really like what you’re doing,” says Dehlow. “If you don’t … it’d probably be really tough.”

SIREN SONG OF FATIGUE Mark Starling is another of the hybrid sort, blending work hours between the third and first shifts. Like the crew at Geraldine’s, the News Radio 570 morning host and news director also begins his day at 2 a.m. Despite 13 years in the business, Starling concedes, “You never 100 percent acclimate to the schedule.”

Unlike the bakers, Starling relies more on naps than he does on early nights. The lights go out only after he’s

finished preparing for the next day’s show, usually around 11 p.m. The lights are back on soon thereafter.

The roads are nearly empty at 3:30 in the morning, Starling notes. Those who do share lanes with the radio host have become familiar strangers. “I see the same cars and trucks almost every day,” he says.

Throughout his day, mental fatigue is a constant. “You’re asking your brain to function at a time when it’s not normally supposed to be functioning,” he says. To combat it, Starling has learned a series of simple tricks. Drinking more coffee is one of them; walking around the studio is another.

Despite his fatigue, Starling makes the most of his off hours. Like the morning roads, weekday afternoons leave the rivers deserted — a private stream for the radio host to tube down. “It’s very easy when you work the third shift to always say you’re tired, because theoretically, you’re always tired,” Starling explains. “But you can’t let being tired become your mantra.”

This final point (along with naps) is key to Starling’s personal and professional life. He does not foresee leaving morning radio anytime soon. “It’s where

In some instances, sleep is part of the job. Firefighters with the Asheville Fire Department work 24-hour shifts, followed by a minimum of 24 hours off. The schedule, based on a 12-day cycle, results in a 56-hour workweek, but includes 20 days off per month.

Capt. Rich Rauschenbach, engineer Phillip Padilla, senior firefighter Welker Taylor and firefighter Jimmy Mengel make up Engine 1 B-shift. The unit is based out of the downtown station at 100 Court Plaza. In the building’s backroom are the sleeping quarters. At first glance, the area looks more like an office than a place of rest. Cubicles divide the room.

Within each space is a locker and a twin mattress with a sleeping bag on top. A giant portable fan spins in the center of the room; Taylor notes that it’s used to circulate the air as well as to drown out the snoring.

A full night’s rest, however, is rare.

The station usually receives a minimum of three calls every night. Even on those uncommon evenings when the firefighters do sleep undisturbed, “You wake up feeling kind of drained,” says Padilla.

“You’re always in anticipation that the lights are going to kick on.”

Heart attacks, Rauschenbach notes, are the leading cause of death among firefighters. “It’s tied to lack of sleep,” he says. The sudden jolt from slumber to activity wears on the heart, Mengel adds.

“You go from 50 [heart] beats per minute to 120 within 30 seconds,” he says.

To reduce the risk, the city’s stations have implemented a gentler ramp-up.

Both the lights and the sirens gradually increase in brightness and volume.

Still, the business of emergency rescue requires a quick response. The unit aims to be up, dressed and out of the station within one minute and 44 seconds of a call coming in.

In some instances, Engine 1 B-shift responds as the backup unit to areas beyond its assigned coverage, either to assist other AFD units or as part of mutual aid agreements with other local fire departments. In such moments, team members know their role will be limited.

When these calls come, Taylor notes, “you keep one eye closed” and try to stay in “sleep mode.”

But often they are wide awake. “When we have high-rise fire alarms, we carry extra hoses with us,” says Mengel. “That’s an extra 40 pounds, and tools in our hands. … You go from sleeping to climb-

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N EWS ing to the sixth floor with all this stuff on within 2 1/2, 3 minutes.”

Mengel has dubbed such calls “surprise exercise.” It is the enemy of sleep.

Once the adrenaline kicks in and the sweat pours, it is difficult to return to the station and rest. “You’re sweaty, you’re hot — the last thing you want to do is go to bed,” notes Taylor.

The shift ends at 7 a.m. In general, members of the unit are fairly exhausted. But for Taylor, who has three young children at home, breakfast is the best time to catch up with his daughters.

After an evening of responses, he has one last decision to make — a choice that will determine the next few hours of his day: “Am I making coffee or not?”

“But I see things out of the corner of my eye all the time. We have glasses that randomly fall almost every night from behind the bar. … Lights come on and off by themselves. It can be a little freaky at times.”

But the feeling is fleeting. The fire constantly demands his attention.

“People always ask me, ‘Do you feel lonesome at night?’” he says. Phelps points out the nine murals on the dining room’s brick wall. The images depict men and women skiing and riding horses and ice skating. He then gestures toward the smokers cooking the pigs. “I tell them I’ve got nine people here with me at all times and two dead animals. It’s not like I’m alone.”

LATE-NIGHT DISPATCH

STOKING THE FIRE Whereas Engine 1 B-shift seeks to keep the fires out, David Phelps, Buxton Hall Barbecue’s evening pitmaster, spends his nights feeding logs (and hogs) to the flames. A former roadie, Phelps spent 10 years managing band tours, selling merchandise and driving the bus. Late hours are nothing new to him.

SMOKED WHILE YOU SLEEP: David Phelps concludes his day at sunrise. By that time, the pitmaster has smoked around 350 to 400 pounds of pig. Photo by Thomas Calder But unlike his past profession, his role at Buxton is a solitary pursuit. After coming in around 10 p.m., he spends the first two hours prepping the next day’s sauces and green beans. As he chops and mixes, Phelps is also building the fire up to the required temperature (225 degrees), in order to cook the two pigs nightly. By sunrise, he generally has around 350 to 400 pounds of pulled pork ready for the day crew.

Phelps says he began preparing for his unorthodox schedule at a young age.

“I grew up in the ’80s, the MTV generation,” he explains. “I would stay up late just to watch the risqué videos that MTV couldn’t play in the daytime. That’s probably when it all started for me — trying to watch Mötley Crüe dirty videos.”

Like the Geraldine’s crew, Phelps relies on an eclectic mix of ’80s metal and ’90s grunge to carry him through the night. He also listens to audiobooks and podcasts while he stokes the fire. At times, the pitmaster likes to put on jazz from the 1930s to honor the building’s 1936 construction.

Originally, the location was home to the Asheville Skating Club, which served the African-American community.

On these jazz nights, while the trumpets blare, Phelps sometimes stares across the sea of upturned chairs and imagines a bygone crowd skating circles around the dining room floor.

“I never really believed in ghosts or spirits or anything like that,” he says.

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Phelps notes that one of the few cars he sees regularly passing by Buxton late at night is an Asheville police cruiser. Its driver is likely Asheville police Sgt. Lisa Taube, who has been with the force since 2005. Before her promotion to sergeant last year, Taube worked both days and nights, as a patrol officer and a detective. Since then, she’s worked the 5 p.m.-3 a.m. beat in downtown Asheville.

In addition to community policing, her downtown unit deals with many nuisance crimes: open containers, panhandling and trespassing. Day or night, Taube says, the job comes with an element of danger. But the cover of darkness, she notes, adds to the mix.

“People can conceal things much easier or conceal themselves much easier,” she says.

Thursday through Saturday nights are the downtown unit’s busiest period. At 1:45 a.m., as the bars are getting ready to close, the unit typically experiences a surge in activity.

Cruising the downtown on a recent night, Taube points out parking lots on North Market and South Spruce streets, where late-night gunshots are not unheard of. “It comes and goes in spurts,” Taube says. “The good thing is people aren’t usually hit. But they are firing off guns. Whether it’s in the air, at the ground … we’ve had numerous calls like that.”

She attributes most of the episodes to local gang activity, noting that the combination of alcohol with ongoing disputes often leads to gunplay. “If there was zero violence involved and it was just drunk people being drunk people, I don’t think it would be as bad,” she says.

When it comes to nonviolent drunks, Taube notes, “You’ve just got to have a ton of patience. … You try and give them every opportunity that you can to

LATE-NIGHT BEAT: Sgt. Lisa Taube patrols downtown Asheville’s business district. Her day starts at 5 p.m. and ends at 3 a.m. Photo by Thomas Calder do whatever it is that you need them to do or that they need to do for their safety. … We’re trained to take the time and be patient. You want the best possible outcome. Unfortunately, because they are so compromised by their alcohol [consumption], it can take a while.”

A few months back, says Taube, she and her officers were wrapping up their shift. The police cars lined Haywood Street. An officer went out to retrieve something from one of the vehicles.

“He thought he relocked the door,” she recalls.

Five minutes later, a man knocked on the office door. “He’s like, ‘Someone just got in that police car at the end and drove away without the lights on,’” Taube recalls. Initially, she and her colleagues thought the man was joking, until they stepped outside and saw the cruiser was gone.

Dispatch, working from data sent by two separate tracking devices, led them to Hill Street, where the vehicle had been abandoned. The driver of the stolen car — a middle-aged man from out of town with no priors — was soon discovered hiding in the woods. Taube says he was arrested and charged with stealing a police car and driving while impaired. “Thank goodness it ended the way it did,” she says, noting that no one was hurt and the vehicle was undamaged.

The officer responsible for the oversight, adds Taube, was appropriately reprimanded.

STRANGE THINGS The unusual can happen at any time, but if you’re going to wager a bet, put it all on nights.

At the Grove Park Inn, night auditor Norma Justus tells the story of a guest who called the front lobby after dark, insisting she heard somebody in her closet. Security staff who went up to the room found the closet empty. “She was on the fifth floor,” Justus offers as an initial explanation. “I don’t know if you’ve heard about the Pink Lady [the alleged ghost that haunts Grove Park Inn],” she continues, but the guest evidently had.

“She was scared,” Justus explains. “We had to move her.”

Meanwhile, at the Regional Emergency Animal Care Hospital, doctors, technicians and receptionists have witnessed a variety of emergencies. Some are grave and life-threatening: car accidents, knife and gunshot wounds, burns and twisted stomachs. Others are less severe, and at times, unfold like a tragicomedy. In one instance a dog consumed a pair of women’s underwear. Staff asked the owner of the dog if she wanted the undergarment back. She did, she said, because it wasn’t her pair and she had a lot of questions for her husband.

In another instance, an owner brought in a limping cat. “I got to asking, ‘Well, what happened?’” recalls Dr. Jeff Johansson. Hesitantly, the client revealed that the cat’s carrier had been thrown against the wall. As the veterinarian continued to ask questions, the full story emerged. Every night when

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WELCOMING THE WEARY: Norma Justus checks in late-night arrivals at the Omni Grove Park Inn. Photo by Thomas Calder

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the owner got home from work at 4 a.m., he would hoist the cat — still in its carrier — into the air for “helicopter rides” around the room.

“They thought the cat loved it,” says Johansson. On this particular evening, though, the owner lost his grip on the carrier. It sailed across the room, crashed into the wall and left the cat with a limp. “The cat was fine,” Johansson continues. “But my eyes were opened. Some people’s nighttime routines are not like my nighttime routines. And I think this work — one of the satisfying things is you do get to meet some colorful personalities.”

As the reigning king of the third shift, it should come as no surprise that streetsweeper Todd McMahan has seen his fair share of unusual behavior and activity, as well. When asked his best night story, he laughs. “About 50 came to mind just then,” he replies.

One winter, McMahan saw residents sledding down Walnut Street in a canoe.

In Pritchard Park, he once witnessed a man in a full rat costume. (“I even got a selfie with him,” he boasts.) He’s swept past parked cars with couples engaged in the most intimate of activities; in other instances he’s come across people asleep in their vehicles, wearing nothing but their birthday suits.

“Nothing surprises me anymore,” he says.

NIGHT SHIFT PROBLEMS

MOSTLY AUTOMOTIVE 253 Biltmore Ave. 828-253-4981 16

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It’s not all strange encounters and colorful anecdotes, though. The night shift does come with health risks. Sarah Klein’s 2014 Huffington Post article, “8 Ways Working the Night Shift Hurts

MOUNTAINX.COM

Your Health,” showcases a number of national and international studies that highlight some of the side effects the third shift could have on a worker’s overall health. Sleep deprivation and higher risks of diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack and breast cancer are among the issues.

For those who spoke with Xpress, diet and sleep were among the top concerns.

Blackout curtains came up as an essential tool for daylight sleeping. Air conditioning was another must; it’s hard to sleep in the heat. Earplugs and noise machines are also employed by some.

Others noted the importance of turning off your cell phone: While it’s generally unacceptable to call someone at 2 o’clock in the morning, 2 o’clock in the afternoon is fair game.

“Shift work syndrome is a real thing,” notes Johansson, who works a mix of days and nights, generally doing back-toback 15-hour evening shifts.

It is past midnight at the animal hospital, and Johansson and colleagues Becca Whisnant and April Kormanec sit in the clinic’s meeting room, discussing the perks and challenges that arise from working nocturnal hours. Johansson notes the importance of good habits and patterns: “Whether it’s exercise or eating healthy, try to get on a normal schedule.

Try to have normal relationships.” But he concedes, “It’s always easier to give advice; it’s hard to take it.”

Kormanec acknowledges her struggles with routine and the impact it has on her days off. She considers it her “biggest downfall.” Meanwhile, Whisnant notes the difficulty she sometimes experiences in flipping her schedule to more traditional hours on her days off. Sometimes

she can’t. In those instances, she says, “I don’t see the sun for a week. That’s hard on your body, too.”

HELP WANTED Businesses and organizations often struggle to find and keep third-shift employees. Laurie Watt, area director of human resources at the Omni Grove Park Inn, notes that a recent position for overnight baker took three months to fill. She estimates that over the past year, turnover for night shift positions was around 75 percent. Certain areas, such as security and engineering, are steady, but the culinary and night audit positions prove difficult to fill long term.

Norma Justus first held the position of night auditor at the historic inn in 2013.

She moved on in 2015 before returning last year. In general, she has worked nights most of her adult life, taking on part-time day shifts periodically to supplement her income. “This shift is hard for people to deal with,” she explains.

“You can train somebody to do the job, but you can’t train them to stay awake.”

The pace of the third shift appeals to Justus. She points out that during the day it takes 850 people to run the Grove Park Inn. By midnight there are fewer than 20 people on duty. “It can sometimes be an advantage,” she says.

“You don’t have all that pressure from the boss. But sometimes it’s a disadvantage because there will be several people checking in,” with little to no additional support.

At the Econo Lodge on Tunnel Road, night auditor Steve Samples echoes the advantages of a slower evening pace. “It doesn’t involve a lot of interaction with

the guests. To me it just flows easier. …

You can do your work undisturbed.”

There is also a certain degree of job security, Samples notes, “because not everyone will work it.”

In other professions, vacancies are not an option. At Mission Hospital, talent acquisition consultant Steve Deighton says all new nurses and most physicians are required to start on the night shift.

“At first, I think they don’t look forward to it,” he says. “They almost feel like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve been punished.’ But once they get on it, they realize it’s really a nice work style.”

The pace, Deighton notes, is less harried. The pay differential also helps.

Those who work evenings at the hospital make an extra $5 an hour; if that evening shift falls on the weekend, there’s another $3.50 added to the hourly rate.

Other businesses and entities, such as the Grove Park Inn and the city of Asheville, also offer pay differentials for third-shift employees, generally ranging from 50 cents to $1.

After that initial year, more than half of new nurses opt to stay on the night shift, Deighton says. Still, he adds, the hospital is always on the lookout for additional night help. “It is a challenge because most of the world runs on day.

And we’re open 24/7, 365 days a year.

It takes a special person who’s used to working night shift and who wants to work night shift.”

THAT’S A WRAP “I get to enjoy every day with a sunrise, and that’s done a lot for me emotionally,” says McCarthy, of Geraldine’s Bakery. For him and his fellow bakers, the first sign of daylight informs them that their shift is halfway through. The register gets turned on, the doughnuts are placed in their display and the music is turned down as customers begin to filter in.

Like McCarthy, many on the night shift enjoy seeing the sunrise. For most, it’s a signal that their day is complete. Street traffic gradually picks up. The hallways in the hospitals fill.

The guests at motels and inns stir. The pitmaster savors the first bite of the previous evening’s smoked meat. The weary firefighter considers whether to brew coffee.

But for city worker McMahan, the sun means only one thing. “It’s time I run for my cave,” he says. “Like Count Dracula.” X

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Feds probing former Buncombe County Manager Greene The Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed it has launched a probe into former Buncombe County Manager Wanda Greene, a story Xpress broke on Aug. 16.

On Aug. 17, Xpress sent an open records request to County Attorney Michael Frue, who directed us to Department of Justice contact Lia Bantavani, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Later that day, U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose released the following statement: “The U.S. Attorney’s Office confirms that there is a federal investigation involving Ms. Wanda Green and others.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office has requested that the county place a litigation hold on all county materials pertaining to this matter. Consequently, in that a law enforcement matter is implicated, FOIA rules and regulations prevent public disclosure at this time.”

As for more details about the investigation, Bantavani told Xpress: “We have to protect the integrity of the investigation so we will not be making more statements to the press.”

Xpress first broke the news that it appeared Greene was under investigation after following up on tips from sources who asked to remain anonymous.

In reaching out to the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation, we were told by email: “The FBI’s [spokesperson] is handling media calls about the Wanda Greene case,” suggesting that a case had indeed been opened.

Xpress called a number believed to be Greene’s to ask for comment. After asking “May I please speak with Wanda,” the woman answering asked who was calling.

After identifying as “Dan with Mountain Xpress,” the person replied, “No,” and hung up.

Xpress is waiting on Buncombe County’s official statement about the investigation.

Buncombe County District Attorney Todd Williams told Xpress, “Sorry, I cannot comment. Thank you.”

Commission Chair Brownie Newman told Xpress: “Michael Frue, staff attorney for the county, has asked AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

To read all of Mountain Xpress’ coverage of city and county news, visit Buncombe Beat online at avl.mx/3b5.

There you’ll find detailed recaps of government meetings the day after they happen, along with previews, indepth stories and key information to help you stay on top of the latest city and county news. X

CANNABIS CONUNDRUM

G-MEN LOOKING AT GREENE: The FBI is investigating former Buncombe County Manager Wanda Greene for reasons it hasn’t yet disclosed. Xpress will continue to update the story as more details are available. File photo by Hayley Benton

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that media questions be referred to him. I cannot comment.”

Greene announced her retirement on May 30, stating her last day would be on June 30. Greene was employed by the county for 23 years and served as county manager for 20 years.

Xpress will continue to update the story as more details are available.

KNOCK TWO HOURS BACK The Board of Commissioners on Aug. 15 approved alcohol sales before noon in unincorporated areas of the county. It was the second reading of the ordinance, as it didn’t gain the unanimous approval needed earlier in the month for it to become law on its first reading.

Earlier this month, commissioners outlined their thoughts on the issue while this week it garnered the same vote without conversation. Commissioners Joe Belcher and Robert Pressley voted against it.

The measure will allow the sale of alcohol at restaurants and stores at 10 a.m. but does not allow for state-run ABC stores to open.

Earlier this month, members of Yes NC Cannabis came out en masse at the commissioners’ open public comment period to ask for consideration of a resolution urging state lawmakers to approve medical marijuana. That resolution was not on the agenda, much to the dismay of many.

“We asked for a resolution to be part of the agenda, and frankly I’m surprised we haven’t seen that come up. …

People are dying every day because we don’t have all the tools in our toolkit,” implored Timothy Sadler.

In all, 10 people told stories of friends and family members who used cannabis to ween themselves from heroin and pain pill addictions while others extolled the virtue of medicinal marijuana as a stand-in for, or supplement to, opioids.

James Harvey Jr. told the story of his father injuring himself at work and being prescribed numerous narcotics.

“One time a friend gave him some cannabis, and he told me, ‘If I could do this, I could probably make it.’ Three weeks later he took his own life due to the pain,” recalled a solemn Harvey.

While commissioners rarely address issues raised during open public comment, Commission Chair Brownie Newman spoke to the procannabis crowd. “As a commission, we have a policy of not adopting policies that are statewide or federal issues. There are other ways commission members can lend their voice.

Members who are interested would be happy to explore those other options,” he said without specifically noting what those options are.

Medical marijuana legislation is currently stalled in committee and unlikely to advance during the current legislative session.

CHILDREN ARE THE FUTURE Commissioners received a brief update about expanding preschool options in the county. Specifically, 78 more spots will be available

NEWS BRIEFS

by Max Hunt | mhunt@mountainx.com BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS LAUNCHES RECRUITMENT DRIVE AUG. 30

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Western North Carolina will launch the most expansive recruitment drive in its history on Wednesday, Aug. 30, at Hi-Wire Brewing’s Big Top location in Biltmore Village from 6-7 p.m.

100 Mentors in 100 Days seeks to address the more than 100 children waiting for adult mentors in WNC. The drive runs from Aug. 30 to Dec. 8, with the goal of finding a mentor for each child on the organization’s waiting list.

The kick off event at Hi-Wire will feature charcuterie boards from Foothills Local Meats and a variety of Hi-Wire’s brews. BBBS will screen a new recruitment video and unveil a new webpage for the recruitment drive, in addition to testimonials from current mentors.

More info: bbbswnc.org COLUMNIST DAVID BROOKS SPEAKS AT UNC ASHEVILLE SEPT. 12 On Tuesday, Sept. 12, UNC Asheville will host New York Times columnist David Brooks for a free public lecture, beginning at 7 p.m. in the college’s Kimmel Arena.

Brooks, a leading analyst of American culture

and politics, has written op-eds for the NYT since 2003, in addition to appearances on ABC’s Meet The Press, NPR’s All Things Considered, and the PBS Newshour. He is the author of several books, including 2015’s The Road to Character.

Brooks’ talk is the keynote lecture for UNC Asheville’s Founders Day celebration, a part of the university’s 90th anniversary. Advance tickets are on sale now at events.unca.edu.

More info: 828-2516853 or 90years.unca.edu.

RESIDENTS PETITION TO RENAME MONTFORD COMMUNITY CENTER The city of Asheville’s African American Heritage Commission and Historic Resources Commission have recommended the approval of an effort to rename the Montford Community Center on Pearson Drive as the Tempie Avery Community Center. Avery, formerly enslaved by the Woodfin family, served as a nurse and midwife to the community. The property where the Montford Community Center sits was originally deeded to her by the Woodfins in 1868.

Asheville residents who are registered to vote can add their name to the petition, posted on the community center’s

MOUNTAIN HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES RECEIVES FUNDING FOR SWANNANOA APARTMENTS Mountain Housing Opportunities has been awarded federal housing tax credits by the N.C. Housing Finance Agency to support its East Haven Apartments project in Swannanoa. The tax credits will create nearly $8 million in private investment into the project.

The East Haven property is the first property to be approved under Buncombe County’s Community Oriented Development ordinance.

The 95-unit apartment complex, which will be located on U.S. Highway 70, will offer affordable, energy-efficient housing options close to regional transit. The NCHFA has also approved $1.25 million of additional financing for the project.

The East Haven Project will house an estimated 200 residents, and employ more than 400 workers during its construction, which is slated to begin in the summer of 2018.

Applications for the apartments will be available later in 2018.

More info: mtnhousing. org X

spectrum, which is devastating. I quit work and knew I needed to spring into action,” she told commissioners, adding that her daughter’s preschool program provided speech and occupational therapists.

“I’m happy to say she is going to a regular classroom for kindergarten. I want to thank you. This is Buncombe County’s future, our kids.”

The agenda item was only an update, and no action was taken.

— Dan Hesse X

Do you know someone who works hard doing good for not much money?

That deserving person may be eligible for the Mountain Xpress Julian Award, a $1,000 cash prize that will be given this fall at the kickoff of Mountain Xpress’ Give!Local campaign for local nonprofits. But hurry, the deadline to nominate is midnight Sept. 5.

The Julian Award is part of the Give!Local project, an end-of-year web-based donation drive that will funnel funds to 41 selected Asheville-area nonprofits.

Nominations for the Julian Award are now being accepted. Nominations should be made at avl.mx/41d.

To qualify for the Julian Award, nominees must: • be doing exceptional, creative work in the nonprofit sector, • work at least 30 hours/week for a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization in Buncombe, Henderson, Haywood or Madison counties, • earn no more than $35,000 a year.

2017

with 18 at Johnston Elementary and 60 at Eliada Homes.

“I truly believe we can work to ensure every child in Buncombe County can thrive. When we move from talking to acting … expanding access to early childhood rises to the top,” said Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara. “It helps kids succeed in school … all the way to increasing education and earnings.”

Meantime, Kelly Moreland weighed in on the importance of preschool in her family’s life. “At 3 years old, [my daughter] was diagnosed with being on the [autism]

bulletin board, during business hours.

More info: 828-279-2341

MOUNTAINX.COM

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

19

COMMUNITY CALENDAR AUGUST 23 - 31, 2017

CALENDAR GUIDELINES For a full list of community calendar guidelines, please visit mountainx. com/calendar. For questions about free listings, call 251-1333, ext. 137.

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

320.

ANIMALS ASHEVILLE HUMANE SOCIETY 14 Forever Friend Lane, 828761-2001, ashevillehumane.org • SA (8/26), 1:30-2:30pm Behind-the-scenes tour of the animal care campus. Free.

• SA (8/26), 1-2:30pm - "Feline Body Language," class with Dr. Anne Peden Symonds of Advetcat. Free to attend. Held at Sanctuary Brewing Company, 147 1st Ave., Hendersonville • SA (8/26), 2-5pm - Vaccine clinic for pets. Visit website for list of services and fees. Held at Hall Fletcher Elementary, 60 Ridgelawn Ave. • SA (8/26), 8-10pm - Proceeds from this live music concert featuring Deep River benefit the Asheville Humane Society. $15$18. Held at Grey Eagle Music Hall & Tavern, 185 Clingman Ave. • TH (8/31), 1pm - Volunteer and foster information session. Free.

FIRESTORM CAFE AND BOOKS 610 Haywood Road, 828-2558115 • Fourth FRIDAYS, 6pm - Animal rights reading group. Free to attend.

BENEFITS APPALACHIAN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE PROJECT 828-236-1282, asapconnections.org, robin@asapconnections.org • TH (8/24), 6-9pm - Proceeds from The Local Food Experience casual dining event featuring farmers, chefs, and artisans serving small bites and complimentary beverages as well as a silent auction, raffle and door prizes benefit the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project. $25. Held at New Belgium Brewing Co., 21 Craven St. ASHEVILLE ROTARY CLUB rotaryasheville.org • TH (8/24), 7:30pm - Proceeds from this live music concert featuring The Nashville Songwriters In The Round benefit The Rotary Club Tennent Scholarship Fund.

Registration: bit.ly/2w04puM.

20

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

$100 and up. Held at Highland Brewing Company, 12 Old Charlotte Highway BLUE RIDGE PRIDE blueridgepride.org • SA (8/26), 9pm - Proceeds from Asheville Outdoor Cinema’s film showing of The Princess Bride benefit Blue Ridge Pride. Food trucks and bands begin at 7pm. $8-$11/ Free for kids under 13. Held at Carrier Park Ballfield, 220 Amboy Road CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL 946 Patton Ave. • FR (8/25), 4-8pm - Proceeds from food sales benefit the Africa Healing Exchange. www. africahealingexchange.org.

Mention that you would like your dinner to go to the Africa Healing Exchange when ordering.

CONSERVING CAROLINA carolinamountain.org • SA (8/26), 4pm - Proceeds from this fundraising celebration with silent and live auction and live music by Dashboard Blues benefit Conserving Carolina. $100. Held at Taylor Ranch, 1005 Cane Creek Rd, Fletcher FARM TO FORK DINING ON THE SQUARE tractorfoodandfarms.com/ farm-to-fork/ • SU (8/27), 6pm - Proceeds from this multicourse alfresco meal featuring Biltmore House chefs benefit TRACTOR. $125.

Held at Town Square, Town Square Burnsville MEALS ON WHEELS mowabc.org • FRIDAYS, 6-8pm - Proceeds from donations at the Antique, Classic Car & Bike Cruise-In benefit Meals on Wheels. Free to attend. Held at Blossman Gas, 170 Sweeten Creek Road OPENDOORS OF ASHEVILLE 828-777-1135, opendoorsasheville.org • SU (8/27), 8am-3pm - Proceeds from this flea market benefit OpenDoors of Asheville. $2.

Held at Asheville Outlets, 800 Brevard Road

MOUNTAINX.COM

LEARN TO NETWORK: WomanUP, the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce’s initiative for women in business, presents Build Your Network, a hands-on workshop for participants to learn how to build a powerful business network. The $35 event, which takes place Thursday, Aug. 31, from 8-11 a.m. at the Crowne Plaza Resort, includes breakfast and guidance from internationally certified coach, speaker, author and business development expert Meridith Elliott Powell. For more information and to register, visit ashevillechamber.org. (p. 20) OUR VOICE 828-252-0562, ourvoicenc.org/ trauma-education-series • SU (8/27), 6-9pm - Proceeds from the "One Bowl Dinner" dinner featuring a menu designed

by Chef Patrick O'Cain benefit Our VOICE and ManKind Project. Registration required: 828-222-0466. $77. Held at Gan Shan Station, 143 Charlotte St., Asheville POSTERO 401 N. Main St., Hendersonville, 828.595.9676, Postero-HVL.com • TH (8/24), 5:30-9pm - Proceeds from this five-course meal benefit the Veterans Healing Farm.

Registration: postero-hvl.com. $85.

THE BLOCK OFF BILTMORE 39 South Market St., 828-2549277, theblockoffbiltmore.com • SU (8/27), 3-5pm - Proceeds from the "WNC Solidarity Concert Series," with live music

by Ryan Barber and Friends and Drayton Aldridge benefit the WNC Green Building Council. $10.

TRANSFORMATION CELEBRATION abccm.org/transformationcelebration-benefit/ • FR (8/25), 6-10pm - Proceeds from this silent auction, reception and live entertainment benefit Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry programs. $50/$400 for tables

of 10. Held at Asheville Event Centre, 991 Sweeten Creek Road

Campus, 1465 Sand Hill Road, Candler

UNITED WAY OF HENDERSON COUNTY 828-692-1636, liveunitedhc.org • FR (8/25), 7-10pm - Proceeds from The Carburetors concert benefit United Way of Henderson County. $6. Held at Southern Appalachian Brewery, 822 Locust St., Suite 100 Hendersonville

ANTHROWARE

WEST ASHEVILLE TAILGATE MARKET 541-609-8596, westashevilletailgatemarket.com • TU (8/29), 7:30-9:30pm Proceeds from this "Classic French Feast with Salt & Smoke," market supper benefit the West Asheville Tailgate Market. Tickets can be purchased at the tailgate market information booth on the day of the event from 3:30-6:30pm. $50. Held at Grace Baptist Church, 718 Haywood Road

828-258-6114, ashevillechamber.org • TH (8/31), 8-11am "WomanUp," networking workshop for women in business.

Breakfast included. Registration required. $35. Held at Crowne Plaza Expo Center, 1 Resort Drive

BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY A-B TECH SMALL BUSINESS CENTER 828-398-7950, abtech.edu/sbc • SA (8/26), 9am-noon "Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition," seminar.

Registration required. Free.

Held at AB Tech Enka/Candler

45 S French Broad Ave., Suite 145 • WE (8/30), 6-7:30pm - Hatch Asheville "Pitch Party" openmic night for entrepreneurs.

Free.

ASHEVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

FLETCHER AREA BUSINESS ASSOCIATION jim@extraordinarycopywriter. com • 4th THURSDAYS, 11:30-noon - General meeting. Free. Held at YMCA Mission Pardee Health Campus, 2775 Hendersonville Rd, Arden TRYON FINE ARTS CENTER 34 Melrose Ave., Tryon, 828- 859-8322, tryonarts.org • MO (8/28), 5:30-7:30pm Young professionals meet and greet social event. Free.

CLASSES, MEETINGS & EVENTS BEAD ALL ABOUT IT! (PD.) Join LA Bourgeois to play with beads and incorporate them into your knitting. Friday, August 25, 10:30am-12:30pm. $50, beads included. • Reservations: The Knitting Diva (828) 247-0344 divasknitting.com EMPYREAN ARTS CLASSES (PD.) BEGINNING POLE weekly on Sundays 5:45pm, Tuesdays 5:15pm, Wednesdays 5:30pm, and Thursdays 11:00am.

POLE DANCE weekly on Mondays 7:45pm and Saturdays 11:30am. FLEXIBILITYCONTORTION weekly on Sundays 7:00pm, Tuesdays 8:00pm, and Thursdays 1:00pm. BREAKDANCE weekly on Fridays 6:00pm. FLOOR THEORY weekly on Wednesdays 8:00pm. BEGINNING AERIAL ARTS weekly on Mondays 6:30pm, Tuesdays 11:00am, and Wednesdays 11:00am. For details & sign up go to empyreanarts.org or call/text us at 828.782.3321.

ORGANIC GROWERS SCHOOL'S 4TH ANNUAL HARVEST CONFERENCE (PD.) 9/8-9/9 at Warren Wilson College. 20+ classes on fall & winter growing, fermentation, homesteading & self reliance.

Friday, pre-conference, all-day, workshops. $45 by 8/6, $50 after. organicgrowersschool. org.

ASHEVILLE ASPERGER'S ADULTS AND TEENS UNITED meetup.com/ aspergersadultsunited/, wncaspergersunited@ gmail.com • Last SATURDAYS, 1-4pm - Spectrumwide bowling social. $3 per game. Held at Sky Lanes, 1477 Patton Ave. ASHEVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT 828-259-5881, ashevillenc.gov/ Departments/Police • Through TH (9/7) - Open registration for the Asheville Police Department’s Fall Citizens Police Academy.

Registration: bit. ly/2uVozmf. Free.

ASHEVILLE TIMEBANK 828-348-0674, ashevilletimebank.org • MO (8/28), 6pm - Second birthday potluck and membership social. Bring a potluck dish to share. Free.

Held at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 337 Charlotte St. BIG IVY COMMUNITY CENTER 540 Dillingham Road, Barnardsville, 828-6263438 • 4th MONDAYS, 7pm - Community center board meeting. Free.

BLUE RIDGE TOASTMASTERS CLUB blueridgetoastmasters. com/membersarea/, fearless@ blueridgetoastmasters. org • MO (8/28), noon1:30pm - General meeting. Free. Held at Lenoir Rhyne University,, 2nd Flr Boardroom, 36 Montford Ave. BUNCOMBE COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARIES buncombecounty. org/governing/depts/ library

• WEDNESDAYS (8/23), (9/6) & (9/13) Spanish conversation group. Registration required. Free. Held at Pack Memorial Library, 67 Haywood St. MARINE CORPS LEAGUE ASHEVILLE 828-273-4948, mcl.asheville@gmail. com • Last TUESDAYS - For veterans of the Marines, FMF Corpsmen and their families. Free. Held at American Legion Post #2, 851 Haywood Road

7:30-Pole• Thursday: 5:30-Jazz/Funk Series, 6:30-Exotic Poleography, 7:30Beg. Spin Pole• Friday: 11-Open Pole, 12-Floor Play• Saturday: 1:30Intro/Beg. Pole $15Visit the website to learn more: DanceclubAsheville. com 828-275-8628 Right down the street

from UNCA - 9 Old Burnsville Hill Rd., #3 STUDIO ZAHIYA, DOWNTOWN DANCE CLASSES (PD.) Monday 9am Yoga Wkt 12pm Barre Wkt 4pm Dance and Define Wkt 5pm Bellydance Drills 6pm Hip Hop Wkt 6pm Bellydance Special Topics 7pm Classical

Ballet Series 8pm Tribal Bellydance Series 8pm Lyrical Series • Tuesday 9am Hip Hop Wkt 12pm Sculpt-Beats Wkt 5pm Modern Movement 6pm Intro to Bellydance 7pm Bellydance 2 8pm Advanced Bellydance • Wednesday 5pm Hip Hop Wkt 5pm Bollywood 6pm

Bhangra Series 7pm Tahitian Series 8pm Jazz Series • Thursday 9am Hip Hop Wkt 12pm Sculpt-beats Wkt 4pm Girls Hip Hop 5pm Teens Hip Hop 6pm Bellydance Drills 7pm Advanced Contemporary 8pm West Coast Swing Series • Saturday 9:30am Hip Hop Wkt 10:45 Buti Yoga Wkt

• Sunday 11am Yoga Wkt • $13 for 60 minute classes, Wkt $6.

90 1/2 N. Lexington Avenue. www.studiozahiya. com :: 828.242.7595 SENIOR OPPORTUNITY CENTER 36 Grove St. • TUESDAYS, 8am Zumba dance exercise class. $8.

FOOD & BEER ASHEVILLE VEGAN SOCIETY meetup.com/TheAsheville-VeganSociety/ • TU (8/29), 6-8pm Three-course vegan food and beer pairing.

Registration required. $14/$23 with beer.

Held at Tunnel Road

DANCE DO YOU WANT TO DANCE? (PD.) Ballroom, Country and Social Dance Instructions, Dance Workshops and Social Dance Events in Asheville. Certified instructor. Contact Richard for information: 828-333-0715, naturalrichard@ mac.com • www.

DanceForLife.net EXPERIENCE ECSTATIC DANCE! (PD.) Dance waves hosted by Asheville Movement Collective.

Fun and personal/ community transformation. • Fridays, 7pm, Terpsicorps Studios, 1501 Patton Avenue. • Sundays, 8:30am and 10:30am, JCC, 236 Charlotte Street. Sliding scale fee. Information: ashevillemovementcollective.org POLE FITNESS AND DANCE CLASSES AT DANCECLUB ASHEVILLE (PD.) Pole Dance, Burlesque, Jazz/Funk, Flashmobs! Drop in for a class or sign up for a series:• Monday: 5:15-Adv. Beg. Spin Pole, 6:30-Sexy Chair Series, 6:30-Stretchy Flexy, 7:30-Adv. Beg. Pole• Tuesday: 12PM-Pole $10, 5:30Pole, 6:30-Jazz/Funk Series, 7:30-Pole• Wednesday: 5:30Pole, 6:30-Pole Tricks,

MOUNTAINX.COM

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

21

C O N S C I O U S PA R T Y

by Edwin Arnaudin | earnaudin@mountainx.com

Deep River

REFLECTION ETERNAL: Country band Deep River celebrates 10 years in Asheville and 25 overall years of performing with a mix of originals and favorite covers at The Grey Eagle on Aug. 26. Proceeds from the show benefit the Asheville Humane Society. Photo by Frank Zipperer WHAT: A benefit concert for the Asheville Humane Society WHEN: Saturday, Aug, 26, 8 p.m.

WHERE: The Grey Eagle, 185 Clingman Ave. WHY: It’s no coincidence that country band Deep River’s 25 years of performing line up with the quarter-century that married members Sharon Lewis and Sandy Howard have been together.

“Being the heart and soul of the band — meaning the other personnel have changed over the years, of course — it’s just been a natural extrapolation of our own aspiration,” Lewis says. “It’s something that’s deeply a part of our soul.”

The musicians commemorate that anniversary and their 10 years in Asheville on Saturday, Aug. 26, along with guest artists that bring the ensemble to eight pieces. The evening’s setlist also has a celebratory vibe to it with a focus on country music of the 1980s and ‘90s.

“For us, that’s our personal golden era of country music. We bring a little of our own love and passion for the artists and the songs of those 20

22

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

MOUNTAINX.COM

years,” Lewis says. “We also bring some of our own original material from our decade in Nashville … and it’s a real joy for us to bring hits of two artists that really inspired us earlier in our musical lives: the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt.”

Deep River played a benefit show for Brother Wolf Animal Rescue in early December, and as a way of being fair to the Asheville Humane Society, decided to have the anniversary show’s proceeds go to the latter organization. With the subsequent announcement that Brother Wolf is closing its adoption facility and moving it to its new Leicester sanctuary, Lewis says it’s “serendipitous” that her band is able to help AHS at a time when the shelter is facing additional pressure with regard to “an influx of dogs and cats that need rescuing and adoption.”

Deep River will perform at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 26, at The Grey Eagle. Tickets are $15 in advance and $18 day of show and may be purchased at the door and online at www.thegreyeagle.com X

C OMMU N IT Y CA L EN D AR

Tap Haus, 4 S. Tunnel Road, Suite 100 FOOD NOT BOMBS HENDERSONVILLE foodnotbombshendersonville@gmail.com • SUNDAYS, 4pm - Community meal.

Free. Held at Black Bear Coffee Co., Rosdon Mall, 318 N Main St., #5, Hendersonville LIVING WEB FARMS 828-891-4497, livingwebfarms.org • TH (8/24), 6pm "Sauces to Elevate Your Cooking," sauce-making class. $10. Held at French Broad Food Co-op, 90 Biltmore Ave. MALAPROP'S BOOKSTORE AND CAFE 55 Haywood St., 828254-6734, malaprops. com • WE (8/23), 7pm Ken Haedrich presents his book, The Harvest Baker: 150 Sweet & Savory Recipes Celebrating the Fresh-Picked Flavors of Fruits, Herbs & Vegetables. Free to attend.

FESTIVALS PEACOCK PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 301 Church St., Hayesville • SA (8/26), 2pm "Peacock’s Family Fun Day," familyfriendly event with performances from the Campbell Folk School Cloggers, The Mountain Marionettes, Thomas Payne’s Magical Moments and Frank McKinney’s Swing Set. $10 for adults/students/$5 children 5-12/Free under 5.

GOVERNMENT & POLITICS HENDERSON COUNTY LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS lwvhcnc.org • SU (8/27), 2-4pm "Sundaes on Sunday Celebration," meeting for the public to learn about the League's

by Abigail Griffin

programs. Free. Held at Hendersonville Chamber of Commerce, 204 Kanuga Road, Hendersonville

KIDS ASHEVILLE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE 43 Patton Ave., 828254-7162, colburnmuseum.org • 2nd & 4th FRIDAYS, 9-9:45am - "Little Explorers Club," guided activities and free play for preschoolers. $3.50 per child/Free for caregivers.

BUNCOMBE COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARIES buncombecounty. org/governing/depts/ library • MONDAYS, 10:30am - "Mother Goose Time," storytime for 4-18 month olds. Free.

Held at Skyland/South Buncombe Library, 260 Overlook Road • MONDAYS, 10:30am - Spanish story time for children of all ages. Free. Held at Enka-Candler Library, 1404 Sandhill Road, Candler • MO (8/28), 4-5pm - "LEGO Club," for ages 5 and up. LEGOs provided. Free. Held at Weaverville Public Library, 41 N. Main St., Weaverville • TH (8/31), 10am "Tiny Tots Yoga," class for crawling babies and toddlers up to 2 years old. Free. Held at Swannanoa Library, 101 West Charleston St., Swannanoa BUNCOMBE COUNTY RECREATION SERVICES buncombecounty.org/ Governing/Depts/ Parks/ • Through TU (9/5) Open registration for the ABYSA fall children's soccer leagues.

Registration: abysa. org or 828-299-7277 x. 304. $20.

FLETCHER LIBRARY 120 Library Road, Fletcher, 828-6871218, library.hendersoncountync.org

• WEDNESDAYS, 10:30am - Family story time. Free.

HANDS ON! A CHILDREN'S GALLERY 318 N. Main St., Hendersonville, 828697-8333 • TU (8/22) through FR (8/25), 10am-4pm - "Gone Fishing!" Kids activities to learn about fish habitat, colors and counting. Admission fees apply.

• TU (8/29) through SU (9/3), 10am-4pm "Apple Festival!" apple oriented activities for children. Admission fees apply.

• TU (8/29) through FR (9/1), 10am-4pm "Late Summer Flower Festival!" Activities for all ages to create flowers using paintings.

Admission fees apply.

MALAPROP'S BOOKSTORE AND CAFE 55 Haywood St., 828254-6734, malaprops.com • WEDNESDAYS, 10am - Miss Malaprop's Story Time for ages 3-9. Free to attend.

SWANNANOA VALLEY MUSEUM 223 W State St., Black Mountain, 828-669-9566, history.swannanoavalleymuseum.org • 2nd & 4th SATURDAYS, 2-4pm - Historically oriented crafts and activities for children. Free to attend.

OUTDOORS INLINE HOCKEY REGISTRATION (PD.) Sign ups open for fall season of Inline Hockey at Carrier Park. Free registration for new youth players. New division created in adult league. Information at www.ashevillehockey. org WATERFALL EXPLORATION (PD.) Enjoy a guided hike to Chimney Rock at Chimney Rock State Park’s 404-foot waterfall on Saturday, August 26, from 9:30am-12pm.

Registration required.

More info, visit chimneyrockpark.com ASHEVILLE DOWNTOWN ASSOCIATION 828-251-9973, ashevilledowntown.org • Tuesdays through (8/29), 5:30-7:30pm "Asheville Hoop Jam," outdoor event hosted

by Asheville Hoops, featuring hula hooping and music. Bring your own hula or borrow a demo. Free. Held at Pritchard Park, 4 College St. ASHEVILLE OUTLETS 800 Brevard Road, shopashevilleoutlets. com • WEDNESDAYS through (9/17), 7:30-9am - Healthy Hikers Walkers Club. Free.

BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY HIKES 828-298-5330, nps.gov • FR (8/25), 10am - Hike of the Week: “Getting Loopy on the Parkway,”

ranger-guided, easy, 1.4 mile hike on the Visitor Center Loop Trail. Free.

Meets at MP 384.8 • SA (8/26), 9am Ranger-guided walk and history presentation around Bass Lake. Free.

Held at Cone Manor, MP 294 BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY RANGER PROGRAMS 828-295-3782, ggapio@gmail.com • SA (8/26), 10am Ranger-led presentation on Monarch butterfly life cycles. Free. Held at Cone Manor, MP 294 • SA (8/26), 7pm - "Snakes Alive," ranger-led presentation about snakes.

Free. Held at Linville Falls Campground Amphitheater, MP 316 BUNCOMBE COUNTY RECREATION SERVICES buncombecounty.org/ Governing/Depts/Parks/ • SA (8/26), 1pm Guided, moderately difficult 2.8 mile hike.

Free. Registration: 828250-4260 or parks@ buncombecounty.org.

Meet at the Alexander Mountain Bike Park, 90 Old Marshall Highway, Alexander FRIENDS OF THE SMOKIES 828-452-0720, friendsofthesmokies.org, outreach.nc@ friendsofthesmokies.org • TH (8/24), 6pm "Salamander Capital of the World," presentation about salamanders.

Portion of proceeds from beer sales benefit the Friends of the Smokies. Free to attend.

Held at Wedge Brewing Co., 125 B Roberts St. GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN 2050 Blowing Rock Highway Linville, 828-733-4337, grandfather.com • TH (8/24), 6-8pm "Grandfather Presents: Tom Earnhardt," lecture by the host of public television’s “Exploring North Carolina.”

Admission fees apply.

HIGHLAND BREWING COMPANY 12 Old Charlotte Highway, 828-299-3370 • TU (8/29), 6-8:30pm - Proceeds from donations at this presentation by Appalachian Trail hiker and inspirational speaker Jennifer Pharr Davis benefit Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail.

Registration required: JPDhikestheMST.org.

Admission by donation.

PISGAH CENTER FOR WILDLIFE EDUCATION 1401 Fish Hatchery Road, Pisgah Forest, 828-877-4423 • WE (8/23), 10am-3pm - "Casting for Beginners: Level 1," fly-fishing workshop for ages 12 and up. Registration required. Free.

• TH (8/24), 10am2pm - "Snorkeling in the Stream," event to explore a local river in search of aquatic macroinvertebrates.

Registration required.

Free.

• FR (8/25), 9am-2pm - "Leader Building," fly-fishing workshop for ages 12 and up.

PET GROOMING

RIGHT AT YOUR DOORSTEP

CARING & CONVENIENT Accepting New Clients!

828-458-9052 • wagvillenc.com • Follow us on

@wagvillenc MOUNTAINX.COM

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

23

Buying, Selling or Investing in Real Estate?

COM M U N I TY CA LEN DA R

by Abigail Griffin

(828) 210-1697 Registration required.

Free.

• SA (8/26), 9am-noon - "Backyard Birding

by Ear," workshop for ages 10 and up.

Registration required.

Free.

• WE (8/30), 8am-1pm - "Introduction to Fly Fishing: Lake Fishing," workshop for ages 12 and up. Registration required. Free.

www.TheMattAndMollyTeam.com

Asheville’s headquarters for school band instruments, accessories and repairs

Dr. Carl MuMpower Voted 1st place for

Best Local Villain — 2017 wnc reader’s poll

Thanks Mountain Xpress readers!

(828) 299-3000 Mon.–Fri. 9:30 a.m.–6 p.m.

Sat. 9:30 a.m.–5 p.m.

800 Fairview Rd (at River Ridge Marketplace)

“Let me embrace thee, sour advertsity, for wise men say it is the wisest course” — shakespeare

Antiques, Diamonds, Estate Jewelry, Coins, Coin Collections, Watches, Estates — Highest Prices Paid Period

WE BUY

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Check out our Website & Indycar Race Team

www.Tiquehunterantiques.com 336 Rockwood Road, Suite 101 Arden, NC Next to the Cracker Barrel off Airport Road 24

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

MOUNTAINX.COM

828.585.2355

SENIOR OPPORTUNITY CENTER 36 Grove St. • WEDNESDAYS, 8am - Walking club for adults of all ages.

Information: 828-3502062. Free.

PARENTING HOPE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH 2443 Spartanburg Highway, East Flat Rock • Through WE (9/27) - Open registration for a foster parent training class with the Henderson County Department of Social Services. Training begins on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 6-9pm.

Registration: 828-6946252 or families4kids@ hendersoncountydss. org.

PUBLIC LECTURES BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE MUSEUM & ARTS CENTER 56 Broadway, 828-3508484, blackmountaincollege. org • TH (8/24), 7pm UNC Asheville professor of philosophy Brian Butler presents his book, The Democratic Constitution: Experimentalism and Interpretation. Free.

BUNCOMBE COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARIES buncombecounty. org/governing/depts/ library • WE (8/23), 6pm "Asheville's History in Postcards," presentation by Terry Taylor.

Free. Held at North

Asheville Library, 1030 Merrimon Ave. • WE (8/30), noon1pm - "Legends, Secrets and Mysteries of Asheville," presentation by local historian and author Marla Milling. Free. Held at Pack Memorial Library, 67 Haywood St. CAROLINA PUBLIC PRESS carolinapublicpress.org • TH (8/24), 8:3010:30am - "Domestic Violence Issues Facing Western North Carolina," panel discussion and public forum with Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan and representatives from SAFE Inc. Meridian Behavioral Health Services, N.C. Council for Women and the N.C. Batterer Intervention Program.

Registration required: carolinapublicpress.org or 828-774-5290. Free.

Held at Lenoir Rhyne Center for Graduate Studies, 36 Montford Ave. LEADERSHIP ASHEVILLE SUMMER BREAKFAST SERIES 828-255-7100, leadershipasheville.org • WE (8/23), 7:309:15am - “Leadership Asheville Buzz Breakfast,” and panel discussion with business leaders on Asheville's future growth. $20. Held at Crowne Plaza Expo Center, 1 Resort Drive LITERARY EVENTS AT UNCA unca.edu • TH (8/31), 7pm Jennine Capó Cruset discusses her book, Make Your Home Among Strangers.

Free. Held at Lipinsky Auditorium at UNC Asheville, 300 Library Lane THE COLLIDER 1 Haywood St. Ste 401, +1 828 CLIMATE, thecollider.org/ • TH (8/25), 6:30pm - Science Pub series: "Species Conservation," presentation by WNC Nature Center director Chris Gentile. Refreshments

provided. Free to attend.

SENIORS ASHEVILLE NEW FRIENDS (PD.) Offers active senior residents opportunities to make new friends and explore new interests. Activities include hiking, golf, book clubs, dining-out, special events, and more.

Visit www.ashevillenewfriends.org BUNCOMBE COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARIES buncombecounty. org/governing/depts/ library • TU (8/29), 6:30pm "The Basics: Dementia & Alzheimer’s for Caregivers and Others," workshop.

Registration: 828-2506486. Free. Held at Swannanoa Library, 101 West Charleston St., Swannanoa MONTFORD RECREATION CENTER 34 Pearson Drive, 800-365-3811 • THURSDAYS, 9:30am - Senior softball.

Information: mtrinite1@gmail.com. Free.

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CONGREGATION OF ASHEVILLE 1 Edwin Place, 828254-6001, uuasheville.org • WEDNESDAYS through (8/30), 2pm - Informal community singing for those with short term memory loss, Parkinson's Disease and/or interested in exploring song. Free.

SPIRITUALITY 2017 WNC COPTIC CONFERENCE (PD.) Embracing Inner Peace, A Gathering of Light Workers. August 25, 2pm-8pm; August 26, 8:30am-5:30pm. Join us for the 2017 Coptic Conference at Blue Ridge Community College. • On Friday August 26, 2pm-8pm, Personal Service Providers will be available for healing ser-

vices and readings and there will be a bookstore, gift shop. • On Saturday, August 26, 8:30am-5:30pm, conference presenters will include James Twyman, New York Times best-selling author, musician and "Peace Troubadour", Victoria Johnson, international shamanic arts practitioner, teacher and facilitator, Rob Wergin, nationally recognized clairvoyant, clairsentient, clairaudient and healer, Barb and Bob Huttinga, Coptic Ministers, author, counselors, educators, facilitators and healers, John Davis, esoteric psychologist, Egyptologist, author, numerologist, director of Coptic Fellowship International and president of Spiritual Unity of Nations. A catered lunch will be available on Saturday. • To register go to www. copticwnc2017.com or call Lori France at (828) 676- 2977. Everyone welcome! Love offering.

ABOUT THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE • FREE INTRODUCTORY TALK (PD.) Deep within everyone is a wellspring of peace, energy and happiness. With proper instruction anyone can effortlessly transcend the busy or agitated mind and directly experience that rejuvenating inner source. Learn how TM is different from mindfulness, watching your breath, common mantra meditation and everything else. NIHsponsored research shows deep revitalizing rest, reduced stress and anxiety, improved brain functioning and heightened well-being.

Thursday, 6:30-7:30pm, Asheville TM Center, 165 E. Chestnut. 828254-4350. TM.org or MeditationAsheville. org ASHEVILLE INSIGHT MEDITATION (PD.) Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation. Learn how to get a Mindfulness

Send your event listings to calendar@mountainx.com

Meditation practice started. 1st & 3rd Mondays. 7pm – 8:30. Asheville Insight Meditation, 175 Weaverville Road, Suite H, ASHEVILLE, NC, (828) 808-4444, www.ashevillemeditation.com.

ASTRO-COUNSELING (PD.) Licensed counselor and accredited professional astrologer uses your chart when counseling for additional insight into yourself, your relationships and life directions.

Readings also available. Christy Gunther, MA, LPC. (828) 2583229.

FAMILY MEDITATION (PD.) Children and adult(s) practice mindfulness meditation, discuss principles, and engage in fun games. The 3rd Saturday monthly.

10:30am – 11:30.

Asheville Insight Meditation, 175 Weaverville Road, Asheville, 828-8084444, ashevillemeditation. com.

OPEN HEART MEDITATION (PD.) Now at 70 Woodfin Place, Suite 212.

Tuesdays 7-8pm.

Experience the stillness and beauty of connecting to your heart and the Divine within you. Suggested $5 donation. Open HeartMeditation.com SHAMBHALA MEDITATION CENTER (PD.) Wednesdays, 10pmmidnight • Thursdays, 7-8:30pm and Sundays, 10-noon • Meditation and community.

By donation. 60 N. Merrimon Ave., #113, (828) 200-5120. asheville.shambhala. org ASHEVILLE INTERFAITH ashevilleinterfaith.org • SA (8/26), 8-10pm "Abraham Jam," live music concert by David LaMotte, Dawud Wharnsby and Billy Jonas with conversation about Abrahamic

faiths. Registration: bit. ly/2tTL7no. $25. Held at Asheville Masonic Temple, 80 Broadway BUNCOMBE COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARIES buncombecounty. org/governing/depts/ library • TH (8/31), 6pm - "Healing on the Spiritual Path," experiential introduction to Bruno Groening's teachings.

Information: brunoasheville.com. Free.

Held at North Asheville Library, 1030 Merrimon Ave.

• TU (8/29), 7pm - Eva Shockey presents her book, Taking Aim. Free to attend.

• WE (8/30), 7pm Bridge the Gap Book Club: Citizen by Claudia Rankine. Free to attend.

• WE (8/30), 7pm - Leah Weiss presents her book, If the Creek Don't Rise.

Free to attend.

• TH (8/31), 7pm - J.C. Sasser presents her

novel, Gradle Bird. Free to attend.

• TH (8/31), 7pm - Works in Translation Book Club: His Excellency by Carlos Casares. Free to attend.

THE WRITER'S WORKSHOP 387 Beaucatcher Road, 828-254-8111, twwoa.org • Through WE (8/30) Submissions accepted for the Literary Fiction

CENTER FOR ART & SPIRIT AT ST. GEORGE 1 School Road, 828258-0211 • 4th FRIDAYS, 10amnoon - Contemplative Companions, meditation. Free.

• Last Tuesdays, 7-9pm - Aramaic, Hebrew and Egyptian vocal toning, breath work and meditation. Admission by donation.

SPOKEN & WRITTEN WORD BLUE RIDGE BOOKS 152 S. Main St., Waynesville • Through TH (8/24) Authors accepted for vending spots at the Home Grown Author Fair. Information: kolsen@ haywoodnc.net.

• SA (8/26), 3pm Michael Beadle presents his poetry collection, Primer. Free to attend.

MALAPROP'S BOOKSTORE AND CAFE 55 Haywood St., 828-2546734, malaprops.com • TH (8/24), 7pm - Devyn Benson presents her book, Antiracism in Cuba: The Unfinished Revolution. Free to attend.

• FR (8/25), 7pm "Literary Karaoke," open mic. Free to attend.

• SU (8/27), 3pm - Laurie Wilcox-Meyer, Bart White and Lorrie Jayne present the poetry anthology, Birdsong: Poems in Celebration of Birds. Free to attend.

MOUNTAINX.COM

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

25

COM M U N I TY CA LEN DA R

by Abigail Griffin

SUMMER HIKE: Dust off your hiking boots and get out in the woods with a summer hike sponsored by Buncombe County Recreation Services. On Saturday, Aug. 26, at 1 p.m., meet at the Alexander Mountain Bike Park in Alexander for a guided, moderately difficult 2.8-mile hilly hike. The hike is free, but registration is requested at gohikenc.com. Photo courtesy of Buncombe County Recreation Services (p. 23) Contest. Contact for full guidelines.

• FR (8/25), 6:30-8:30pm - Literary discussion of attendees' stories and poems. Bring a covered dish to share. Register by Thursday, Aug. 24 at noon: writersw@gmail.com TRYON ARTS AND CRAFTS SCHOOL 373 Harmon Field Road, Tryon, 828-859-8323 • Through FR (9/1) Submissions accepted for the "Apparitionist-National Ghost Story Competition."

Contact for full guidelines.

VOLUNTEERING BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF WNC 828-253-1470, bbbswnc.org • WE (8/30), 6-7pm - "100 Mentors in 100 Days," mentoring recruitment event with charcuterie board and beer reception and presentations from staff and volunteers. Free. Held at Hi-Wire Brewing Big Top, 2 Huntsman Place BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF WNC 50 S. French Broad Ave. Ste. #213., 828-253-1470, bbbswnc.org • TH (8/24), noon - Information session for those interested in volunteering to share their interests twice a month with a young person from a single-parent home or to

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AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

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mentor one-hour a week in elementary schools and after-school sites.

City of Asheville 828-251-1122, ashevillenc.gov • Through FR (9/1) - Open call for applications for volunteer groups to assist with concession sales at the US Cellular center. Registration: bcandler@ashevillenc.gov.

Held at US Cellular Center, 87 Haywood St. East Coast MigrANT HEAD START 2 Sugarhill Drive, Hendersonville • TUESDAYS through (10/3), 5-7:30pm Volunteers needed to assist with watching children while Latino parents learn English.

Registration: leah.charbonneau@dpi. nc.gov.

ELIADA 828-254-5356, eliada.org, smcdonald@eliada.org • TH (8/31), 6:30-8pm - Foster parent information night. Free to attend.

Held at Firestorm Cafe and Books, 610 Haywood Road FOUR SEASONS COMPASSION FOR LIFE 828-233-0948, fourseasonscfl.org • Through FR (9/1) - Open registration for hospice volunteer orientation training that takes place on Tuesday, Sept. 12, 1:30-4:30pm in

Buncombe County. Training is focused on learning more about hospice volunteer opportunities. Registration and information: 828-2330948.

HANDS ON ASHEVILLEBUNCOMBE 2-1-2001, handsonasheville.org • TH (8/24), 11am-12:30pm - Volunteer to cook and serve a homemade lunch to the men staying at the ABCCM Veteran's Restoration Quarters.

Registration required.

• TH (8/31), 4-6pm Volunteer to assist with unpacking and pricing in a nonprofit, fair-trade retail store.Registrationrequired.

LITERACY COUNCIL OF BUNCOMBE COUNTY 31 College Pl., Suite B-221 • WE (8/23), 5:30pm & TH (8/24), 9am Information session for those interested in volunteering two hours per week with adults who want to improve reading, writing, spelling, and English language skills. Free.

MOUNTAINTRUE 828-258-8737, mountaintrue.org • SA (8/26), 1-4pm Volunteer to float and clean-up on the French Broad River. Meet at Catawba Brewing

Tasting Room, 63 Brook St., #1 TRAUMA INTERVENTION PROGRAM OF WNC 828-513-0498, tipofwnc.org • Through TH (9/28) - Open registration for a ten-day training academy for those interested in volunteering as part of a team of volunteers who provide immediate emotional and practical support to survivors of traumatic events. Academy takes place Thursday, Sept. 28 through Saturday, Oct. 7. For information or registration: 828-513-0498.

WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA AIDS PROJECT 828-252-7489, wncap. org • 2nd & 4th SATURDAYS, 10amnoon - Volunteer to deliver food boxes to homebound people living with HIV/AIDS. Registration: 828252-7489 ext.315 or wncapvolunteer@wncap. org.

For more volunteering opportunities, visit mountainx.com/ volunteering

MOUNTAINX.COM

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

27

WELLNESS

NOT TOO TABOO

Asheville’s Vino and Vulvas discussion group is not about propriety

BY LESLIE BOYD leslie.boyd@gmail.com For the last three years, a group of women (and a few men) has gathered each month to talk about the taboo subject of women’s nether regions, or as so many mothers phrased it to growing girls, “down there.”

The group is Vino and Vulvas.

One of its founders, ordained interfaith minister and sex therapist DiAnna Ritola, was raised Roman Catholic. “We didn’t touch ‘down there,’ and we didn’t talk about it,” Ritola says.

But she and physical therapist Heather Edwards, whose work centers on pelvic issues, decided people needed to talk and learn about and be comfortable with sexual and gender issues.

The two met at a TED talk, after they submitted almost identical proposals for a presentation. Edwards’ proposal got picked.

“I was a little jealous that hers was chosen and mine wasn’t, but then we started talking,” Ritola says.

What resulted was Vino and Vulvas, a monthly educational program at the Battery Park Book Exchange and Champage Bar in the Grove Arcade.

Oh, and it’s vulvas, not vaginas., says Ritola. The thing you see in photos, that’s the vulva, the outer part of a woman’s genitals, she explains. The vagina is an internal lady part.

“We purposely hold it in a public place because we want these topics not to be taboo,” says Kelley Johnson, Ph.D., an Asheville sex therapist. “It’s important for people to hear the subject spoken about in public.”

SEX AND ALL THE GIRLS: The Rev. DiAnna Ritola, left, and Heather Edwards host the monthly Vino and Vulvas discussion group.

Photo courtesy of Heather Edwards Often, Johnson says, someone will come into the Book Exchange while the presentation is going on, catch a little bit what’s being discussed, then sit down to hear the rest.

Edwards says most of the topics concern “how to get over your own stuff and learn to communicate with

other people,” or issues of spirituality and physicality.

“We want to encourage women and their caregivers to go beyond the ‘are you sexually active’ question,” Edwards says.

In this culture, women traditionally have been discouraged from speak-

Join us! SUCCESSFUL AGING Wednesday, September 6, 2017 9AM-3:30PM

Reuter Center at UNC Asheville • 1 Campus View Road, Asheville, NC 28804

A daylong event for older adults, caregivers, and anyone interested in aging successfully!

Keynote Speaker, Dr. Shannon South, Therapist “The Joy Doctor”

Registration fee $20 (includes Boxed Lunch) • For registration and much more information go to: www.COAbc.org/successful-aging or call the Council on Aging at (828) 277-8288.

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ing about or enjoying sexual activity, Ritola says.

“Good girls were those who followed all the patriarchal rules so they could marry and become Becky Homecky,” she says. “Girls weren’t encouraged to discuss sex or to say no effectively.

Too often, we said yes when we were

too uncomfortable or didn’t know we could say no.”

Ritola recalls a wave of interest in physiology and sexuality after publication of the book Our Bodies, Ourselves in 1970, a paperback published by a group of women in Boston and sold for 75 cents. The book talked about women’s sexuality in an open and frank way and included information on abortion, which was illegal at the time. The book is still in print, and its movement is alive and well.

Vino and Vulvas, she says, very much carries on the spirit of that movement.

Each session of Vino and Vulvas has a specific topic. The meetings open with general discussion, and then participants are encouraged to write questions, which are then addressed to the panel members, who change each month with the topic.

Meetings are structured, but there’s always room for freewheeling ideas.

“I tell panelists there’s no need to prepare remarks because they already have the expertise to answer the questions put to them,” Edwards says.

That helps keep the conversation spontaneous and honest. The focus is not on sexual prowess but on women’s ownership of their bodies and sexuality as well as communication of these ideals.

“If you came here for a real howto, you’re going to be disappointed,” Edwards says.

In fact, Edwards is quick to point out what this group is not. It is not a support group or group therapy, and it is not a “safe space” where no one is in danger of being triggered. It is for education and discussion of topics that women have heretofore been discouraged from exploring, she explains.

Jamie Brazell, who owns and operates Out of the Woods Therapy, is a certified sex therapist and one of the Vino and Vulva leaders.

“I know that there are people who have what I would consider a narrow view of sex — its purpose and its practice,” Brazell says. “I want to expand those views, or at least allow people to know they can be expanded.”

Topics range from masturbation to transgender issues; discussions can be explicit. The women make no apologies for that. Speaking frankly about such issues educates people and helps them become more comfortable with who they are, say the leaders.

“I want you to be comfortable,” Ritola says. “I want you to understand your sexuality.” She’s soon to move to Queens, N.Y., where she will marry her fiancé, a captain in the New York Fire Department, and begin a new chapter of Vino and Vulvas.

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TOPIC SAMPLER Vino and Vulvas meetings are attended by 15 to 35 people each month, mostly women. Topics vary. A few people come regularly, while others are brought in by interest in the monthly topic. Some recent topics include: · August 2016: I Can’t Feel Sexy When My Body Is...

Too fat? Too skinny? Weird skin thing going on? Differently abled?

Don’t feel at home in your own skin?

Body image issues can span a wide range and have a big impact on our intimate relationships. · May 2016: Unpack Your Emotional Baggage (Without Scaring the Crap Out of Your Partner) It can be pretty darn challenging to figure out how to unload your bombshell of a past onto a new partner without worrying that you’re going to send them running away from all of your frantically waving red flags. But it doesn’t have to be that way. It can be done mindfully and in a way that helps your developing relationship thrive. · February 2017: Awkward Sex Conversations You’re on a date, it’s pretty early in the relationship, and you haven’t yet discussed sex. Maybe you’ve already had sex and maybe you haven’t, but you still haven’t actually TALKED about it.

How do you break open that conversation of “this works for me” or “that really turns me off.”

• July 2017: How to Be a Woman — The session included a cisgender woman, a “butch” lesbian cisgender woman and a transgender woman, all of whom have expertise on being women. X

MORE INFO WHAT Next session of Vino and Vulvas will focus on “How to Be a Man.” WHEN 6 p.m., Monday, Aug. 28 WHERE Battery Park Book Exchange and Champagne Bar COST Admission is free, but there is a $5 minimum at the Book Exchange.

Pursue your goals • Process an Idea Create an action plan • Manage Stress

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Magical Offerings 8/24: Tarot Reader: Bobbi Oshun 1-6pm 8/25: Psychic: A ndrea A llen 1-6pm 8/26: Healing for Empaths w/ Meade of Renewed Spirit 3-5pm, $20 8/27: Astrolog y 101 w/ Cumulus 3-5pm, $20 8/30: Fortune’s Flame: Hoodoo Money Lamps w/ Jonathan Mote 7-8:45pm, $40 Cash Please

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MOUNTAINX.COM

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

29

Responsible Automotive Service & Repair

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AUTOIMMUNE PATIENTS DESIRED FOR FREE HEALING CLINIC (PD.) SA & SU (9/9- 9/10) 9am3pm both days. Autoimmune patients needed as clients for advanced hands-on healing students. Earth-based healing school. Free. Interested parties register at registrar@wildernessFusion.com. Montreat, NC. (828) 785-4311, wildernessFusion.com.

HYPERTENSION/HEART DISEASE PATIENTS DESIRED FOR FREE HEALING CLINIC (PD.) SA & SU (9/16- 9/17) 9am-3pm both days. Hypertension/heart disease patients needed as clients for advanced handson healing students. Earthbased healing school. Free.

Interested parties register at registrar@wildernessFusion. com. Montreat, NC. (828) 7854311, wildernessFusion.com.

QIGONG/NEI GUNG CLASSES (PD.) Saturdays, 11am-12pm, Weaverville, NC. Foundational mind/body practices for creating whole health, online and in group classes. Instructor Frank Iborra has over 47 years experience in the internal and Taoist movement arts. 954-721-7252. www.whitecranehealingarts. com SOUND BATH (PD.) Every Saturday, 11am and Sunday, 12 noon. Billy Zanski uses crystal bowls, gongs, didgeridoo, harp, and other peaceful instruments to create a landscape of deep relaxation.

• Donation suggested. Sessions last 40 minutes. At Skinny Beats Sound Shop, 4 Eagle Street. www.skinnybeatsdrums.com BOTANICAL GARDENS J.W. Weaver Blvd., 828-2525190 • SU (8/27), 1:30-4:30pm "Cuddle in the Park," event focused on normalizing nonsexual, consensual touch with clear boundaries. Free.

FIRESTORM CAFE AND BOOKS 610 Haywood Road, 828-2558115

• 4th WEDNESDAYS, 5:30pm Radical Reproduction Monthly Discussion Group. Free to attend.

LAND OF SKY REGIONAL COUNCIL 828-251-6622, landofsky.org • Through TH (9/28) - Open registration for "Living Healthy with Chronic Pain" six-week series focused on managing pain, getting restful sleep, reducing stress, managing medications, combatting fatigue and depression and eating to decrease inflammation. Takes place MONDAYS (10/2) through (11/6), 1pm. Registration: stephanie@landofsky.org or 828-251-7438. Free. Held at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Hendersonville, 2021 Kanuga Road, Hendersonville • Through TH (9/28) - Open registration for "Living Healthy with Chronic Pain" six-week series focused on managing pain, getting restful sleep, reducing stress, managing medications, combatting fatigue and depression and eating to decrease inflammation. Takes place MONDAYS (10/2) through (11/6), 1pm.

Registration: stephanie@ landofsky.org or 828-251-7438.

Free. Held at Woodfin YMCA, 40 North Merrimon Ave., Suite 101 NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS 828-505-7353, namiwnc.org, namiwc2015@gmail.com • Through FR (8/25) - Open registration for the “NAMI Family to Family” class for families or caregivers of individuals with serious mental illness. Takes place MONDAYS (8/28) through (11/13), 6:30-9pm. Registration: 828-595-3293 or terri@scoharris.com. Free. Held at NAMI Offices, 356 Biltmore Ave. • Through MO (10/2) - Open registration for the "NAMI Basics" class to learn the fundamentals of caring for you, your family or a child or adolescent with behavioral health issues.

Takes place THURSDAYS (10/12) through (11/16), 6-8:30pm.

Registration: mariannejolson@ gmail.com or 901-517-4731.

Free. Held at NAMI Offices, 356 Biltmore Ave. OUR VOICE 35 Woodfin St., 828-252-0562, ourvoicenc.org • FRIDAYS (8/25), (9/1), (9/15) & (9/29), 12:30-2:30pm - "Soul

Collage," therapeutic collage workshop for survivors of sexual violence and the loved ones of survivors. Registration required: 828-252-0562 ext.

110 or rebeccaw@ourvoicenc. org. Free.

RED CROSS BLOOD DRIVES redcrosswnc.org • TH (8/24), 2-6:30pm Appointments & info.: 1-800-RED-CROSS. Held at Walmart, 125 Bleachery Blvd.

• SU (8/27), 12-4:30pm - Appointments & info.: 1-800-RED-CROSS. Held at Biltmore Church of Christ, 823 Fairview St. • MO (8/28), 2-6:30pm - Appointments & info.: 1-800-RED-CROSS. Held at Beech Glen Community Center, 2936 Beech Glen Rd., Mars Hill • TU (8/29), 1:30-6pm Appointments & info.: 1-800-RED-CROSS. Held at First United Methodist Church of Hendersonville, 204 6th Ave. West, Hendersonville • TH (8/31), 11-4:30pm - Appointments & info.: 1-800-RED-CROSS. Held at UNCA, 1 University Heights • TH (8/31), 1:30-6pm Appointments & info.: 1-800-RED-CROSS. Held at Francis Asbury United Methodist Church, 725 Asbury Road, Candler SENIOR OPPORTUNITY CENTER 36 Grove St. • THURSDAYS, 8am - "Golden Joy Yoga," slow moving, alignment focused class for all levels. $9.

URBAN DHARMA 29 Page Ave, Asheville, 2256422, udharmanc.com • TUESDAYS, 7:30-8:30pm Guided, non-religious walking and sitting meditation. Free to attend.

YOGA IN THE PARK 828-254-0380, youryoga.com • SATURDAYS, 10-11:30am Proceeds from this outdoor yoga class benefit Homeward Bound and OurVoice.

Admission by donation. Held at Pack Square Park, 121 College St.

Chinese Medical Treatment for Injury & Illness

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Acupuncture • Herbal Prescription Therapeutic Massage

Andrew & JulieAnn Nugent-Head

828-398-0667 / www.alternativeclinic.org 23 Broadway Street, Downtown Asheville

learn more from our site walk in or schedule online

Bring to Asheville 30+ Years Experience in China

GREEN SCENE

RIVER RENAISSANCE

Water quality efforts in Buncombe and Madison counties

BY MAX HUNT mhunt@mountainx.com Last week, Xpress ventured south to highlight conservation work and economic development along the French Broad River in Transylvania and Henderson counties. This week, we look at the network of agencies and organizations working in Buncombe and Madison counties to improve water quality and position the French Broad as the region’s next great tourist attraction.

Placidly meandering into Buncombe County near the Asheville Regional Airport, the character of the French Broad River changes upon reaching Asheville: Rocky and rough, the river drops 714 feet in 43 miles as it courses northwest through a narrow corridor in Buncombe and Madison counties to the Tennessee line near Paint Rock.

From a sludge that author Wilma Dykeman famously declared “too thick to swim in and too thin to plow,” this section of the French Broad has been transformed into a regional mecca for outdoor enthusiasts and tourists. Asheville’s formerly derelict waterfront, meanwhile, has undergone a renaissance, attracting a host of new businesses and several major infrastructure upgrades over the past decade.

The river’s resurgence comes at the hands of local organizations, government agencies and residents banding together to revitalize the corridor.

While challenges to water quality still remain, the French Broad is quickly becoming a key cog in the life and culture of the city once more.

LEARNING FROM PAST MISTAKES For much of the 20th century, the French Broad River was Asheville’s industrial hub and unofficial dumping ground. That began to change with the publication of Dykeman’s 1955 book The French Broad, which decried the pollution and inspired a new generation of river advocates like Karen Cragnolin, who founded the nonprofit advocacy organization RiverLink in 1987.

Formed in partnership with the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, RiverLink touted the potential of the French Broad to become a centerpiece of tourism in the city. This mindset has guided the nonprofit’s expansion into

TAKING OUT THE TRASH: Once an industrial dumping ground, the French Broad River has been reborn as a point of pride for Buncombe and Madison counties, due to the efforts of local government agencies, community groups and residents across the watershed to improve water quality and remove trash. Photo by Mariah Hughes; courtesy of Ivy River Partners its current-day status as a regional promoter of the river, says Executive Director Garrett Artz. “We’re really looking at the eight-county watershed [these days],” he says. “What’s in those eight counties, what streams are worth prioritizing and what we should address.”

With more impervious surfaces and roadways around Asheville than other areas of the watershed, stormwater runoff is a big contributor to contaminants entering the river here, Artz says. “The water comes off really fast from those roads, and oftentimes has grime and whatever other pollution on it that gets carried off with the stormwater.” With nowhere else to go, stormwater can also damage streambeds during heavy rains, contributing to erosion. (See “Climate Change, Aging Infrastructure and Rapid Development Fuel Asheville Stormwater Woes,” June 2, Xpress) One of RiverLink’s current projects to protect water quality in the French Broad is a joint effort involving Givens Estates Retirement Community, Asheville-based Robinson Engineering, researchers from Western Carolina University and N.C. State University.

In addition to reducing the amount of stormwater running off the steep slopes and paved surfaces of the Givens complex into nearby Dingle Creek, Artz says the project will help develop better standards for stormwater management in the mountains. “When the engineers do stormwater management here, they’re using data collected in the Piedmont and Coastal Plains,” he

notes. “We hope [The Givens project] will inform some better standards for how to treat stormwater here.”

WEB OF WATER STEWARDS Charged with monitoring the North Carolina section of the French Broad watershed, Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson and his team investigate, identify and address point and nonpoint sources of pollution entering the French Broad.

While he’s noticed a decrease in the amount of trash in the river over his 12 years as riverkeeper, the water quality around Asheville “sort of goes up and down,” Carson admits. “It’s better than it was historically, 20 or 30 years ago, but I don’t know that it’s a ton better over the last 10 years.”

This lack of recent progress can be attributed, in part, to a lack of enforcement of construction regulations, he adds.

“Prior to the Great Recession, there was some work to try and ramp up enforcement and monitoring around sediment,” Carson says. But with construction picking up again, combined with cuts to the Division of Water Quality’s budget, the burden has largely fallen on grassroots agencies to monitor the river.

According to an Aug. 11 article in U.S. News & World Report, “Since 2013, 70 positions have been eliminated from the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, specifically those that oversee water permitting, compliance and enforcement.” Other news reports also

document large reductions in the department’s staff.

To aid Carson’s efforts in tracking where sediment is coming from, environmental nonprofit MountainTrue has established a “muddy water watch” network of volunteers. “We train folks about erosion problems, and we have an app that folks can use to report those issues, take pictures, send it to the appropriate regulator,” Carson says.

Among local government agencies, the Buncombe County Soil and Water Conservation District works to “help people help the land,” says agency director Gary Higgins, through a mix of technical assistance to individuals and groups, education and costshare programs for local landowners to address erosion and related water quality issues.

“The water quality in a watershed is heavily dependent on what each landowner does on their own land,” says Higgins, a Buncombe native who grew up near the river in Alexander. “The decisions a landowner makes regarding their land management has a direct impact on other landowners downstream and the health of the watershed.”

KEEPING TABS ON TRASH While many local organizations focus on what’s in the water, Asheville GreenWorks has set its sights on surface-borne pollutants. The nonprofit runs over 200 projects a year and involves about 3,200 volunteers. Each summer, around 40 river cleanup projects yield 10 to 15 tons of trash removed from the river.

That last number might sound large, says Eric Bradford, GreenWorks’ director of operations, but is actually down from previous years, a reduction he attributes to more community involvement in river cleanups and easier access to waste disposal.

Despite this improvement, Bradford, like Carson, is frustrated by the lack of environmental enforcement at the state level. “The legislature’s actually going in the opposite direction with regulatory measures,” he alleges, citing actions like the passage of House Bill 74 in 2013, which allows waste collectors use leak-resistant, rather than leakproof, vehicles, potentially allowing harmful liquids to escape from garbage

CONTINUES ON PAGE 32 MOUNTAINX.COM

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31

G REEN SC E N E trucks. “It could be Drano, gasoline, whatever — now they’re able to leak it out of their trash vehicles as they’re traveling around your neighborhood.”

GreenWorks is also compiling statistics on surface-borne refuse, using data collected from projects like the organization’s trash boom and trash trout devices (See “Of Grime and the River,” Aug. 9, Xpress) “We know that 75 percent of the surface-borne litter that’s in the river comes from the roadside,” Bradford says. “Everytime it rains, this litter is swept into our storm drain systems and piped into our local streams.

We would like to see if that number’s changing locally.”

Bradford and other representatives from GreenWorks plan to meet with Buncombe County officials in the coming weeks to discuss the possibility of implementing additional trash trout devices in Hominy Creek and other waterways in the Asheville area.

FOR THE VWIN Knowing what’s in a waterway — and the beneficial native insects and bacteria that might be missing from it — are essential pieces of information for the organizations and agencies working to improve the French Broad. The linchpin to collecting and analyzing this data is the Environmental Quality Institute, which provides sample testing to a host of local partner organizations.

“EQI partners with regional entities who are interested in water quality in their focus areas,” says the nonprofit’s executive director, Ann Marie Traylor.

“For example, Buncombe County MSD [Metropolitan Sewerage District] wants to keep an eye out for sewer breaks; MountainTrue, RiverLink and Asheville GreenWorks want to engage the public in keeping an eye on specific urban Asheville streams; Buncombe County SWCD [Soil and Water Conservation District] uses the data to inform their technical assistance and sedimentation/nutrient management programs, as well as stormwater and erosion control.”

The organization also collects samples at approximately 160 fixed sites across Western North Carolina through its Volunteer Water Information Network. “We analyze the samples for eight parameters, including orthophosphate, ammonia, nitrates, pH, alkalinity, conductivity, turbidity and total suspended solids,” says Traylor, “and do a couple other tests as needed, such as fecal coliform and total phosphorus.”

The group’s stream monitoring initiative, meanwhile, keeps tabs on the health of bugs, snails and other critters 32

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

NEXT BIG THING: The revitalization of the French Broad River has made it a focal point of Buncombe and Madison counties’ economies, bringing thousands of locals and tourists alike to the water’s edge and supporting a bevy of new restaurants, bars and outdoor companies.

Photo by Blue Heron Whitewater; courtesy of RiverLink in local waterways. “The diversity and types of invertebrates present in a stream tell a lot about the habitat and water quality,” says Gracia O’Neill, who heads the initiative. “They can help us detect disturbances beyond the limited analyses we run for VWIN.” While water quality has remained relatively stable upstream of Asheville, it has, on average, worsened slightly around the city in recent years, according to EQI’s data. “Some of that is likely due to the stormwater runoff from urban Asheville during very heavy rainfall and flooding in late 2015 and early 2016,” Traylor says. North of Asheville, conditions vary from tributary to tributary. “Watersheds like Newfound, Sandy Mush and South Turkey creeks are some of the poorest quality streams of all VWIN sites,” Traylor says. “Ivy River and Reems Creek are among the best.”

The institute’s test results have yielded immediate impacts as recently as this year. Alarmed by high conductivity values — which can indicate the presence of dissolved salts and other inorganic materials — in Ross Creek after a January snowstorm, the group worked with Buncombe County to develop more efficient practices for applying road salts along nearby Tunnel Road and Interstate 240.

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TRICKLE-DOWN ECONOMICS Maintaining the health of the French Broad is imperative as the river becomes a focal point for the city’s economic and tourist economy. “The river has been a catalyst for entrepreneurism,” says Stephanie Pace Brown, executive director of the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority. “As we’ve been able to attract a big customer base of people who are interested in outdoor experiences, it has helped to support a wide range of outfitters, guides and manufacturers who are selling water-related kinds of equipment.”

Local startup companies like Bellyak and Astral have made a splash manufacturing outdoor gear, while at least three separate tubing companies operate out of Buncombe County alone. In addition, restaurants and bars like The Bywater, Salvage Station and Smoky Park Supper Club rely on their proximity to the French Broad to draw customers in. In 2016, New Belgium Brewing Co. joined the party, opening its East Coast facility on a former livestock auction site in the River Arts District.

At the same time, the city of Asheville has partnered with the Tourism Development Authority, RiverLink and other local agencies to fund remediation of riverfront property and add greenways,

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boat access ramps and park space in the river district. These efforts, in turn, have transformed the river into a popular hangout for tourists and locals alike: According to RiverLink, nearly 50,000 people float, tube and paddle through the Asheville section of the French Broad each year.

“It’s one of those places where visitors and locals mix,” Brown says. “You can’t tell who’s who: Everybody’s in the tube, and they’re wet. I think it’s a good melting pot that way.” The French Broad’s increasing popularity has also yielded benefits for neighborhoods that surround it. Two federal transportation improvement grants awarded in the past decade will help fund infrastructure and roadway improvements to make Asheville’s riverfront more accessible.

“We have awarded a total of $3.5 million of TPDF [Tourism Product Development Fund proceeds] to the city of Asheville for projects connected with its riverfront redevelopment,” Brown says, including $2.5 million in the River Arts District alone. Farther downstream, the authority recently approved $2.5 million in grants to support the Woodfin greenway, blueway and whitewater wave project. (See “Can the Woodfin Greenway & Blueway beat the odds?” Aug. 4, Xpress) “By being able to provide those amenities through Woodfin, it helps to disperse that capacity and helps to maintain a more enjoyable experience,” says Brown. “Water doesn’t restrict itself to one municipality, so it has to be a priority for everybody, and it will not be a priority for anybody if people don’t use it.” (Still to come: a report on improvements to the sewage waste treatment plant on the banks of the river downstream from the proposed Woodfin greenway in an upcoming issue of Xpress) RAISING THE NEXT GENERATION Public confidence in the French Broad’s water quality improvements is easily undermined. As recently as July, an article on E. coli counts in the river that appeared on local television station WLOS News 13’s website was widely shared on social media, even though the article dated from 2014.

“A lot of people read something about Asheville’s water quality, and they don’t realize I’m upstream,” says David Whitmire of the Rosman-based Headwaters Outfitters. “We don’t need anybody to be in unsafe water, but what happens in Asheville is 70 miles downstream from me.”

To help disseminate information about the river’s water quality on a

PLANTING THE SEEDS: To ensure that the next generation of WNC residents takes up the mantle of river stewardship, local schools such as the French Broad River Academy work with local environmental groups to shape their curriculums around the river’s ecology and instill a sense of ownership and respect for the French Broad watershed. Photo courtesy of the French Broad River Academy given day, MountainTrue shares its weekly water sample results through the swimguide.org website and mobile app. “That’s a good gauge of if it’s safe or not safe,” riverkeeper Carson says.

“It also shows some long-term trends about specific spots.”

While most river-related organizations have an educational component geared toward children, The French Broad River Academy, a local charter school established in 2009, takes that idea a step further. From history lessons on waste management at the Buncombe County sewage waste treatment plant to paddling excursions to study wildlife on the French Broad, the school centers its curriculum around the river.

“One day a week, all of our kids are out in the field,” says the school’s development director, John Douglas.

In the winter months, the students often partner with local organizations to work on river cleanup projects and related initiatives.

“It’s an opportunity to get out of the formal classroom setting and be engaged in experiential learning that can be transformative,” says school co-founder Will Yeiser. “The French Broad watershed gives you half the Blue Ridge Parkway and all sorts of spots to do stuff. It’s got rich history, and it’s just beautiful at all its different sections.”

The impact of connecting students to the river not only encourages them to become better protectors of the waterways but instills a sense of ownership and an intimate knowledge of the river in students, Yeiser adds. “If they have that, especially in the identity-forming years of middle school, they’re going to advocate for the river and its protection and conservation as

they go into their adult life. I think that’s what’s ultimately going to bring about the connection and change for the river and the environment.”

DOWNSTREAM DILEMMAS North of Asheville, the French Broad courses through rugged gorges and dense forests as it plunges toward the Tennessee state line. For the rural communities of in northern Buncombe and Madison counties, the river and its tributaries are essential to their survival and prosperity.

“The Ivy River Watershed is the drinking water source for the town of Weaverville and a backup for Mars Hill,” says Mariah Hughes, project coordinator for Ivy River Partners. “It’s a major tributary to the French Broad River, which is at the heart of our recreational economy. We want to ensure that the fisheries and waterways are healthy for locals and visitors alike.”

This section of the watershed for the French Broad River is impacted by many of the same issues as other rural areas along the river corridor. Development, sediment runoff and a lack of access to municipal sewer connections all have an impact on water quality. “Parts of the [Ivy River] watershed have been on and off the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of impaired waters for years,” notes Hughes. Before 2005, sediment related to highway construction was responsible for the “impaired” rating. “Currently, it is on the list due to fecal coliform,” Hughes says.

In response, the Mountain Valleys Resource Conservation and Development Council and the Madison Soil & Water Conservation District developed a plan for the Ivy River Watershed in 2013, identifying potential sources of pollutants and

establishing a strategy for ensuring clean water, says Hughes. Ivy River Partners was formed in 2014 to carry out that plan.

“We form partnerships and build bridges in the community to bring people to the table who have a vested interest in water quality,” Hughes says.

“From there, we work on projects such as agricultural and stormwater BMPs [best management practices], septic and stream repairs, education, and river cleanups.” The results so far have been both impressive and eye-opening. “We have hauled out 18,460 pounds of trash from the waterways,” Hughes says, including car batteries, newspaper dispensers and a washing machine.

Currently, Ivy River Partners are working with Madison County middle school on its Kids in the Creek program, which ties education on water quality in with cleanup. The group also offers a limited range of services for farmers and residents seeking to improve their land and mitigate erosion and contaminant issues.

Hughes encourages residents to check out www.ivyriverpartners.org to see if they qualify for services.

LENDING A HAND For those interested in lending a hand, opportunities abound. RiverLink, MountainTrue and Asheville GreenWorks host a variety of volunteer opportunities throughout the year, including the annual Big Sweep, a watershed wide cleanup scheduled this year for Saturday, Sept. 9.

The Environmental Quality Institute, meanwhile, holds training workshops each spring and fall for prospective participants in the organization’s programs, and encourages residents to contact local agencies across WNC to see what work needs to be done in their own neighborhoods. Financial support for the nonprofit agencies working on the river is always welcome, adds Traylor.

“The state does not have the resources to adequately monitor North Carolina’s waterways, and probably never will, so having a grassroots system in place is essential,” she notes.

The future hopes of the French Broad depend on a continued, concerted and collaborative effort across the watershed, says Bradford. “This is the bass of the symphony,” he says. “The French Broad River is an asset to the region, not only because it’s an economic driver, but because it’s part of the cultural identity for the region. And it’s something we need to continue to cherish and protect.” X MOUNTAINX.COM

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

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FARM & GARDEN

Seeds of knowledge Farm School summit offers two days of education

BY MAGGIE CRAMER mcramerwrites@gmail.com The N.C. Farm School Summit climbs to the mountains in its third year on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 14 and 15, bringing a bumper crop of wisdom to help farmers with the challenges of running an agricultural operation. The twoday summit sprouts out of N.C. Farm School, a community of N.C. Cooperative Extension agents, university specialists and growers on a mission to increase the number of sustainable and economically viable farms in the state.

Molly Sandfoss, extension director at the McDowell County Center in Marion, says this year’s gathering will focus on a variety of production practices, offering educational opportunities for beginning and experienced farmers alike. Topics for workshops at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center in Mills River on Sept. 15 include vegetable grafting, plasticulture, pastured pork, high-tunnel crop selection, poultry health and social media marketing.

These sessions will highlight practices that can help farms achieve success, teaching methods and technologies that will help farmers to increase their bottom line, Sandfoss says.

The summit takes place at a different location in the state each year, and this year participants will tour thriving Western North Carolina farms in pretours on Sept. 14. Attendees can visit Hickory Nut Gap Farm to learn about livestock and agritourism, as well as Mills River Creamery to see a working dairy firsthand. (See “Cream of the Crop,” July 12, Xpress). Those already growing produce or interested in starting a horticulture operation can visit Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.’s small organic farm and North River Farms, which incorporates agritourism ventures.

Sandfoss stresses that support doesn’t end once the summit is over. “N.C. Cooperative Extension has offices staffed with extension agents in all 100 counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to assist farmers,” she says. If they can’t help, specialized agents at the state and regional level can.

Throughout the year, N.C. Farm School provides business-planning seminars as well as field trips to working farms to 34

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

MOUNTAINX.COM

GREENHOUSE CLASSROOM: A farmer explains the details of her new hydroponic system during a N.C. Farm School tour.

Attendees at this year’s event can tour farms in WNC on Sept. 14. Photo courtesy of N.C. Cooperative Extension demonstrate economically sustainable farming methods. Find out more at ncfarmschool.ces.ncsu.edu. X

Roots of a successful farm WHAT 2017 N.C. Farm School Summit WHERE Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center 455 Research Drive Mills River WHEN Friday, Sept. 15, 9 a.m.–4:45 p.m., with pre-tours on Sept.14, 1 p.m.–5 p.m.

DETAILS All-day educational sessions on Sept. 15: $30 per person; pre-tours on Sept. 14: $35 per person. Find out more and register at ncfarmschool.ces.ncsu.edu.

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BY JONATHAN AMMONS jonathanammons@gmail.com It’s an American cultural trope: The hand-scrawled “Help Wanted” sign fixed with masking tape to a store window. The image is such a ubiquitous symbol of American prosperity that it almost evokes a Norman Rockwell-like sense of ease. For the most part, it is a harbinger of a thriving market, a symbol that things are going well, money is being spent and business is booming.

But what happens when the sign doesn’t come down? What are the ramifications for a market that can’t find enough skilled laborers to satisfy demand? Asheville seems to have found itself trapped in this quagmire just in time for its busiest season.

“It’s been six months of hell,” says Sherrye Coggiola, owner of The Cantina at Historic Biltmore Village, a casual Mexican eatery in the heart of one of Asheville’s popular tourist districts. “We’ve never had a problem with turnover. This is the first time it has ever affected our business.”

WHERE ARE THE WORKERS? Traditionally, as the tourist season ramps up, restaurants like The Cantina will start augmenting their staffs, hiring extra workers to seamlessly accommodate the increase in demand. But during the past six months, Coggiola says she has stopped getting calls for the restaurant’s employment postings on Craigslist, and the few folks who did show up for interviews weren’t suited for the positions.

“Where we really saw an impossibility to staff was the back of the house,” she says. Pay for kitchen positions at The Cantina starts at $10 an hour.

Coggiola isn’t alone in her dilemma. In fact, all 10 restaurants that Xpress contacted for this story complained of the same problem.

“This seems to be the No. 1 thing on everyone’s minds right now in the restaurant business — that it is really hard to find qualified staff, particularly in the kitchen,” says Asheville chef and restaurateur Meherwan Irani.

Irani’s restaurant empire includes the popular Indian fast casual eatery Chai Pani, Buxton Hall Barbecue, MG Road cocktail bar and two Indian restaurants in Atlanta and Decatur, Ga.

“This is not affecting us in Atlanta,” he says, explaining that his workforce there is largely made up of immigrants and he has no problems maintaining a consistent staff. “This very much seems to be an Asheville problem, from the inside looking out.”

THE QUESTION OF SATURATION “Recently the labor pool has been really shallow and really muddy,” says Anthony Cerrato, owner of Strada Italiano. “It’s almost as if as Asheville has grown to be more of a tourist destination and tourist economy, and it is really starting to catch up with the labor pool. There are so many more places opening up that the labor pool has really dwindled.”

In terms of economics, a saturated restaurant market is a situation in which there are so many eateries that consumers are spread thin and the market becomes unsustainable. But Asheville’s saturation problem may be that the industry’s growth is outpacing the growth of its workforce.

Mike Walden, N.C. State University professor of economics, notes that a

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F OOD saturation of the restaurant scene is inevitable in Asheville. “How we consume food is in a state of flux now.

There are major shifts occurring between preparing traditional meals at home, purchasing preprepared meals for consumption at home and eating out,” he says. “There will be a point at which Asheville is saturated with restaurants — at least for a time.

It is difficult to know when that point occurs, but any entrepreneur considering opening a restaurant needs to worry about the degree of competition. Of course, a new restaurant with a unique menu, unusual amenities or a convenient location can always thrive despite there being many alternatives.”

Even stalwarts like Cúrate and Nightbell are seeing a drop in applicants. “What used to be an issue just for line cooks and dishwashers, it is becoming more difficult to fill all positions — servers, hosts, bartenders, etc.,” says co-owner and beverage and service director Felix Meana. “It seems like there is more competition, lots of jobs available but not enough qualified workers to fill them all.”

BEYOND COMPETITION But Meana doesn’t see increasing competition as the only reason for current staffing challenges. He observes that it is becoming more difficult for his staff to find affordable places to live close to town. “As housing prices in Asheville go up, it is becoming more and more imperative that people have transportation to get to and from downtown Asheville as they are being forced to live further from downtown,” says Meana. “It is difficult for the restaurant industry because the bus system doesn’t operate late enough for them to take the bus to and from work. We need to work on public transportation that operates at hours to support one of the biggest industries in Asheville, the hospitality industry.”

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Living Wage Calculator estimates that a single parent in Buncombe County would require $27.62 an hour to cover rent and cost of living, with $9 an hour considered poverty wages. The average pay for a starting dishwasher or line cook in Asheville is $10 an hour, just an inch above the poverty line. Most jobs for line cooks pay $12-15 an hour. According to the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce, 28 percent of Asheville’s labor force is employed in the hospitality industry.

William Dissen, executive chef and owner of The Market Place, sees another possible reason culinary workers seem so scarce. He echoes other restaurateurs with observations of “low unemployment and a lot of restaurants that are all busy.” But he also says he has lost employees to other growing industries. “There are a lot more jobs like construction that are taking candidates from the work pool,” he says.

“We’ve had a few people make the jump to construction as it’s booming in Western North Carolina.”

“It has really forced us to address benefits and quality of life for restaurant workers,” says Irani. His restaurants have always had a reputation for taking good care of staff, but as he struggles to maintain employees, he’s now finding that may not be enough.

“This industry has always been a bit of a hard-knock life and is not something that most people think of as a career with upward mobility,” he says. “That’s one of the primary drivers of us wanting to continue to grow and expand, is the ability to offer those options and opportunities to our team, and to be able to afford to give our team those benefits that other industries can offer.” But growth and expansion become stunted when an industry reaches a saturation point.

Cerrato sees one small glimmer of hope: As Asheville gains a reputation as a restaurant town, it becomes more enticing for people who make their careers in the kitchen. “We are slowly starting to see skilled cooks moving here from other places, so I think there may be a light at the end of the tunnel,” he says.

Irani notes that if that is going to be the future of the Asheville restaurant scene, it is going to take a concerted effort on the part of the city and its community of restaurateurs to make the area friendlier to the industry.

“I feel like we need to start coming together as an industry in Asheville and start having this conversation amongst each other,” he says. “A rising tide raises all ships, and if we, as a town, can have a reputation for not just having awesome restaurants and amazing chefs, but if we could have a work utopia for our restaurant workers. And that’s not just going to involve the restaurants, but it is going to involve the city. How can we make Asheville a more attractive place to work and live?” X

SMALL BITES

by Thomas Calder | tcalder@mountainx.com

BaconFest celebrates five years “There are things happening in Western North Carolina with bacon that my simple mind could never possibly imagine,” says Ken Ulmer, promotions team member of 105.9 the Mountain. “And then you see it come to life at BaconFest — it is transformative.”

Entering its fifth year, 105.9 the Mountain’s BaconFest Asheville commences at 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, at Highland Brewing Co. The event features both sweet and savory dishes prepared by a long and diverse list of businesses ranging from Surf N Brew Oyster House to Baked Pie Co. to Firewalker Hot Sauce. Also, presenting sponsor Ingles will cook up 110 pounds of Laura Lynn bacon for the crowd.

As in years past, three prizes will be awarded by day’s end: Best Bacon, Best Sweet and People’s Choice. All participating restaurants and chefs will be eligible for the People’s Choice Award, which will be decided upon by those in attendance. Ulmer says 550 Tavern and Grille — last year’s People’s Choice winner — is “very serious about keeping that award.” Its 2017 offering will be a bourbon maple bacon cheesecake.

Another highly anticipated dish, says Ulmer, is UpCountry Brewing Eatery’s smoked bacon gazpacho. In addition to offering a cooler option during the afternoon event, Ulmer says, “It’s also a way to sneak a few vegetables into a gluttonous day of bacon.”

Meanwhile, Post 25 will bring its Carolina Cricket, a bacon-wrapped jalapeño pepper stuffed with smoked gouda and dipped in maple syrup. “I have sampled it,” says Ulmer. “And if an appetizer were to be perfection, it would have to be the Carolina Cricket.”

Along with the bites, Highland Brewery will have plenty of beer on tap.

“American Idol” winner and Asheville native Caleb Johnson will provide musical entertainment.

Ulmer is confident that attendees will leave the festival with their

A SANDWICH OF LOVE: Attendees at last year’s BaconFest honor and celebrate the BLT. This year’s event happens Saturday, Aug. 26, at Highland Brewing Co. Photo by Ken Ulmer bellies full. “There is always a fun crowd, because who can’t smile when they’re enjoying bacon in The Meadow at Highland Brewing?” he says.

BaconFest Asheville runs 1-4 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 26, at Highland Brewing Co., 12 Old Charlotte Highway. General admission is $20. VIP tickets are $50 and include early entry at noon, onsite parking and admission to a VIPonly tasting area with additional dishes.

Admission is free for kids ages 9 and younger. For tickets and details, visit the828.com/Bacon.

VEGAN AWARENESS WEEK AND VEGFEST Vegan Awareness Week, a series of events leading up to the 2017 VegFest, kicks off at 6 p.m. Monday, Aug. 28, at The BLOCK Off Biltmore. The opening event features a screening of Vegucated, a 2011 documentary that examines the obstacles faced by those converting

to a vegan diet. On Tuesday, Aug. 29, 6-8 p.m., Whole Foods Tap Haus will host a three-course beer dinner ($14 food only, $23 with beer pairings), and on Wednesday, Aug. 30, there will be

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Heirloom Corn Tor tillas Ground Onsite Daily Slow Roas ted Chicken & Pork Pas tor Tacos Tor tas Tequila

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FOOD

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a vegan pizza party (location to be decided). The following two nights will return to The BLOCK for a happy hour Thursday and a talk at 6 p.m. Friday

by UNC Asheville professor Amy Lanou. Anytime Fitness on Patton Avenue will host a weightlifting/bodybuilding seminar by Derek Tresize on Saturday, Sept. 2, from 10-11:30 a.m.

Later that day, The BLOCK will host a VegFest pre-party from 5-9:30 p.m.

The week concludes Sunday, Sept.

3, with VegFest at Pack Square Park.

The free festival runs 10 a.m.-6 p.m. with performances from Drew Cleary, Annette Conlon, Vickie Burick and Somewhat Petty, A Tom Petty Tribute Band. The event will also feature a wide variety of vegan fare, cooking demonstrations, children’s activities, local beer and speakers.

The BLOCK Off Biltmore is at 39 S. Market St. Whole Foods Tap Haus is at 4 S. Tunnel Road. Anytime Fitness is at 803 Patton Ave. Pack Square Park is at 80 Court Plaza. Visit ashevillevegfest. com for details on Vegan Awareness Week and updates on VegFest activities.

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CHIAPAS COFFEE CELEBRATION Vortex Doughnuts and 1000 Faces Coffee will celebrate the release of 1000 Faces’ new Cafeologo Series with a free discussion and tasting on Thursday, Aug. 24. The series includes four coffees grown by farmers in one small area of Chiapas, Mexico — the highlands of San Pedro Aldama. The farmers work with Mexican roaster and importer Cafeologo, which is leading the Mexican coffee industry’s burgeoning seed-to-cup movement. The event will include a slideshow of 1000 Faces’ sourcing trip along with a talk about the challenges faced by the Mexican coffee industry. There will be tastings of all four coffees followed by tamales and beer.

The Cafeologo event happens at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24, at Vortex Doughnuts, 32 Banks Ave. Admission is free.

TOMATO TASTING: A SLOW FOOD CELEBRATION Slow Food Asheville is a local chapter of the international Slow Food Movement that seeks to promote and preserve the food culture of Western North Carolina. On Sunday, Aug. 27, the group will host an event spotlighting the Cherokee purple tomato. The gathering will feature free samples of heirloom tomatoes and dishes prepared with them. Along with food, gardeners will be present to answer questions, and there will be seed-saving

demonstrations for those interested in carrying on the heritage of heirlooms.

Tomato Tasting: A Slow Food Celebration runs 5-7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27, at The Wedge at Foundation, 5 Foundry St. The event is familyfriendly and admission is free. For details, visit avl.mx/40m.

MARKET SUPPER: FRENCH COUNTRY FEAST WITH SALT & SMOKE The West Asheville Tailgate Market’s first 2017 supper will feature a meal by Salt & Smoke. The dinner will include several courses of classic French country cuisine, with ingredients sourced from the market’s vendors. According to the event’s Facebook page, “The market supper is a unique way to support the local food movement, meet the farmers that grow your food and commune with neighbors over a fresh, local, thoughtfully prepared meal.”

The supper begins at 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Aug. 29, at 718 Haywood Road. Tickets are $50 per person.

All proceeds will support the market’s growth. Tickets are available at the market’s information booth on Tuesdays 3:30-6:30 p.m. For details, visit avl.mx/40n. X

BEER SCOUT

by Edwin Arnaudin | earnaudin@mountainx.com

Certified independent Local breweries implement Brewers Association seal on packaging and onsite The timing was perfect for UpCountry Brewing Co. The day after owner John Cochran sent the final art to the printer for cans of Bogey Free Session IPA, the brewery’s first packaged product, the Brewers Association released its “certified independent craft” seal.

“Immediately, I called [the printer] and said, ‘Hold up — let’s put this on there,’ so it worked out great,” Cochran says.

The seal features a beer bottle shape flipped upside down, which, in the words of the not-for-profit trade association, “captures the spirit with which craft brewers have upended beer, while informing beer lovers they are choosing a beer from a brewery that is independently owned. These breweries run their businesses free of influence from other alcohol beverage companies which are not themselves craft brewers.”

The seal is available for use free of charge by any of the more than 5,300 small and independent American craft brewers that have a valid Tax and Trade Bureau Brewer’s Notice, meet the Brewers Association’s craft brewer definition and sign a license agreement. It is available to both association members and nonmember breweries.

According to the tally on the Brewers Association website, over 1,700 breweries have adopted the seal.

OWNERSHIP MATTERS “Not everyone that buys beer knows about [the ownership of breweries or] cares about it. But there is a certain subsegment of the craft beer drinkers [for whom] it’s an important thing,” Cochran says. “You see them whenever a new announcement’s made that a big conglomerate bought the little local guy. They’re the people who say, ‘Oh, I’m never going to drink that again,’ or ‘Oh, I have to reconsider it.’ That’s who the seal’s made for.”

Joining UpCountry, Catawba Brewing Co. has placed the seal on cans of ENO Pilsner, Ted Light Lime, Astral Bootie Beer IPA and Festbier.

Brewery marketing director Brian

MARK OF CRAFT: UpCountry Brewing Co. and Catawba Brewing Co. are the first Asheville breweries to incorporate the “certified independent craft” seal into their packaging. Photos courtesy of UpCountry Brewing Co. and Catawba Brewing Co. Ivey says other year-round beers will soon carry the seal as dictated by label printing needs, as will all limited-release and specialty-series beers going forward.

“Independence falls very high on the list of attributes that today’s beer consumer values. But in the current crowded and confusing marketplace, it isn’t always easy to determine if a supplier is or isn’t truly independent,” says Catawba owner Billy Pyatt. “This seal brings it out in the open.”

Multiple local breweries aren’t in as fortuitous a position as UpCountry and Catawba when it comes to packaging, but many plan to add the seal once their current stock starts running low — or, in the case of Asheville Brewing Co., French Broad Brewing Co. and Hi-Wire Brewing, as they update their packaging. “We order in bulk, and art changes are time-consuming, so it is difficult to change quickly,” says Courtney King, public relations and event coordinator for Hi-Wire.

Similarly, Green Man Brewery has what operation manager Jon Spath calls “a comfortable volume of printed labels and carriers,” but is working on a new design that includes the seal. In the meantime, Green Man will use the Brewers Association art in its social media and publications and on its website. New Belgium Brewing Co. has also implemented the seal online, and spokesperson Jesse Claeys says it will be included on the brewery’s packaging starting in the fall.

GIVING IT A MISS But not all local producers are interested. Pisgah Brewing Co. talent buyer and events director Benton Wharton says the brewery will not be using the seal at this time: “We are independent since forever, so we haven’t seen the need to add any other validation of that fact.”

Also abstaining, but for different reasons, is Wicked Weed Brewing. Now part of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s The High End portfolio, the Asheville brewery doesn’t

qualify to use the seal. The logo’s announcement sparked a response video from The High End in which six brewers and executives within the company’s division offer their opinions of the seal, including Wicked Weed coowner Walt Dickinson, who views the Brewers Association’s action as a sign of unnecessary infighting within the brewing industry.

“We’re all doing the same thing: We’re beer. And we’re fighting this bigger battle, which is wine and spirits, and we’re losing margin every year to them,” Dickinson says. “We need to band together and grow this market as a whole. … And good product wins, so that’s the point of this whole thing, and I was hoping that we could just get back to talking about beer, but I guess we’re not there yet — but hopefully soon.”

Cochran sees Dickinson’s point but doesn’t think it’s relevant to other Asheville breweries. “When you’re sitting in the big chair — Anheuser Busch — yes, you can sit and look and say that wine and spirits are taking over and running into the business,” he says.

“But when you’re a small guy, and you’re selling only in one town … that’s not on your radar.”

Also in The High End’s rebuttal video, Elysian Brewing Co. co-founder David Buhler posits that to be truly independent or “punk,” breweries would refuse to conform and put the seal on their products and instead follow their own rules.

“I think they’re completely missing the point,” says Highland Brewing Co. President Leah Wong Ashburn.

“I think that they’re losing market share to independent brewers, and so they’re buying independent breweries, and they’re confusing consumers about who’s independent — intentionally.”

Ashburn, who sports a sticker of the seal on her laptop, says Highland is still mulling over how to implement the imagery on its packaging and onsite but is committed to using it. Like Cochran and Pyatt, she sees the seal as a quick visual way for discerning beer drinkers to identify independently owned products and support values that are important to them.

“As a country, we celebrate and covet our independence as U.S. citizens because we get to make our own choices and we get to create our own paths,” Ashburn says. “As beer-makers, we have the same values, and the result is that consumers get more variety and choice from independent brewers. Most people don’t recognize who’s independent or not because it’s hard to, so [the seal] may have a small effect, but any effect is valuable and that’s why I think it’s worth doing.” X

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A R T S & E N T E R TA I N M E N T

NEXT-LEVEL SOUNDS RBTS WIN and Foul Mouth Jerk host new album release parties

THE BIG IDEA: Influences for Sensitivity Kit by RBTS WIN, left, came from Italian movie scores and Italian dance music of the 1970s and ’80s. Foul Mouth Jerk, right, says his album Scofflaw “was made over leftover ham and PBR tallboys.” RBTS WIN photo by Matt Lief Anderson, Foul Mouth Jerk photo courtesy the artist

BY BILL KOPP bill@musoscribe.com Two Asheville-based bands recently completed recording new albums, and both are celebrating the release of those projects with live shows. Electro-soul group RBTS WIN commemorates the release of its fourth album, Sensitivity Kit, with a performance at The Grey Eagle on Friday, Aug. 25. Hip-hop artist Foul Mouth Jerk debuts his latest effort, Scofflaw, with a Saturday, Aug. 26, show at Isis Music Hall.

TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESS The RBTS WIN trio – synthesist Javier Bolea, vocalist/synth player Cliff B. Worsham and guitarist Josh

Chassner – makes modern, electronic-based dance music. But the band, a Moogfest fixture, draws upon some very old-school influences. In addition to a strong hip-hop sensibility (“Javi and I caught the initial wave of hip-hop music,” says Worsham), the group’s sound is informed by the work of “spaghetti western” film scorer Ennio Morricone.

“In my production of music, I draw heavy influence from Italian movie scores and Italian dance music of the 1970s and ’80s,” says Worsham. The combination of those seemingly diametrically opposed styles is part of what gives RBTS WIN its distinctive sound.

“We had always leaned upon hiphop music,” says Worsham, “So, for us, it was a natural crossover that we could go back and forth between chillwave and a more aggressive hip-

hop record like Dap City [a 2015 collaboration with Rapper Shane].”

“We love exploring and working with other artists,” Bolea says, “working with rappers and other vocalists. And Cliff ’s doing a lot with different psych-rock bands and heavier bands. Pretty much everything we do will have our stamp on it; we’re just trying to have fun and have as much output as possible.”

Many artists operating in the electronic dance idiom focus on a trance or jam aesthetic, but RBTS WIN places a higher value on song craft.

“We’re songwriters,” says Worsham.

“We’re not well-trained musicians.

We’re attracted to all instrumentation, but never really focus on one thing. So, instead, we play at a bunch of instruments.”

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A &E In some ways, RBTS WIN’s musicians work more in the role of producers. “We just have the ear for putting it all together,” says Worsham.

The new album, Sensitivity Kit, is a major departure from the group’s previous release. Worsham explains that 2014’s Palm Sunday “was a sample-based album. But this record has no samples; it’s all us playing synthesizers, guitars, bass, whatever. Every instrument you hear is us. I even played drums on some of the songs.”

That human element characterizes the band’s live shows, too. “We don’t want to be the same-sounding band every time you come to see us,” Worsham says. “We like to switch it up and surprise people.”

Sensitivity Kit is RBTS WIN’s third full-length release, and it’s also the third to be released on vinyl. A limited-run pressing will be available simultaneously with the digital and CD versions. “Vinyl is really nice because it’s such a permanent format,” Bolea says, “and it’s such a great way to display the visual side.” ’LEFTOVER HAM AND PBR TALLBOYS’ “‘Scofflaw’ is a Prohibition-era term for someone flagrantly flouting the more petty crimes,” says Michael Capra, aka Foul Mouth Jerk, of his album title. Scofflaw is a collection of party songs and more political ones.

“I’m hiding a political stance under some party sh*t,” Capra says, “because I find that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.”

Wait, Foul Mouth Jerk is quoting Mary Poppins? “That’s what’s hot in the streets, man,” he says with a chuckle. “Mary Poppins.”

The Scofflaw project began as a series of phone calls between Capra and local muralist and rapper Gus Cutty. At the time, Cutty lived in San Francisco. “That Thanksgiving, I flew out to San Francisco,” Capra says.

“We had dinner at Gus’ apartment and then spent the next two days eating leftovers and recording the whole album. So Scofflaw was made over leftover ham and PBR tallboys.”

Recently, Capra has been working on new tracks with Asheville-based production collective Evil Note Lab. The product of those efforts will be Foul Mouth Jerk’s next album. Still, Evil Note Lab will play a major role in the debut of Scofflaw. “Since I sit in on their weekly set at One Stop, we figured a cool way to release the

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album would be to do it with them,” Capra says. “It’ll be a mix of ‘Here’s the newest project,’ and ‘Here’s a sneak peek of what’s coming in the next year or so.’”

Improvisation is a hallmark of Evil Note Lab’s musical approach, and that lines up well with Capra’s methods. “When I perform with them, improvisation is a huge part of it,” he says. “Because all of what they’re doing is completely off the cuff, it’s actually really amazing to watch.”

Capra likens the experience of collaborating onstage with Evil Note Lab to a jump-rope game of double Dutch. “They ebb and flow,” he says. “One moment, there’s so much going on. And then other times, they strip it right down to bare bones.”

Spontaneity is also key to Foul Mouth Jerk’s own musical aesthetic. “I approach things more in the style of the early 1970s days of hip-hop,” he says. “Back then, the MC was not the front man; MC was a hype man for the DJ. So, when I find those little breakdowns, I might just do a hook a few times and then jump back out.”

Though Capra puts a great deal of effort into his rhymes, when it comes to live shows, it’s about dancing.

“And you don’t want to bog down dance music with thick, really wordy verses,” he says. “I drop verses here and there, but mainly I just try and find the spot where I fit in,” he says.

In a live setting, like the release party for Scofflaw, Capra says, “the vocals are really the hype man for the music.” X

WHO RBTS WIN WHERE The Grey Eagle 185 Clingman Ave. thegreyeagle.com WHEN Friday, Aug. 25, at 9 p.m. $10 advance / $12 day of show WHO Foul Mouth Jerk WHERE Isis Music Hall 742 Haywood Road isisasheville.com WHEN Saturday, Aug. 26, at 9 p.m. $12

by Edwin Arnaudin

earnaudin@mountainx.com

SCREENINGS UNDER THE STARS Outdoor movies flourish as summer winds down Tim Schaller does it out of a love for film and to re-create the charms of the drive-in age. Stirling Gardner aims to bring one of his favorite parts of Los Angeles to his new neighbors, while Sandra Travis and her colleagues strive to provide a free, family-friendly experience to local residents.

Regardless of their motivations, the minds behind three of the Asheville area’s numerous outdoor movie offerings (see sidebar) agree that the sense of community is at the heart of their interest in hosting cinematic events in the open air.

“There’s something really romantic about seeing movies outside,” says Schaller, the owner of Wedge Brewing Co. He’s been showing films in the brewery’s courtyard since June 2008, including annual screenings of Thunder Road.

Jason Scott Furr of the photographic education nonprofit The Asheville Darkroom brings his own projection equipment and beams the film onto the side of a delivery truck. Schaller bought the vehicle thinking the brewery would do a lot of wholesale, and though he says it is movable, its wheels haven’t budged in a while. To enhance the makeshift screen, local artist Ian Wilkinson painted curtains on one side, while Ted Harper adorned the side facing the train tracks, which Schaller says has prevented it from being tagged with graffiti.

Though Wedge has shown the work of local filmmakers David Kabler, Mitch Rumfelt and Hank Bones, Schaller typically lets other factors drive his selections. “It’s tricky. I’ve tried to do series, and what I’ve come to understand is that it is an outdoor movie, people will be talking, so people want to come out and see what they know — which makes a lot of sense to me,” he says.

Gardner and Shawn Verbrugghe also listened to popular opinion when founding Asheville Outdoor Cinema.

The duo posted a poll on the organization’s Facebook page, asking locals what movie they’d most want to see out of nearly 20 potential titles. They then curated their inaugural series with the top-five vote-getters: The Princess Bride, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Super Troopers and The Shining.

SUNDOWN CINEMA: A range of ages gather at Fletcher Community Park for a Family Movie Night. Fletcher Parks and Recreation is one of several local organizations that host outdoor film screenings in the summer. Photo by Nicole Sweat “We posted our survey the week before [The Orange Peel] showed [The Princess Bride], and I love Princess Bride, but I was shocked that it was the No. 1 choice,” Gardner says. “It was head and shoulders above the other ones.”

Their events at Carrier Park will feature digital high-definition projection onto a giant inflatable screen that provides a crisp, wrinkle-free image with audio courtesy of a state-of-theart sound system. Gardner is committed to being considerate of residents who live above Amboy Road and will drive around during The Princess

Bride screening to check if the volume is too loud.

Gardner sees the series as another “immersive, interactive experience” in the tradition of Verbrugghe’s Pubcycle and the Conundrum Escape Rooms.

Though children 12 and younger get in for free, those outside that age range will be charged admission ($11 plus fees; $8 plus fees for groups of 20 or more) but get more than simply the movie. Along with a pre-film trivia game and live music from a band whose style matches the spirit of that night’s film, Asheville Outdoor Cinema attendees can play cornhole, disc golf and oversized lawn

games like giant Jenga. There will be ice cream from The Hop, traditional movie snacks and local food trucks.

The City of Asheville Parks and Recreation Department’s Movies in the Park events start in a similar vein, with a children’s craft activity organized by LEAF or Macaroni Kid that ties in with the theme of the evening’s film.

“We are always looking for ways to get the community out — hopefully, get away from the video game,” says Travis, program manager for Asheville Parks and Rec. “Even if you are coming out to watch a movie, at least you’re out and in

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A &E a park and getting fresh air and maybe being exposed to something that you wouldn’t have been otherwise.”

An inflatable screen and sound system are set up at Pack Square Park for each event. Situated in the middle of an open public place, with lots of walkup traffic and cars driving by, Travis has to be careful about what is shown.

She and her co-workers stick to films rated G, PG or PG-13 that appeal to the whole family. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, especially for E.T. Parents who’d seen the film as kids enjoyed revisiting the Steven Spielberg classic with their children, says Travis.

Parks and Rec attempted to replicate that multigenerational connection with Back to the Future, but it wound up being the lone instance in the series’ initial 2014-16 run to be canceled for a hazard specific to outdoor events: rain.

Determined to try again, the group booked Robert Zemeckis’ fan favorite in 2017 — only to once more have it nixed due to a downpour. While Travis says one staffer doesn’t want to tempt fate a third time, she’s hoping the weather will cooperate and the series can avoid resembling another popular film: “What I kept saying was, ‘It’s not Groundhog Day, it’s Back to the Future.’” X

Upcoming showings • Saturday, Aug. 26, 6:30 p.m. — The Princess Bride at Carrier Park, 220 Amboy Road. $11, plus fees/free for kids 12 and younger. Additional listings at ashevilleoutdoorcinema.com • Saturday, Sept. 2, 6:30 p.m. — The Karate Kid at Hickory Nut Gap Farm, 57 Sugar Hollow Road, Fairview. $6/free for kids younger than 4. Additional listings at hickorynutgapfarm.com • Friday, Sept. 8, 6 p.m. — Beauty and the Beast (2017) at Spring Mountain Community Center, 807 Old Fort Road, Fairview. Free • Saturday, Sept. 9, 8 p.m. — Captain America: Civil War at Fletcher Community Park, 85 Howard Gap Road, Fletcher. Free • Friday, Sept. 15, 6:30 p.m. — Rogue One: A Star Wars Story at Pack Square Park, 80 Court Plaza. Free • Friday, Sept. 15, 7 p.m. — Beauty and the Beast (2017) at Lake Tomahawk Park, 401 Laurel Circle Drive, Black Mountain. Free • Saturday, Sept. 16, 8 p.m. — Chinatown at Wedge Brewing Co., 37 Paynes Way. Free. Additional listings at wedgebrewing.com • Saturday, Sept. 16, 8:30 p.m. — Wayne’s World at Hi-Wire Brewing, 2 Huntsman Place. Free — E.A. X

MOSCOW meets

Manhattan

Dueling Pianos Plus!

International pianists/vocalists - Katherine Alexandra & Brian Gurl perform an exciting fusion of classical, pop, jazz & ethnic folk with shades of Victor Borge.

Eliot Wadopian-bass & Byron Hedegpeth-drums.

Diana Wortham Theatre Tickets: Regular: $35 Balcony: $25 Students: $25 B/O: (828) 257-4530 www.dwtheatre.com 44

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18 Biltmore Avenue

Saturday, Aug. 26th 7:30pm

by Daniel Walton

danielwwalton@live.com

Bridging old and new Durand Jones & The Indications bring DIY energy to old-school soul With the volume down, the video for “Make a Change” by Durand Jones & The Indications seems to check off the boxes of the indie music scene. There’s the obligatory musician-with-brickwall shot, a telephone pole stapled with show posters and even a bar with Christmas lights over the deck. Turn the sound on, however, and things catapult from the present back to the 1960s. A crisp horn section, whirling organ and powerhouse vocals place the tune firmly in the vintage soul tradition of legends such as Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye.

Youthful energy and old-school reverence combine throughout the Bloomington, Ind.-based band’s selftitled debut album, released in 2016 through Ohio soul label Colemine Records. Over the past year, that unique sound has led Durand Jones & The Indications to tour the country and perform gigs at festivals including South by Southwest and Voodoo Music + Arts Experience. The group now brings its funky grooves to The Mothlight on Wednesday, Aug. 23.

Frontman Durand Jones says that the band has led him down an unexpected path. Primarily a saxophone player, Jones moved to Bloomington to attend grad school at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and work as a horn coach for the IU Soul Revue. He found himself singing, instead, when the Soul Revue wound up short on performers, attracting the attention of guitarist Blake Rhein.

Rhein invited Jones to sing the Otis Redding classic “Dock of the Bay” at one of his band’s basement shows, and

WAIT TILL THE MIDNIGHT HOUR: “I’ll never forget writing ‘Make a Change’ — we stayed up until 4 in the morning on Sunday night just jamming on that tune,” says saxophonist and singer Durand Jones. “We couldn’t stop; I had to wake up at 9 o’clock to go to class, and I just could not get that song out of my head.” Photo courtesy of the musician the collaboration that resulted soon transformed into The Indications.

The group soon started crafting its own songs, inspired by a shared love of soul greats, and band members recorded the results themselves on a four-track system in drummer Aaron Frazer’s basement. “I’ll never forget writing ‘Make a Change’ — we stayed up until 4 in the morning on Sunday night just jamming on that tune,” says Jones. “We couldn’t stop; I had to wake up at 9 o’clock to go to class, and I just could not get that song out of my head.”

The band’s late-night excitement shines through most clearly on “Groovy Babe,” which has become the album’s de facto single after being featured in an advertisement for Google Assistant with over 31 million views on YouTube.

Fuzzy bass and booming drums sound heavy with reverb as they bounce off the basement walls, and Jones’s voice threatens to blow out the microphone with barely controlled passion. There’s a gritty edge to the recording that sets the music apart from a simple re-creation of the past.

Jones’ personal background may also influence his band’s DIY approach. He grew up in Hillaryville, La., a rural town of roughly 750 people about an hour west of New Orleans.

“A lot of people there don’t see the point in going to college,” Jones says.

“When I told my dad that I wanted to go to college for music, he told me good luck, but he wasn’t going to help me in any way.”

Instead, Jones earned a scholarship to Southeastern Louisiana University for music education and classical saxophone, which he then leveraged into his grad school assistantship. He laughingly recalls how his dad eventually took notice of his success: “Folks at church started asking him about me and the band, which prompted him to give me a call and ask, ‘What are you doing?’”

In the wider world, Jones says that he’s been pleasantly surprised by the breadth of audiences for The Indications’ music. “I think it’s pretty cool that we get a mix of ages at our shows,” he says. “There’s definitely a younger, more hip crowd, but there’s also the alternative adults, and it’s really nice to see how our music has that crossover appeal.” Like his songs themselves, Jones’s shows bridge the old and the new, crossing generations to create a space for unbridled groove. X

WHAT Durand Jones & The Indications with Sister Ivy WHERE The Mothlight 701 Haywood Road themothlight.com WHEN Wednesday, Aug. 23, 9:30 p.m. $10 advance/$12 day of show

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A&E

by Emily Glaser

emglaser@me.com

Passion and precision In 1997, when Karen Jaffe settled in Asheville with her family, the active contra dancer was excited to explore the local scene. Her interests led her to couples dancing and then to the Argentine tango, which became her passion. Jaffe hosted weekly classes and social dances in Asheville, growing a modest collection of tango enthusiasts into a thriving community.

Two decades later, Jaffe is still devoted to the dance of passion. So, she created Sabores del Tango, a first-ofits-kind event for Asheville, with her dance partner, Buenos Aires native and tango virtuoso Tate Di Chiazza. The three-day celebration of tango includes a class, tasting and dance parties. It takes place Friday, Aug. 25, through Sunday, Aug. 27, at West Asheville event space Center for Art & Spirit at St. George’s.

The gathering is intended for a range of skill levels, from experienced beginners to seasoned professionals.

“We wanted to offer a unique event that gave the dancers a taste of the many different possibilities that tango offers,” says Jaffe. She notes that, although it’s possible to find tango classes and milongas — social dance parties — in cities around the world, this is the first local event with such a varied lineup.

The schedule promises performances, improvisation, variations on the genres of music, and formal and informal social dancing.

During A Taste of Argentina, Jaffe and Di Chiazza will discuss the history and demonstrate the styles of tango, including the older salon style and the modern, or nuevo, style, served with a side of Argentinian wines and traditional empanadas. A Taste of Argentina will be followed by a traditional Encuentro

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Sabores del Tango celebrates the Argentine dance style

FROM ARGENTINA TO ASHEVILLE: Karen Jaffe, left, and dance partner Tate Di Chiazza will offer several local workshops, classes, performances and dance parties this fall, including the three-day dance festival Sabores Del Tango. Photo by Micah Mackenzie milonga, where dancers are encouraged to dress more formally and adhere to the strict historical codes of etiquette.

The dance parties continue on Saturday with afternoon and evening milongas, the latter set to live music by local group De La Noche (formerly Asheville Tango Orchestra) performing classical Argentine

MOUNTAINX.COM

tango tunes from the early and mid-20th century. Attendees can also take a lesson in chacarera, a traditional folk dance. The weekend’s finale fiesta, Milonga al Aire Libre, will be held in Pritchard Park on Sunday and, with a donation, is open to the public.

While respecting the traditional roles of leader and follower, Jaffe and Di Chiazza encourage collaboration. “Our teaching philosophy is based on the idea of the dancers being independent, yet connected and co-creative,” Jaffe says. “We support active following, freeing the follower to interpret the music through her body, at times independent from the leader.”

Jaffe and Di Chiazza describe their teaching style as “relaxed and fun, heavy on technique and exploratory based.”

Jaffe continues, “We may use a movement or sequence as a framework for the technique or concept we are looking at, but our focus is the natural flow of the energy from lead to follow, relative position and timing for any given movement, all with a healthy dose of playfulness.”

From 2005-15, Jaffe hosted Argentine tango events, classes, milongas and special workshop weekends through her organization. “I supported hundreds of new dancers taking their first steps in tango in my local classes over those years,” she remembers. As more people (including some of her own students) began to host their own classes and milongas, Jaffe stepped back from the Asheville tango scene to concentrate on growing her professional dance career regionally.

Jaffe and other instructors rotate command of Tuesday night classes and prácticas at In His Steps. Blue Spiral Tango also hosts a milonga, on the last Sunday of every month, at The BLOCK off Biltmore.

Jaffe remains an influential member of the local tango community. While Di Chiazza is in the U.S. for the year, the duo will offer several tango workshops, classes and performances in cities across the country. In Asheville, these include an immersion session, Path to Tango, on Thursday, Aug. 31; an intensive seminar for experienced dancers scheduled for Saturday, Sept.

2; an Argentine dinner and tango show at Isa’s Bistro on Wednesday, Oct. 18; and a workshop at LEAF on Saturday, Oct. 21. Visit tangogypsies.com for the full lineup.

Sabores del Tango kicks off that roster. It’s a plunge into a dance style that might turn other contra dancers (or swing enthusiasts or Salsa fanatics) into tango gypsies, as Jaffe coined her community. “In the end, tango is an experience,” she says. It’s “very personal, internal, unique to each person, and rooted in a solid base of technique and traditional music.” X

WHAT Sabores del Tango avl.mx/40h WHERE Center for Art & Spirit at St. George’s 1 School Road; and Pritchard Park WHEN Friday, Aug. 25, through Sunday, Aug. 27.

See website for full schedule. $100 for full weekend $190 per couple

T H E AT E R R E V I E W

by Jeff Messer | upstge@yahoo.com

‘Peter Pan’ by Montford Park Players the company and handling so much of the technical needs onstage, one wonders if there was an attempt to bring everyone up to the same level.

In spite of the obstacles, you can’t help but admire the dedication of the Montford Park Players — all of which are rewarded with an eager and enthusiastic reception from the audience. X

WHAT Peter Pan WHERE Hazel Robinson Amphitheater 92 Gay St. montfordparkplayers.org WHEN Through Saturday, Sept. 2 Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, at 7:30 p.m. Free admission

2017

There is a richness in the language and word craft of J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan that continues to enchant audiences who not only read the book but venture out to see Barrie’s own adaptation of his work to stage. Peter Pan runs through Saturday, Sept. 2, at the Hazel Robinson Amphitheater.

Under the stars feels right for such a show, making Montford Park Players’ open-air summer location a well-suited venue. Of course, the first things that come to mind are questions of how the more elaborate effects will be rendered in an outdoor setting.

How will the crocodile that plagues Captain Hook appear? How will the magical fairy Tinkerbell work? And there’s the big question of how Peter and the Darling children will fly. In this production, all of these issues are solved cleverly. The crocodile appears via puppetry elements thanks to the handiwork of Jim Julien. Tinkerbell is a bundle of blinking lights and wings at the end of a long pole. Flight is achieved with gimmicks in plain sight, including a seesaw that lifts actors into the air. Darren Marshall, who plays Hook’s right-hand man Smee, also lifts and carries the children at times.

Much of the production is about the audience seeing how the magic is made. The ensemble is a constant presence on stage, aiding in the effects as well as the narration of the wordheavy tale. In fact, the audience is almost as much a part of the show as the cast itself. Actors roam the audience. Pirates and Indians hide among theatergoers, incorporating them in the high jinks.

Director Jason Williams has an inventive vision. His long history with Montford Park Players lends itself to an intimate understanding of how to use the facility to its fullest. Williams also appears among the ensemble of actors as pirate Skylights, which enables him to be present onstage operating many of the effects himself.

Mars Mignon has the right youthful energy and swagger as Peter Pan, while veteran actor David Mycoff embodies Captain Hook with a loftiness and exasperation. Sarah Holt is perfect as Wendy, who is swept away

by Peter, and becomes the “mother” to the Lost Boys. Her brothers John (Brendan Nickerson) and Michael

needs Business Partners

RETURN TO NEVERLAND: Montford Park Players stage Peter Pan as its latest production.

Photo by Rodney Smith/Tempus Fugit Design (Aidan Short) are also superbly cast.

Samantha Yoffee shines among the young cast, as do real-life siblings Karely and Emmy Frost.

Though we see little of them after the first half hour, Scott Voloshin and Sophie Marie Stanley provide elegance as Mr. and Mrs. Darling. Both are capable actors and refreshing additions to Montford’s stable.

The outdoor venue presents challenges, and some of the cast are hard to hear at times. This is frustrating, as the ensemble trade off on the heavy narration, and, from one actor to the next, the vocal levels rise and fall. With Williams in

Contact givelocal@mountainx.com to get involved

Mr. K’s

Used Books, CD’s DVD’s & more

BUY • SELL • TRADE

Over 10,000 SQ FT of used books, CDs DVDs, rare & out-of-print books, video games, audio books, vinyl records, comic books & more!

800 Fairview Road Asheville (River Ridge Shopping Center)

299-1145 • www.mrksusedbooks.com MOUNTAINX.COM

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

47

SMART BETS

A&E

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

Jackie Venson

48

RiverFest

The (musical) force is strong with Jackie Venson. The daughter of Andrew Venson, a professional bassist and singer for 40 years, the former classical pianist turned to blues guitar upon graduating from Berklee College of Music. The younger Venson has translated her genetic and learned skills into one album per year, starting with The Light in Me (2015) and Jackie Venson Live (2016). She keeps the pattern consistent with the release of her new EP, Transends, on Sept. 29, spearheaded by lead single “Flying,” which showcases her smooth voice and active ax work. Back in Asheville just over a month after opening for fellow Austin native Gary Clark Jr. at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, Venson and her band get top billing at Isis Music Hall on Friday, Aug. 25, at 9 p.m. $15 advance/$18 day of show. isisasheville.com. Photo by Jinni J

Since 1999, Asheville watershed nonprofit RiverLink’s annual RiverFest has provided locals an escape from the late summer heat to the banks of the French Broad River. In addition to a robust variety of local food and beverages available for purchase, this year’s event features performances by three Asheville-based acts: indie-folk group Ben Phan and the Soul Symphony, funk-rock trio The Get Right Band and bluegrass quartet The Greenliners. Adventurous types can make their way to the Salvage Station stage by joining the Anything That Floats Parade, a true-to-name1.5-mile float down the river — with a “stop and sip” zone near the music – aboard whatever can stay buoyant. The free event takes place Saturday, Aug. 26, from 1 to 7 p.m. Anything that Floats entry is $40. riverlink. org/experience/riverfest. Photo of Ben Phan by Adam McMillan

Leah Weiss

JEFF the Brotherhood

For the last decade of Leah Weiss’ 24-year tenure as executive assistant to the headmaster of Virginia Episcopal School, the North Carolina native wrote fiction on the side. Six years into her literary journey, she entered a short story contest. Working from the opening prompt, “I struggle to my feet,” Weiss envisioned a young girl from Appalachia, and the resulting four-page piece wound up winning the competition. The story sat untouched for four years, but in 2015, Weiss retired from her job and began expanding the story into a novel about a new wife and mother who sees a potential escape from her abusive husband. Weiss will discuss that book, titled If the Creek Don’t Rise, in a free event at Malaprop’s on Wednesday, Aug. 30, at 7 p.m. malaprops.com. Photo courtesy of the author

There may not be any Jeffs, Jefferys or Jeffersons in JEFF the Brotherhood, but the Nashville power-punk duo’s Jake and Jamin Orrall truly are brothers. It’s been just over a year since the release of its experimental rock album, ZONE. The band has toured steadily while pursuing side interests, namely Jake’s involvement in curating Light in the Attic Records’ October release, Even A Tree Can Shed Tears: Japanese Folk & Rock 1969-1973. Nearly two years after their debut at The Odditorium, the Orralls bring their acclaimed stage show to the intimate West Asheville space on Thursday, Aug. 24, for a 9 p.m. show. Nashville all-female three-piece grungepop band Daddy Issues and Asheville power-rock trio Cannonball Jars open. $10 advance/$12 day of show. ashevilleodditorium.com. Photo courtesy of the band

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

MOUNTAINX.COM

MOUNTAINX.COM

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

49

A &E CA LEN DA R

by Abigail Griffin

MOSCOW MEETS MANHATTAN: International award-winning pianist and vocalist Katherine Alexandra takes on American pianist Brian Gurl in a concert that showcases a fusion of classical, pop, jazz, ethnic folk and shades of Victor Borge. The concert, which takes place Saturday, Aug. 26, at 7:30 p.m. at Diana Wortham Theatre, includes an eclectic repertoire from Argentina, Spain, Hungary, Russia and the United States. For more information and tickets, visit dwtheatre.com. Photo courtesy of Brian Gurl Musical Productions (p. 50) ART/CRAFT STROLLS & FAIRS TRANSYLVANIA COMMUNITY ARTS COUNCIL 349 S. Caldwell St., Brevard, 828-884-2787, tcarts.org • FRIDAYS, 5-8pm Brevard 4th Friday gallery walk with open galleries, art stores, restaurants, live music and refreshments.

Free to attend. Held in Downtown Brevard

AUDITIONS & CALL TO ARTISTS MAHEC 121 Hendersonville Road, 828-257-4400 • Through TU (9/5) - Visual art submissions accepted for MAHEC's ACEs Resilience Art Show. Information: Resilienceartshow@ gmail.com or sys.mahec.net/ce/ aces2017.aspx.

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AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

MOUNTAINX.COM

MUSIC AFRICAN DRUM LESSONS AT SKINNY BEATS DRUM SHOP (PD.) Sundays 2pm, Wednesdays 6pm.

Billy Zanski teaches a fun approach to connecting with your inner rhythm. Drop-ins welcome. Drums provided. $15/class. (828) 768-2826. skinnybeatsdrums.com MOSCOW MEETS MANHATTAN DUELING PIANOS PLUS! (PD.) International award winning Russian pianist/vocalist Katherine Alexandra takes on American piano powerhouse Brian Gurl in a wild fusion of classical, pop, jazz & ethnic folk with shades of Victor Borge, Eliot Wadopian-bass, Byron Hedgepeth-drums.

Diana Wortham Theatre. Saturday, August 26th, 7:30pm.

Tickets: 828-257-4530

or www.dwtheatre. com.

RIVERFEST • THIS SATURDAY (PD.) Get ready for RiverFest, Saturday August 26, 1pm7pm. Home of the Anything That Floats parade, and presented

by Salvage Station, Prestige Subaru and benefiting RiverLink.

Great local music from The Greenliners, Pen Phan and the Soul Symphony and The Get Right Band. Gates open at noon!

ASHEVILLE MUSIC PROFESSIONALS facebook.com/ ashevillemusicprofessionals • WE (8/30), 5pm - Panel discussion regarding careers in music and job fair.

Free to attend. Held at Upcountry Brewing Company, 1042 Haywood Rd. ASHEVILLE YOGA CENTER BOUTIQUE STUDIO 62 Orange St.

• SA (8/26), 6-7pm - Drum workshop with Steve Campbell and Lindsay Rust of Dancing Drums. Open to all levels. $10.

BIG IVY COMMUNITY CENTER 540 Dillingham Road, Barnardsville, 828-6263438 • FR (8/25), 7pm - "Singing on the Grounds" community singing event. Free.

CANTON RECREATIONAL PARK Penland St., Canton • FRIDAYS through (8/25) - Outdoor bluegrass concert with clogging. Free.

CITY OF ASHEVILLE 828-251-1122, ashevillenc.gov • FRIDAYS, 6-10pm - Asheville outdoor drum circle. Free. Held at Pritchard Park, 4 College St. CITY OF MORGANTON MUNICIPAL AUDITORIUM 401 South College St. Morganton, 828-433-

SHOW, commaonline. org • SA (8/26), 7:30pm Benton Blount concert, country. $20-$24.

FLAT ROCK PLAYHOUSE 2661 Highway 225, Flat Rock, 828-693-0731, flatrockplayhouse.org • WEDNESDAYS through SUNDAYS (8/25) until (9/3) "Music of the Night," the songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Wed. & Thurs.: 7:30pm. Thurs., Sat. & Sun.: 2pm. Fri. & Sat.: 8pm. $15 and up.

FLAT ROCK PLAYHOUSE DOWNTOWN 125 S. Main St., Hendersonville, 828693-0731, flatrockplayhouse.org • TH (8/31) through SU (9/3) - "Everything Is Rosie," musical tribute to Rosemary Clooney.

Thurs.: 7:30pm. Fri. & Sat.: 8pm. Sat. & Sun.: 2pm. $30.

HENDERSON COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY

SHINDIG ON THE GREEN

905 S. Greenville Hwy. Hendersonville, 828692-6424, myhcdp.com • 2nd & 4th WEDNESDAYS, 7pm "Strings and Things," folk pop music jam.

Free.

828-258-6101, x345, folkheritage.org • SATURDAYS through (9/2) - Outdoor oldtimey and folk music jam sessions and concert. Free. Held at Pack Square Park, 121 College St.

MADISON COUNTY ARTS COUNCIL 828-649-1301, madisoncountyarts. com, info@ madisoncountyarts.com • SU (8/27), 4pm - The Kruger Brothers, concert. $35/$30 advance.

Held at Ebbs Chapel Performing Arts Center, 271 Laurel Valley Road, Mars Hill MUSIC AT MARS HILL mhu.edu • TH (8/24), 7:30pm Faculty duo recital featuring Dr. Alan Theisen (saxophone) and Professor Misty Theisen (flute). Free. Held in the Broyhill Chapel, 338 Cascade St., Mars Hill

UR LIGHT CENTER 2196 N.C. Highway 9, Black Mountain, 828669-6845, urlight.org • WE (8/30), 7-9pm - "An Evening of Music, Meditation and Mindfulness," with Native American flute artist John Two-Hawks. $25/$20 advance.

THEATER ASHEVILLE COMMUNITY THEATRE 35 E. Walnut St., 828254-1320, ashevilletheatre.org • FRIDAYS through SUNDAYS until (9/10) & THURSDAYS (8/31) &

(9/7) - The Producers, musical. Fri. & Sat.: 7:30pm. Sun.: 2:30pm.

Thurs.: 7:30pm. $15$30/$100 opening night.

BREVARD LITTLE THEATRE 55 E. Jordan St., Brevard, 828-884-2587, TheBrevardLittleTheatre. org • FRIDAYS through SUNDAYS until (8/27) - Rainmaker, comedy.

Fri. & Sat.: 7:30pm.

Sun.: 3pm. $18/$12 student/$6 children.

HART THEATRE 250 Pigeon St., Waynesville • FR (8/25) & SA (8/26), 8pm - Proceeds from this dance performance featuring Nicholas Young, Gavin Stewart, Carly Hambridge Morgan Lamb and Aparna Keshaviah benefit Dance ARIS at HART. $25.

HENDERSONVILLE COMMUNITY THEATRE 229 S. Washington St., Hendersonville, 828692-1082, hendersonvillelittletheater. org • FRIDAYS through SUNDAYS (8/25) through (9/3) - "The Roaring Twenties," musical performances, dance acts and audience participation. Fri.

& Sat.: 7:30pm. Sun.: 2pm. $18.

THE MAGNETIC THEATRE

MONTFORD PARK PLAYERS 828-254-5146, montfordparkplayers. org • FRIDAYS through SUNDAYS until (9/2), 7:30pm - Peter Pan. Free. Held at Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre, 92 Gay St.

375 Depot St., 828279-4155 • SA (8/26), 10:30pm - "Off-Off Broadway Project," featuring, Icarus’s Mother and Medea of the Laundromat or The Stars May Understand.

Free to attend.

DIFFERENT STROKES PERFORMING ARTS COLLECTIVE 828-275-2093, differentstrokespac.org • THURSDAYS through SATURDAYS until (9/2), 7:30pm - Best of Enemies. $21/$18 advance. Held at Asheville High Arts Theater, 419 McDowell St.

MOUNTAINX.COM

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

51

GALLERY DIRECTORY

ASHEVILLE ARTIST RETROSPECTIVE: Award-winning Asheville painter and illustrator Daniel Nevins reflects on a quarter-century of image-making in Mars Hill University’s Weizenblatt Gallery’s newest exhibition. Fluent: 25 Years of Painting, Drawings and Album Covers features a range of Nevins’ work, from large abstracts to intimate stylized figures to funky album covers. Nevins describes the exhibit as the most comprehensive exhibition to showcase his diverse body of work. Fluent runs from Wednesday, Aug. 23, through Friday, Sept. 22, with an artist’s reception on Wednesday, Aug. 30, from 6-8 p.m.

For more information, visit mhu.edu. Fluent by Daniel Nevins courtesy of Mars Hill ART GALLERY EXHIBITIONS TANDEM GALLERY 20 North Mitchell St., Bakersville • Through TH (8/31) Exhibition of ceramic art by Noel Bailey.

AMERICAN FOLK ART AND FRAMING 64 Biltmore Ave., 828-2812134, amerifolk.com • Through WE (8/23) - 2017 Coming Home, group exhibition of folk art.

ART AT MARS HILL UNIVERSITY mhu.edu • WE (8/23) through FR (9/22) - Fluent: 25 Years of Painting, Drawings, and Album Covers, exhibition of the art of Daniel Nevins.

Reception: Wednesday, Aug. 30, 6-8pm. Held at Mars Hill University, Weizenblatt Gallery, 79 Cascade St., Mars Hill ART AT UNCA art.unca.edu • Through SA (9/9) - The Holocaust-Era GrossBreesen Farm for Jewish Youth, multimedia exhibition. Reception: Saturday, Sept. 9, 3-5pm. Held at UNC Asheville - Ramsey Library, 1 University Heights • FR (8/25) through FR (9/22) - Exhibition of the work of Adam Cable.

Reception: Friday, Aug. 25, 6-8pm. Held at UNC Asheville - Owen Hall, 1 University Heights, • FR (8/25) through FR (9/22) - UNC Asheville faculty art exhibition.

Reception: Friday, Aug. 25, 6-8pm. Held at UNC Asheville - Owen Hall, 1 University Heights

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AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

MOUNTAINX.COM

ART AT WCU 828-227-2787, bardoartscenter.wcu.edu • Through FR (12/8) - Return from Exile: Contemporary Southeastern Indian Art, exhibition. Reception: Friday, Nov. 10, 5-7pm.

Held at The WCU Bardo Arts Center, 199 Centennial Drive ASHEVILLE GALLERY OF ART 82 Patton Ave., 828-2515796, ashevillegallery-of-art.com • Through TH (8/31) - True Colors, paintings of Anne Bonnyman and Jane Snyder.

CALDWELL ARTS COUNCIL 601 College Ave SW, Lenoir, 828-754-2486 • Through SA (9/30) Modern Traditions, group exhibition of furniture, paintings and photography.

GALLERY 1 604 W. Main St., Sylva • Through TH (8/24) - Smoky Mountain Showcase, exhibition of works from 18 artists from Jackson and Swain counties.

HABITAT TAVERN & COMMONS 174 Broadway St., habitatbrewing.com • Through TH (8/31) Exhibition of works by Victor Palomino.

MORA CONTEMPORARY JEWELRY 9 Walnut St., 828-575-2294, moracollection.com • Through TH (8/31) Exhibition of the jewelry of Emily Rogstad.

ODYSSEY COOPERATIVE ART GALLERY 238 Clingman Ave., 828285-9700, facebook.com/ odysseycoopgallery • Through TH (8/31) Exhibition of ceramic art by Trish Salmon, Denise Baker and other gallery members.

PENLAND SCHOOL OF CRAFTS 67 Doras Trail Bakersville, 828-765-2359, penland.org • Through (9/17) - Parched | Inverted Landscapes, exhibition of work by Susan Goethel Campbell.

PINK DOG CREATIVE 348 Depot St., pinkdog-creative.com • Through SA (9/30) Impossible Interior Babel, exhibition of paintings by Jeremy Phillips.

PUBLIC EVENTS AT A-B TECH 828-398-7900, abtech.edu • Through TU (9/5) Exhibition of Ann Vasilik watercolors. Held at A-B Tech Conference Center, 16 Fernihurst Drive RURAL HERITAGE MUSEUM AT MARS HILL 100 Athletic St., Mars Hill, 828-689-1304 • Through SU (3/4) - The Civil War In the Southern Highlands: A Human Perspective, multi-media exhibition showing original letters and newly-discovered documents.

SEVEN SISTERS GALLERY 117 Cherry St., Black Mountain, 828-669-5107, sevensistersgallery.com • Through SU (10/29) Exhibtion of oil paintings by Joyce Shlapkohl.

SWELL SALON 9 W. Walnut St., Unit 2

• SU (8/27) through SA (9/30) - Exhibition of the art of Tessa Lang. Reception: Sunday, Aug. 27, 4-6pm.

TRACEY MORGAN GALLERY 188 Coxe Ave., TraceyMorganGallery.com • Through SA (9/24) Transplants, group exhibition featuring painting, photography and sculptural installation.

TRANSYLVANIA COMMUNITY ARTS COUNCIL 349 S. Caldwell St., Brevard, 828-884-2787, tcarts.org • Through FR (9/15) Through the Needle’s Eye 2017, The Embroiderers' Guild of America national touring exhibition.

TRYON ARTS AND CRAFTS SCHOOL 373 Harmon Field Road, Tryon, 828-859-8323 • Through FR (9/1) - The Shore Show, group exhibition.

YANCEY COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 321 School Circle Burnsville, 828-682-2600 • Through SA (9/9) BRAGging Rights, Blue Ridge Fine Arts Guild exhibition.

ZAPOW! 150 Coxe Ave., Suite 101, 828-575-2024, zapow.net • Through SA (9/2) - Attack of the Cult Movies, group exhibition.

Contact the galleries for admission hours and fees

CLUBLAND

Where The Blue Ridge Mountains Meet the Celtic Isles

MONDAYS Quizzo – Brainy Trivia • 7:30pm Open Mic Night • 9pm WEDNESDAYS Asheville’s Original Old Time Mountain Music Jam • 5pm

NEW BEGINNINGS: There’s nothing like turning a new page on life to make one ruminate on the past. For the Austin, Texas-based Fairbanks & the Lonesome Light, principal songwriter Erik Flores’ newly-found sobriety and fatherhood inspired a look back at the past tribulations of excess on the group’s latest album, Nothing To Escape. These tales weave through a melodic country soundscape, evoking the likes of EmmyLou Harris and Gram Parsons. Check out Fairbanks & the Lonesome Light when they swing through the Town Pump in Black Mountain on Tuesday, Aug. 29 for a 9 p.m. show. Photo by Barbara Frigiere.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23 185 KING STREET Vinyl Night, 6:00PM 5 WALNUT WINE BAR Les Amis (African folk), 8:00PM 550 TAVERN & GRILLE Karaoke, 8:00PM ALTAMONT THEATRE The Brook & The Bluff w/ Armadilla (indie rock), 8:00PM ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Hank Bones or Kon Tiki, 7:30PM BARLEY'S TAPROOM & PIZZERIA Dr. Brown's Team Trivia, 8:30PM BEN'S TUNE-UP Pierce Edens (blues, Appalachian folk), 7:00PM BLUE MOUNTAIN PIZZA & BREW PUB Open Mic w/ Mark Bumgarner, 7:00PM BURGER BAR Double Trouble Karaoke w/ Dee & Quinn, All day CATAWBA BREWING SOUTH SLOPE Asheville Commercial Solarize Solar Launch Party w/ Ben Phan, 5:00PM CORK & KEG 3 Cool Cats (dance party, vintage rock 'n' roll), 7:30PM

CREPE BOURREE Gypsy Duets, 7:00PM DOUBLE CROWN Western Wednesday w/ Jessie & The Jacksons, 8:00PM Classic Country Vinyl w/ DJ David Wayne Gay, 10:00PM GOOD STUFF Jim Hampton & friends perform "Eclectic Country" (jam), 7:00PM GREY EAGLE MUSIC HALL & TAVERN Strange Avenues album release w/ Fashion Bath & Slumber Drones (rock), 8:00PM HIGHLAND BREWING COMPANY Woody Wood Wednesdays (rock, soul, funk), 5:30PM ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 The Tim Grimm Band, 7:00PM JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Old-time session, 5:00PM LAZY DIAMOND Killer Karaoke w/ KJ Tim O, 10:00PM LOBSTER TRAP Cigar Brothers, 6:30PM MG ROAD Salsa Night w/ DJ Mexicano Isaac, 7:00PM

NOBLE KAVA Open mic w/ Caleb Beissert (7:30 sign-up), 8:00PM

THE MOTHLIGHT Durand Jones & The Indications w/ Sister Ivy (soul, R&B), 9:30PM

ODDITORIUM Starbenders w/ The Velvet Wolves & The Shrunken Heads (rock), 9:00PM

WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN The Asheville Art Trio (jazz), 7:30PM

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Evil Note Lab, 10:00PM

WILD WING CAFE Jordan Okrend (acoustic), 7:00PM Jeff & Justin (acoustic), 9:00PM

ONE WORLD BREWING Harry Scotchie Experience (blues, Americana, roots), 9:00PM ORANGE PEEL Portugal. The Man w/ The Dig [SOLD OUT], 8:00PM PISGAH BREWING COMPANY Bradley Carter, 6:00PM POST 25 Albi & The Lifters (American swing, French chanson), 7:00PM

WILD WING CAFE SOUTH J Luke (acoustic), 6:30PM

THURSDAY, AUGUST 24 185 KING STREET Whetherman & The Moonshine Babies, 8:00PM

POUR TAPROOM Music Bingo!, 7:00PM

5 WALNUT WINE BAR Pleasure Chest (blues, rock, soul), 8:00PM

SALVAGE STATION RnB Wednesday Jam Night w/ Ryan RnB Barber & friends, 8:00PM

ALTAMONT THEATRE Grateful Asheville Music Experience (Grateful Dead tribute), 8:00PM

SANCTUARY BREWING COMPANY Karaoke, 7:00PM

ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Will Ray & The Space Cooties, 7:30PM

THE BLOCK OFF BILTMORE Indivisible Asheville, 5:30PM

BARLEY'S TAPROOM & PIZZERIA Alien Music Club (live jazz), 9:00PM

THURSDAYS Mountain Feist • 7pm Bluegrass Jam • 9:30pm Bourbon Specials

BUFFALOES FRI FLYING HONKY TONK / ROCK & ROLL 8/25 9PM / $5

8/23: BINGO 6:30 PM 8/24: $1 OFF FULL POURS 8/26: N IKKI T ALLEY 8-10 PM F REE S HOW !

8/27: F LOW Y OGA + C IDER 12:30 PM

SHANE PRUITT BAND SAT GOSPEL, 8/26 9PM / $5BLUES, ROCK & ROLL WESTERN SWING TUE w/ TEXAS T & THE 8/29 TUMBLEWEEDS 7 PM / FREE

FRI BULL MOOSE PARTY 9/1 9BLUEGRASS PM / $5 SAT IAN HARROD’S LOVE BAND 9/2 9BOMB PM / $5

ISLAND VIBES w/ DJ ROY Every Sunday

39 S. Market St.

●

●

10:30pm

theblockoffbiltmore.com

IRISH SUNDAYS Irish Food and Drink Specials Traditional Irish Music Session • 3-9pm OPEN MON-THURS AT 3 • FRI-SUN AT NOON CRAFT BEER, SPIRITS & QUALITY PUB FARE SINCE 1996

95 PATTON at COXE • Downtown Asheville

252.5445 • jackofthewood.com

MOUNTAINX.COM

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

53

OPEN MIC

C LUBLAND

NIGHT EVERY MONDAY 7PM

Historic Live Music Venue Located At

Saturday• Aug 26th BaconFest feat.

Caleb Johnson 1pm

Check website for tickets

SAT SUN TUE

Friday • Aug 25th POW! Triple IPA Release 12-10pm

WED

this week only

FRI

THU

WED

185 CLINGMAN AVE • ASHEVILLE

Sunday• Aug 27th John Butler Trio w/ J.S. Ondara

8/23 STRANGE AVENUES 8/24 DR. DYNAMITE ASHEVILLE ALBUM RELEASE SHOW

w/ Fashion Bath, Slumber Drones

w/ Cult of Kings

8/25 RBTS WIN (LP RELEASE SHOW) w/ Marley Carroll, Erick Lottary, DJ Kutzu

8/26 DEEP RIVER

10th Anniversary Show: Benefiting Asheville Humane Society

8/27 8/29 8/30

ZUZU WELSH BAND + 28 PAGES HARDCASTLE, ESTUARIE, THE WORMHOLES

THE GODDAMN GALLOWS w/ Skunk Ruckus

TAQUERIA

BEN'S TUNE-UP Savannah Smith & The Southern Soul (country, roots, soul), 8:00PM

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Bluegrass Open Jam Session, 7:00PM

BLACK MOUNTAIN ALE HOUSE Bluegrass Jam w/ The Big Deal Band, 8:00PM

LAZY DIAMOND Heavy Night w/ DJ Butch, 10:00PM

BURGER BAR Burger Bar Boogaloo!, All day

OPEN AT 11AM DAILY

ODDITORIUM Jeff The Brotherhood w/ Daddy Issues & The Cannonball Jars (rock), 9:00PM

BYWATER Well Lit Strangers, 6:00PM

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT

HARVEST RECORDS + THEGREYEAGLE.COM

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Mitch's Totally Rad Trivia, 6:30PM LaGoons (jam, rock), 10:00PM

CREEKSIDE TAPHOUSE Reggae Thursdays w/ Station Underground (reggae, rock, jam), 8:00PM

COMING SOON 8/31: JJ Lawhorn w/ Eric Congdon

9/01: The Stump Mutts (Album Release Show) w/ Mike Live, Hard Rocket

CROW & QUILL Carolina Catskins (ragtime, jazz), 9:00PM

9/02: An Evening with Mike Farris & The Roseland Rhythm Revue

DOUBLE CROWN Sonic Satan Stew w/ DJ Alien Brain, 10:00PM

9/03: Roky Erickson w/ Death Valley Girls

FOGGY MOUNTAIN BREWPUB Purple (funk, jazz), 9:00PM

eVery week Roots & Friends Open Jam: 6:30-9:00pm

extended hours Monday-Thursday 3-9pm Friday-Saturday 12-10pm Sunday 12-6pm

PISGAH BREWING COMPANY Citizen Mojo, 8:00PM POUR TAPROOM Tunes at the Taps w/ Jordan Okrend, 7:00PM PURPLE ONION CAFE Wayne Banks Trio, 7:30PM

HABITAT TAVERN & COMMONS Improv Jam, 7:30PM HIGHLAND BREWING COMPANY East Side Social Ride, 6:00PM Roots & friends open jam (blues, rock, roots), 7:00PM

12 Old Charlotte Hwy. Suite 200 Asheville, NC 28803 828-299-3370

ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 An evening w/ The Danberrys, 7:00PM Triptych Soul & Brother Oliver, 9:00PM

highlandbrewing.com

THIS WEEK AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL

ORANGE PEEL Jon Reep (comedy, night 1), 7:00PM

PACK'S TAVERN Marc Keller (acoustic rock), 8:00PM

GREY EAGLE MUSIC HALL & TAVERN Dave Desmelik (Americana, singersongwriter, folk), 6:00PM Dr. Dynamite w/ Cult of Kings (hip hop, rock, funk), 9:00PM

Thursdays:

ONE WORLD BREWING James Delanoye (singersongwriter), 9:00PM

OSKAR BLUES BREWERY Darby Wilcox & the Peep Show (country), 6:00PM

FRENCH BROAD BREWERY You Knew Me When (indie, rock), 6:00PM

Doors-5:30pm, Show- 6:30pm

LOBSTER TRAP Hank Bones, 6:30PM

SALVAGE STATION Luke Pell, 8:00PM SANCTUARY BREWING COMPANY James Plunkett, 7:00PM SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Vinyl Night, 6:30PM THE AC LOUNGE The AC Lounge w/ Stevie Lee Combs, 8:00PM

THIS WEEK AT THE ONE STOP:

THU 8/24 10pm LaGoons [Jam/Rock] FRI 8/25 10pm Phat Lip [Latin/Pop Fusion] SAT 8/26 10am Station Underground [Reggae] UPCOMING SHOWS - ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL:

9/1

THE BROOMESTIX FRI 8/25 – 9 pm

$5 Suggested Donation 54

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

MOUNTAINX.COM

SUMMER DANCE PARTY

w/ DJ AVX SAT 8/26 – 10 pm – $5 Suggested Donation

9/2 9/8 9/9

BEAT LIFE: Mobley, Professor Toon, Raj Mahal & Vietnam Jerry Lose Yourself to Dance w/ DJ Marley Carroll Cabinet Psylo Joe

Tickets available at ashevillemusichall.com @avlmusichall

@onestopasheville

THE BLOCK OFF BILTMORE Service Industry Night, 11:00PM THE BILTMORE ESTATE REO Speedwagon, 7:30PM THE FAIRVIEW TAVERN Live Band Karaoke & Open Jam w/ Old School, 9:00PM

BOILER ROOM Rebirth (EDM), 10:00PM

CATAWBA BREWING SOUTH SLOPE Shiloh Hill, 7:00PM

CORK & KEG One Leg Up (Gypsy jazz, Latin, swing), 8:30PM

TOWN PUMP The Botanicals, 9:00PM

CROW & QUILL Low Down Sires (swing jazz), 9:00PM

WEDGE BREWING CO. Pint Night w/ Salamanders in the Smokies, 6:00PM WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN Violet Bell, 7:30PM WILD WING CAFE SOUTH Darren Nicholson (bluegrass, Americana), 6:00PM WXYZ LOUNGE AT ALOFT HOTEL WXYZ unplugged w/ Ashley Heath, 8:00PM

FRIDAY, AUGUST 25 185 KING STREET Tony Eltora (blues, rock, jazz), 8:00PM 5 WALNUT WINE BAR The Gypsy Swingers (gypsy jazz), 9:00PM 550 TAVERN & GRILLE Fine Line, 9:00PM ALTAMONT THEATRE An intimate evening of songs & stories w/ John Berry, 7:00PM ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Brad Hodge & Friends, 7:30PM ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL The Broomestix, 9:00PM BEARWATERS BREWING COMPANY Nick Dittmeier & the Sawdusters (alt. country), 7:00PM BEN'S TUNE-UP Live Mashup w/ Iggy Radio, 6:00PM DJ Kilby (vinyl set), 10:00PM BLUE MOUNTAIN PIZZA & BREW PUB Gene Holdway, 7:00PM

w/ sister ivy

8/24

thu

COMING SOON wed 8/23

8/25

fri

5-9PM–all You can eat snow crab legs 6:30-9PM–Music on the Patio (free)

8/26

CLUB ELEVEN ON GROVE Hot Bachata Nights, 9:30PM

THE MOTHLIGHT Tidal Eclipse w/ The Deep End Improv Comedy, 7:00PM

UPCOUNTRY BREWING COMPANY Free Wheeling Mamas, 6:30PM

8/23 wed durand jones & the indications

BURGER BAR Burger Bar Bike Night, All day

DOUBLE CROWN Rock & Soul Obscurities w/ DJ Greg Cartwright, 10:00PM FOGGY MOUNTAIN BREWPUB Naked Scholar (funk, jazz), 10:00PM FRENCH BROAD BREWERY Alarm Clock Conspiracy (indie, pop), 6:00PM FRENCH BROAD OUTFITTERS HOMINY CREEK The Dirty Dead (Grateful Dead tribute), 8:00PM GOOD STUFF Brandon Quinn, 8:00PM GREY EAGLE MUSIC HALL & TAVERN RBTS WIN LP release w/ Marley Carroll, Erick Lottary & DJ Kutzu (dance, electronic), 9:00PM HIGHLAND BREWING COMPANY Sanctum Sully (rock, bluegrass, funk), 7:00PM ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 Purple, 6:30PM Annie Sellick Jazz Quartet, 7:00PM An evening w/ Jackie Venson, 9:00PM JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Flying Buffaloes (country, rock 'n' roll), 9:00PM LAZOOM BUS TOURS Sufi Bros. (honky-tonk), 5:30PM LAZY DIAMOND Rotating rpm rock 'n' soul DJ, 10:00PM LOBSTER TRAP Calico Moon, 6:30PM MOE'S ORIGINAL BBQ WOODFIN Nikki Tally, 6:30PM NOBLE KAVA Noble Pursuits w/ Jason Moore, 9:00PM

tidal eclipse 2017

7:00PM–the danberrYs 9:00PM–triPtYch soul &

brother oliver

fri 8/25 6:30-9PM- isis lawn series: PurPle 7PM–annie sellick jazz quartet 9:00PM–jackie venson w/ Marcel anton oPening sat 8/26 7PM– Michael reno harrell 9PM–foul Mouth jerk albuM release sun 8/27 5:30PM– hadleY kennarY &

plankeye peggy

w/ fable cry sat

7:00PM–the tiM griMM band thu 8/24 7-9PM–Music on the Patio (free)

the deep end improv comedy presents:

hex iii:

a benefit for justice for all people (jfap)

8/28 mon

the spiral

free!

w/social circle, armadilla

8/29

tue

celia verbeck

w/ the we4pon, morel atmosphere

Yoga at the Mothlight

Tuesdays and Thursdays- 11:30am Details for all shows can be found at

themothlight.com

elisabeth beckwitt

tue 8/29 7:30PM–tuesdaY bluegrass sessions wed 8/30 5-9PM–all You can eat snow crab legs 6:30-9PM–Music on the Patio (free)

7:00PM–saul zonana

thu 8/31 – 7-9PM Music on the Patio (free)

7:00PM–cindY alexander sat 9/02

7:00PM–Midnight PlowboYs 9:00PM–anna christie &

the saPPhires with david earl sun 9/03 9:00PM– a tribute to

the buddY rich big band w/ rick dilling and tiMe check ISISASHEVILLE.COM DINNER MENU TIL 9:30PM LATE NIGHT MENU TIL 12AM

TUES-SUN 5PM-until 743 HAYWOOD RD 828-575-2737

MOUNTAINX.COM

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

55

C LUBLAND

2017

TAVERN Downtown on the Park Eclectic Menu • Over 30 Taps • Patio 14 TV’s • Sports Room • 110” Projector Event Space • Shuffleboard Open 7 Days 11am - Late Night

day Af Sun al Fu ternoon Tunes with nction i c o U pm AS nplugged – 4:30

needs

Business Partners

THU. 8/24 Marc Keller (acoustic rock)

FRI. 8/25

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Free Dead Friday w/ members of Phuncle Sam, 5:30PM Phat Lip, 10:00PM ORANGE PEEL Jon Reep (comedy, night 2), 10:00PM OSKAR BLUES BREWERY Tina Collins (Appalachian folk), 6:00PM PACK'S TAVERN DJ MoTo (dance hits, pop), 9:30PM

DJ MoTo

( dance hits, pop)

PISGAH BREWING COMPANY Jam In The Trees Day 1 w/ Larry Keel, Underhill Rose & more, 8:00PM

SAT. 8/26 The Groove Shakers ( rock ‘n roll, bluegrass)

20 S. Spruce St. • 225.6944 packStavern.com

ODDITORIUM Zin Vetro w/ Dirty Panty Tourniquet (glam rock), 9:00PM

SALVAGE STATION Runaway Gin (Phish tribute), 9:00PM

Contact givelocal@mountainx.com to get involved

SANCTUARY BREWING COMPANY Berlyn Trio, 8:00PM SCANDALS NIGHTCLUB Studs of Steel, 7:00PM SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BREWERY United Way Campaign Kick Off w/ The Carburetors, 7:00PM THE AC LOUNGE The AC Lounge w/ DJ Phantom Pantone, 8:00PM THE BLOCK OFF BILTMORE Unite! Open Mic Night, 7:00PM Late Night Party w/ DJ Kent Scott, 11:00PM THE MOTHLIGHT Plankeye Peggy w/ Fable Cry (pirate rock), 9:30PM TOWN PUMP Shaken Nature, 9:00PM TRESSA'S DOWNTOWN JAZZ AND BLUES Nancy & Jim Simmons (live music), 7:00PM Cititzen Mojo (live music), 10:00PM UPCOUNTRY BREWING COMPANY Comedy Night Showcase, 8:00PM WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN The Bill Mattocks Band, 8:00PM WILD WING CAFE Iggy Radio (acoustic), 9:00PM WILD WING CAFE SOUTH A Social Function (acoustic), 9:00PM

56

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

MOUNTAINX.COM

WXYZ LOUNGE AT ALOFT HOTEL WXYZ electric w/ DJ Capt EZ, 8:00PM

SATURDAY, AUGUST 26 5 WALNUT WINE BAR Chuck Lichtenberger Collective (jazz, funk, rock), 9:00PM 550 TAVERN & GRILLE Daddy Rabbit, 9:00PM ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Closed for Private Party, All day ASHEVILLE MASONIC TEMPLE Abraham Jam, 8:00PM ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Saturday Summertime Dance Party w/ DJ Avx, 10:00PM BEN'S TUNE-UP Gypsy Jam, 3:00PM Ryan "RnB" Barber, 9:00PM BLACK MOUNTAIN ALE HOUSE Cynthia McDermott (solo swing mandolin), 7:30PM BLUE MOUNTAIN PIZZA & BREW PUB Billy Litz (Americana, roots, ragtime), 7:00PM BOILER ROOM Dance Party & Drag Show, 10:00PM BURGER BAR AshevilleFM DJ Night, All day CATAWBA BREWING TASTING ROOM Riverkeeper Clean Up & Beer Release, 1:00PM CITY OF MORGANTON MUNICIPAL AUDITORIUM Benton Blount, 7:30PM CORK & KEG Jesse Barry Trio (soul), 8:30PM CROW & QUILL Momma Molasses (dreamy folk), 9:00PM DIANA WORTHAM THEATRE Moscow Meets Manhattan: dueling pianos, 7:30PM DOUBLE CROWN Pitter Platter, 50s/60s R&B + RnR w/ DJ Big Smidge, 10:00PM FOGGY MOUNTAIN BREWPUB Scoundrel's Lounge (blues, soul), 10:00PM FRENCH BROAD BREWERY Chicken Coop Willaye Trio (Appalachian roots), 6:00PM

LIVE MUSIC FRIDAY & SATURDAY NIGHT NO COVER CHARGE FROG LEVEL BREWERY Bend & Brew, 11:00AM GOOD STUFF Derek Lane (multi-instrumentalist), 8:00PM GREY EAGLE MUSIC HALL & TAVERN Deep River 10th anniversary show (benefit for Asheville Humane Society), 8:00PM HABITAT TAVERN & COMMONS Saturday Improv, 9:00PM Dance Party w/ DJ Minori Hinds, 10:00PM HIGHLAND BREWING COMPANY Baconfest w/ Caleb Johnson, 1:00PM ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 An evening w/ Michael Reno Harrell, 7:00PM Foul Mouth Jerk album release (hip hop), 9:00PM JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Shane Pruitt Band (gospel, blues, rock 'n' roll), 9:00PM LAZOOM BUS TOURS The Burger Kings (rock n' roll), 5:30PM LAZY DIAMOND Jack Oblivian & The Sheiks w/ Greg Cartwright (rock n' roll), 10:00PM LOBSTER TRAP Sean Mason Trio, 6:30PM MG ROAD Late Night Dance Parties w/ DJ Lil Meow Meow, 10:00PM MOE'S ORIGINAL BBQ WOODFIN Dave Desmelik, 6:30PM NANTAHALA BREWING COMPANY Nick Dittmeier & the Sawdusters (alt. country), 8:00PM NOBLE KAVA Cigarette Umbrella, 9:00PM ODDITORIUM Blitch w/ Aesoterra, The Styrofoam Turtles & Tombstone Hwy (rock), 9:00PM ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Station Underground, 10:00PM ORANGE PEEL Rumours (Fleetwood Mac tribute), 9:00PM OSKAR BLUES BREWERY Mitch Hayes (rock), 6:00PM PACK SQUARE PARK Shindig on the Green, 7:00PM

PACK'S TAVERN The Groove Shakers (rock 'n roll, bluegrass), 9:30PM PISGAH BREWING COMPANY Jam In The Trees Day 2 w/ The Infamous Stringdusters, Acoustic Syndicate, Peter Rowan & more, 12:00PM PURPLE ONION CAFE Gary Segal & The Blue Sunday Band, 7:30PM SALVAGE STATION Sweat & Soul (community bootcamp, yoga), 10:30AM RiverFest w/ The Get Right Band, Ben Phan & The Soul Symphony and The Greenliners, 1:00PM Phuncle Sam, 9:00PM

THURSDAY

MONDAY

THIRSTY THURSDAY

65¢ WINGS

ALL DRAFTS $3

FRIDAY

TUESDAY

AUGUST 25

MOUNTAIN SHAG

FINE LINE

SATURDAY

WEDNESDAY

AUGUST 26

KARAOKE W/ DJ DO IT

DADDY RABBIT

FULL MENU — 15 TAPS OPEN WEEKDAYS 4 PM OPEN FOR LUNCH, FRI-SUN NOON Located Next to Clarion Inn — 550 Airport Road Fletcher — 550tavern.com — www.facebook.com/550TavernGrille

SANCTUARY BREWING COMPANY Yoga, 10:00AM Animal Boogie, 6:00PM SIERRA NEVADA BREWING CO. Sierra Nevada AfterNooner Series, 2:00PM THE BLOCK OFF BILTMORE 2umbao Salsa Lesson, 9:30PM DJ Malinalli's Latin Rythms & Saturday Salsa Dance, 10:30PM THE BILTMORE ESTATE Goo Goo Dolls: Long Way Home Summer Tour 2017 w/ Phillip Phillips, 7:30PM THE GREENHOUSE MOTO CAFE Updog, 7:00PM THE MOTHLIGHT HEX III w/ DJ Ganymede, DJ Mallinali & DJ Scousy (benefit for Justice For All People), 9:30PM THE SUMMIT AT NEW MOUNTAIN AVL Honky Tonk Nights (live music & DJ), 10:00PM TOWN PUMP Joy on Fire, 9:00PM TRESSA'S DOWNTOWN JAZZ AND BLUES The King Zeros (blues), 7:30PM The Jordan Okrend Experience (dance, live music), 10:00PM UPCOUNTRY BREWING COMPANY Groove Arcade, 9:00PM WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN Abby The Spoon Lady & the Fly By Night Rounders, 8:00PM WILD WING CAFE SOUTH Gentlemen & Liars (unplugged), 9:00PM

Living Asheville Arts Festival Local Music, Local Arts & Local Living Come celebrate Asheville’s Creative Culture

September 3, 2017 11AM - 9PM on Lexington Avenue MOUNTAINX.COM

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

57

CLU B LA N D WXYZ LOUNGE AT ALOFT HOTEL WXYZ live w/ Circus Mutt, 8:00PM

SUNDAY, AUGUST 27 185 KING STREET Sunday Sessions Open Jam, 4:00PM 5 WALNUT WINE BAR Purple (funk, jazz), 7:00PM ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Musicians Jam & Pot Luck, 3:30PM BEN'S TUNE-UP Good Vibes w/ Oso REy (old school reggae), 3:30PM Good Vibes w/ The Dub Kartel, 7:00PM BLACK MOUNTAIN ALE HOUSE Sunday Jazz Brunch, 11:00AM BLUE MOUNTAIN PIZZA & BREW PUB Mark Bumgarner (Americana), 7:00PM BURGER BAR Push Presents: Skate Cinema, All day DOUBLE CROWN Killer Karaoke w/ KJ Tim O, 10:00PM

Free Live Music THU - 8/24 • 6:30PM FREE WHEELING MAMA’S (FOLK)

FRI - 8/25 • 8PM COMEDY SHOWCASE (COMEDY)

SAT - 8/26 • 9PM GROVE ARCADE (FUNK, DANCE)

FLOOD GALLERY FINE ART CENTER True Home Open Mic Night (music, poetry, comedy), 5:00PM GREY EAGLE MUSIC HALL & TAVERN Zuzu Welsh Band w/ 28 Pages (rock, blues, Americana), 7:00PM HABITAT TAVERN & COMMONS A Taste of Soul Brunch, 12:00PM

828.575.2400 UPCOUNTRYBREWING.COM

58

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

MOUNTAINX.COM

#headupcountry

PISGAH BREWING COMPANY Sunday Paper Crowns Jam, 6:00PM SALVAGE STATION Alex Krug Combo, 7:00PM Open Mic Night w/ The Wet Doorknobs, 7:00PM SANCTUARY BREWING COMPANY Ben Phan (singer-songwriter), 6:00PM SIERRA NEVADA BREWING CO. Employee Appreciation Event [CLOSED], All day THE BLOCK OFF BILTMORE WNC Solidarity Concert Series w/ Jason DeCristofaro, Ryan Barber & friends and Drayton Aldridge (benefit), 3:00PM Milango Asheville w/ Blue Spiral Tango, 7:00PM Sunday Island Vibes w/ DJ Roy & Leg Cash (roots, reggae), 10:00PM WICKED WEED BREWING Summer Concert Series w/ Brushfire Stankgrass, 4:00PM

MONDAY, AUGUST 28 5 WALNUT WINE BAR Siamese Jazz Club (R&B, soul, jazz), 8:00PM ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Classical Guitar Mondays, 7:30PM ASHEVILLE PIZZA & BREWING CO. Equal Means Equal (film screening), 6:30PM

ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 An evening w/ Hadley Kennary & Elisabeth Beckwitt, 5:30PM

BEN'S TUNE-UP Twelve Olympians (electronic jam), 7:00PM

LAZY DIAMOND Pabst Sabbath w/ DJ Chubberbird, 10:00PM LOBSTER TRAP Cigar Brothers, 6:30PM

ODDITORIUM Vile Desecration w/ Gnarl Scar & Rites To Sedition (metal), 9:00PM

1042 HAYWOOD RD. ASHEVILLE, NC 28806

OSKAR BLUES BREWERY Nick Dittmeier & the Sawdusters (alt. country), 3:00PM

HIGHLAND BREWING COMPANY Reggae Sunday w/ Dennis "Chalwa" Berndt, 1:00PM

LUELLA'S BAR-B-QUE BILTMORE PARK Gypsy Jazz Brunch w/ Leo Johnson, 1:00PM

OPEN DAILY 11:30AM UNTIL MIDNIGHT

ORANGE PEEL CODA w/ Empyrean Arts & Studio Zahiya (aerial arts, dance), 5:30PM

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Bluegrass Brunch, 10:30AM

DOUBLE CROWN Country Karaoke w/ KJ Tim O, 10:00PM GOOD STUFF Songwriter's "open mic", 7:30PM

LOBSTER TRAP Bobby Miller and friends, 6:30PM MG ROAD The Living Room (live music), 8:30PM ODDITORIUM Risque Monday Burlesque w/ Deb Au Nare, 9:00PM OSKAR BLUES BREWERY Mountain Music Mondays (open jam), 6:00PM POUR TAPROOM Lowlight Monday Nights w/ Quetzal Jordan Duo, 7:00PM THE BLOCK OFF BILTMORE Meet & Greet Candidate: Vijay Gupta, 5:00PM Vegan Awareness Week Kickoff, 6:00PM THE IMPERIAL LIFE Ghost Pipe Trio, 9:00PM THE MOTHLIGHT The Spiral w/ Social Circle & Armadilla, 9:00PM UPCOUNTRY BREWING COMPANY Old Time Music Open Jam, 6:30PM

TUESDAY, AUGUST 29 5 WALNUT WINE BAR The John Henrys (hot jazz), 8:00PM 550 TAVERN & GRILLE Shag night, 6:00PM ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Gypsy Jazz Jam Tuesdays, 7:30PM ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Tuesday night funk jam, 11:00PM BEN'S TUNE-UP Summer soul series w/ Juan Holladay & friends, 6:00PM Lyric, 8:00PM BLACK MOUNTAIN ALE HOUSE Trivia, 7:30PM BLUE MOUNTAIN PIZZA & BREW PUB Matt Sellars, 7:00PM BURGER BAR Tonkin' Tuesdays, All day

GREY EAGLE MUSIC HALL & TAVERN Open mic night (music & comedy), 6:00PM

DOUBLE CROWN Country Western & Cajun Rarities w/ DJ Brody Hunt, 10:00PM

HABITAT TAVERN & COMMONS Common Table, 6:30AM

GOOD STUFF Old time-y night, 6:30PM

HIGHLAND BREWING COMPANY Game Night, 4:00PM

GREY EAGLE MUSIC HALL & TAVERN Hardcastle w/ Estuarie & The Wormholes, 8:00PM

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Quizzo Trivia Night, 7:00PM

HABITAT TAVERN & COMMONS Qi Gong, 10:30AM

HIGHLAND BREWING COMPANY Adventures on the MST: An evening w/ Jennifer Pharr Davis, 6:00PM Dr. Brown's Team Trivia, 6:00PM ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 Tuesday bluegrass sessions w/ Stig & friends, 7:30PM LAZY DIAMOND Heavy Metal Karaoke w/ KJ Tim O, 10:00PM LOBSTER TRAP Jay Brown, 6:30PM MG ROAD Keep It Classic Tuesdays w/ Sam Thompson, 5:00PM ODDITORIUM Open Mic Comedy Night w/ Tom Peters, 9:00PM ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Turntable Tuesday, 10:00PM OSKAR BLUES BREWERY Evan Taylor Jones (R&B, soul), 6:00PM SALVAGE STATION Fin Dog, 9:00PM SANCTUARY BREWING COMPANY Taco and Trivia Tuesday, 6:00PM THE BLOCK OFF BILTMORE Swing Asheville & Jazzn-Justice Tuesday w/ Joshua Fialkoff Quartet (dance lessons @ 7 p.m. & 8 p.m.), 9:00PM Swing Asheville's Latenight Vintage Blues Dance, 11:00PM THE MARKET PLACE RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE Bob Zullo, 6:30PM THE MOTHLIGHT Celia Verbeck w/ The We4pon & Morel Atmosphere (pop, synth, experimental), 9:30PM TOWN PUMP Fairbanks & the Lonesome Light, 9:00PM UPCOUNTRY BREWING COMPANY Open Mic w/ Chris O'Neill, 6:30PM WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN Irish sessions & open mic, 6:30PM WILD WING CAFE SOUTH Buncombe Turnpike (bluegrass), 6:00PM

MOVIES

REVIEWS & LISTINGS

BY SCOTT DOUGLAS, FRANCIS X FRIEL & JUSTIN SOUTHER

HHHHH = H PICK OF THE WEEK H

Kyle Mooney and Mark Hamill find the heart of dorkness in bizarre meditation on obsessive fandom Brigsby Bear.

Brigsby Bear HHHHS DIRECTOR: Dave McCarey PLAYERS: Kyle Mooney, Greg Kinnear, Matt Walsh, Michaela Watkins, Mark Hamill, Ryan Simpkins, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Claire Danes, Jane Adams, Kate Lyn Sheil, Alexa Demie, Beck Bennett, Andy Samberg COMEDY DRAMA RATED PG-13 THE STORY: An adult fixated on a TV show from his sheltered childhood tries to finish the story of his hero when the series comes to an abrupt end.

THE LOWDOWN: A heartfelt indie dramedy that speaks to the nature and potential purpose of rabid fandom, perfectly suited to geek-culture obsessives.

It would be all too easy to dismiss Brigsby Bear as an exercise in indie dramedy clichés, a millennial melodrama rendered nigh-uncriticizable by its heavy inflection of hipster irony. Such an assessment would not be entirely off-base, but it would be missing the

point — a point driven by the nostalgia-tinged escapism motivating not only its central character, but its creators as well. Brigsby is quintessential Sundance fodder, but it’s also more sincere than that description might imply.

Rather than quirk for quirk’s sake, star Kyle Mooney and director Dave McCarey are utilizing the lens of obsessive fandom that’s so thoroughly defined the internet era of pop cultural overconsumption to examine the nature and purpose of creativity itself.

Depicting filmmakers in particular as would-be adults beholden to a state of perpetual arrested development both facilitated and justified by their art, the SNL veterans and former YouTube sketch comedy impresarios are espousing an interesting, if occasionally reductive, perspective on the very purpose of narrative cinema to those who create it — a lofty goal for a film about an animatronic bear at the center of a lowbudget space opera.

There’s a significant plot twist very early in the film, and the next para-

graph will entail some spoilers. I would highly recommend going into the film with as little advance awareness of its narrative mechanics as possible, so consider yourselves warned. Mooney stars as James, a thirty-something manchild who lives with his parents (Mark Hamill, Jane Adams) in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic fallout shelter.

His life is consumed with a fixation on a bargain basement TV show — the eponymous Brigsby Bear — that mysteriously arrives weekly on VHS tapes with hand-illustrated box art.

The twist (skip this paragraph to avoid spoilers) is that these are not James’ biological parents, but a childless couple who kidnapped him in infancy and raised him in total isolation, producing Brigsby as a bespoke edutainment franchise with an audience of one. When the police raid the bunker and bring James into the real world, he’s forced to grapple with the reality of his trauma. But instead of succumbing to a maudlin story of victimization along the lines of Room, Mooney and McCarey take Brigsby in a different direction by following James’ quest to complete the adventures of Brigsby by producing his own feature film.

Don’t be mislead by the film’s sketch comedy pedigree — despite cameos from comedians such as Andy Samberg (who also served as a producer), Matt Walsh and Beck Bennett — Brigsby is only occasionally laugh-out-loud funny.

The humor at the core of Mooney and co-writer Kevin Costello’s script is far more personal and cutting than its origins might suggest. This isn’t the perpetual adolescence of Hot Rod or Billy Madison, it’s a statement that touches on something much deeper. While watching James’ fish-out-of-water adaptation to his expanded world is often cute, it’s his character’s capacity to inspire creativity in those around him — and the audience by proxy — that proves to be, as he would put it in his awkward new vernacular, “dope as shit.” Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, brief sexuality, drug material and teen partying. Now Playing at Grail Moviehouse.

REVIEWED BY SCOTT DOUGLAS JSDOUGLAS22@GMAIL.COM

M A X R AT I N G Xpress is shifting some of its movie coverage to online-only as we expand other print sections of the newspaper.

Virtually all upcoming movies will still be reviewed online by Xpress film critics Scott Douglas, Francis X. Friel and Justin Souther, with two or three of the most noteworthy appearing in print. You can find online reviews at mountainx.com/movies/reviews. This week, they include: LOGAN LUCKY

HHHS

BRIGSBY BEAR (PICK OF THE WEEK)

HHHHS HH

WIND RIVER

HITMAN’S BODYGUARD

HHS

GOOD TIME H WHOSE STREETS?

HHHH

Whose Streets?

HHHH DIRECTOR: Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis PLAYERS: Brittany Ferrell, Tef Poe, Kayla Reed, Tory Russell DOCUMENTARY RATED R THE STORY: The story of the police shooting of Michael Brown and its aftermath.

THE LOWDOWN: A powerful document of a tumultuous time that nevertheless remains hopeful.

If you followed the police killing of Michael Brown in 2014 in Ferguson, Mo., and the subsequent protests, police crackdowns, investigation and court hearings, little in Whose Streets? will be new to you. But that’s not really the point

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of this movie, which instead acts as a more of a document of that period of time and the political movements that were born out of it, with its true power being all the information it compiles into its 100-minute run time.

The film follows the story of Brown and, of course, what came after his death — the massive protests, the riots, the grand jury inquest of officer Darren Wilson.

But what makes it special is that Whose Streets? really wants to know the people of Ferguson, the ones who live in those neighborhoods and were most affected by this tragedy — and who’ve decided to stand up for justice. I’ll be the first one to complain about the old documentary trope of the endless parade of talking heads, but here, it’s totally appropriate and wholly

works. Because, unfortunately and tragically, they are saying things that still need to be said, especially in our current political climate.

What Whose Streets? does best is show the anger and confusion that were on display in Ferguson immediately after Brown’s death.

After so much fretting in the media about rioting, the film captures the moments — via news reports and social media posts — of the entire saga, giving context to the actual human emotion involved, not to mention the reasons for so much unrest.

Early on, when a convenience store burning down is met with more consternation by outsiders than the death of a human being, the purpose of the film is brought into focus, that humanity, dignity and justice are important above all else.

It’s this approach that thankfully keeps the film from falling into pessimism or cynicism. Much of the film is dedicated to showing the response by the Ferguson police to the protest and the ways in which they’re no longer a part of the community, not to mention the years this has been systemically falling apart on their end. It would be a simple act on the part of the movie to turn into little more than anger (though there is obviously anger there), but thankfully, Whose Streets? instead focuses on the ways this tragedy has organized the community and the people who’ve found purpose in action.

It turns an intrinsically sad moment in our country’s recent history into a message of hope, a surprising and impressive act. Rated R for language throughout. Opens Friday, Aug. 25, at Grail Moviehouse.

REVIEWED BY JUSTIN SOUTHER JSOUTHER@MOUNTAINX.COM

2017

Contact givelocal@mountainx.com to get involved

by Edwin Arnaudin | edwinarnaudin@gmail.com

DIRTY WORK: A troupe from Black Box Dance Theatre in Raleigh performs at Gyre, the earthcasting at the North Carolina Museum of Art. The Collider screens the documentary Earthcaster — a profile of the work’s creator, Tar Heel artist Thomas Sayre — on Aug. 29. Photo courtesy of Minnow Media • The Princess Bride kicks off Asheville Outdoor Cinema’s late summer and early fall screenings on Saturday, Aug. 26, at Carrier Park. Gates open at 6:30 p.m. with access to numerous games, food trucks, beer and wine. Live music begins at 7:30 p.m., and the film starts at 9 p.m. Tickets are $11, plus fees, and available online. Children ages 12 and younger get in free. ashevilleoutdoorcinema.com • The next selection in The Collider’s monthly climate and environmental film series is Earthcaster on Tuesday, Aug. 29, at 7 p.m. The 2015 documentary by Donna Campbell and Georgann Eubanks profiles North Carolina artist Thomas Sayre, his massive sculptures made by casting earth-colored concrete in the ground and his collaborations with citizens and elected officials to create works that benefit their communities. A Q&A will follow the film, which is presented in partnership with Asheville Art Museum. Beer from series co-sponsor Oskar Blues Brewery and popcorn will be provided. Suggested donation is $5 per person or $20 per family. thecollider.org • The Carolina Cinemark will show The Spy Who Loved Me — starring the late Roger Moore as James Bond — on

FILM

needs

Business Partners 60

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

MOUNTAINX.COM

Sunday, Aug. 27, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $7.50 for adults and $7 for seniors and available online and at the Carolina box office. The theater also hosts two screenings of Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky. The Sunday, Aug. 27, showing at 12:55 p.m. will be dubbed in English while the Monday, Aug. 28, event at 7 p.m. features the original Japanese vocal cast with English subtitles. Tickets are $12.50 and available online and at the Carolina box office. cinemark.com/theatre-1142 • Registration is open for Asheville School of Film’s Super-8 Music Video Production Class. The hands-on workshop spans two weekends, Saturdays and Sundays, Sept. 16 and 17 and Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Students will conceive, shoot and edit a music video on Super-8 film for a local indie band.

Once shot, the film will be processed and transferred to high definition for digital editing. With access to some of the most highly regarded Super8 cameras ever manufactured, Kodak Super-8 film and Adobe Premiere Pro editing software, students will have the opportunity to experience the analog past and propel their creativity into the digital future. The workshop costs $295, and spots may be reserved online. ashevilleschooloffilm.com X

• MO (8/28), 6-9pm Vegucated, film screening.

ASHEVILLE VEGAN SOCIETY

Free to attend. Held at The

meetup.com/The-Asheville-

BLOCK off biltmore, 39 South

Vegan-Society/

Market St.

THE COLLIDER 1 Haywood St. Ste 401, +1 828 CLIMATE, thecollider.org/ • TU (8/29), 7-9pm Oskar Blues Movie Night: Earthcaster, documentary screening. Free to attend.

MARKETPLACE S TA RTI NG F RI DAY Due to an accelerated publication deadline, additional bookings are likely after press time. Check with your local theater for up-to-date information.

Leap

Computer animated childrens’ feature, starring Elle Fanning as a young Parisian orphan with aspirations as a ballerina. also featuring the voices of Mel Brooks, Carly Rae Jepsen and Kate McKinnon. Limited early are reviews negative. (PG)

REA L ESTATE | REN TA L S | R O O M M ATES | SER VI C ES JOB S | A N N OU N CEM ENTS | M I ND, BO DY, SPI R I T CL A SSES & WORKSH OPS | M USI C I ANS’ SER VI C ES PETS | A U TOMOTI VE | X C HANG E | ADULT Want to advertise in Marketplace? 828-251-1333 x111 tnavaille@mountainx.com • mountainx.com/classifieds If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Remember the Russian proverb: “Doveryai, no proveryai,” trust but verify. When answering classified ads, always err on the side of caution. Especially beware of any party asking you to give them financial or identification information. The Mountain Xpress cannot be responsible for ensuring that each advertising client is legitimate. Please report scams to ads@mountainx.com REAL ESTATE HOMES FOR SALE

Good Time

See Justin Souther’s review

FSBO IN NW ASHEVILLE 3/2 home with 1900 sf on cul-desac. Open floor plan, updated kitchen, 2 car garage, fenced yard. Hardwood and tile throughout. 15 min to downtown. $282,000. Call 850-7668734

Whose Streets

private hiking trails, fish pond, far from traffic noise, with large, stainless-steel hot tub. For more information or to arrange a visit, go to the house website at homeforsalenearashevillenc. com or call (828) 771-6316. For sale by owner, listed at $880,000. Beauty. Nature. Solitude. Just some of the features of this rustic, one-of-a-kind property. No brokers or realtors please, except for buyer agents.

See Justin Souther’s review

SP E CI A L SCREENI NGS

Chocolat HHHHS

DIRECTOR: Lasse Hallström PLAYERS: Romantic Comedy Fantasy JULIETTE BINOCHE, LENA OLIN, JOHNNY DEPP, JUDI DENCH, ALFRED MOLINA, LESLIE CARON Rated PG-13 In Chocolat (2001), Lasse Hallström walks a fine line with material that could easily have slipped into the realm of the too precious, but it never falters as it tells a predictable story of a woman (Juliette Binoche) and her daughter (Victoire Thivisol) who come to a small French town in 1959 and magically transform it, as much by way of their nonconformity and practical psychology as through any properties of the chocolate they sell. The story works in large part because the two are themselves transformed. Beautiful to look at, the film is charming in every sense, directed with a sure hand and acted by an unbeatable cast. At the same time, I am forced to admit that the film hasn’t quite retained its original magic over the space of 14 years. Its luster seems to me to have ever-so-slightly dimmed, but only slightly. This excerpt was taken from a review by Ken Hanke originally published on June 2, 2015. The Hendersonville Film Society will show Chocolat on Sunday, Aug. 27, at 2 p.m. in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community, 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville.

SECLUDED MOUNTAIN HOME WITH STUNNING VIEWS, FOR SALE BY OWNER Secluded mountain home, 4000 ft. up, with stunning views, on 12.5 beautiful acres in Blue Ridge Mountains in Clyde, NC, 18 miles West of Asheville. 3BR, 3BA 2-car garage, single-family,

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Open House weekends 1-5 pm.

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ROOMMATES

RENTALS CONDOS/ TOWNHOMES FOR RENT NORTH ASHEVILLE TOWNHOUSES 1BR: $745 • 2BR: $895 • 3BR: $945 • 1 mile from downtown. • Hardwoood floors. • (no pets policy). (828) 252-4334.

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EMPLOYMENT GENERAL

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15 MINUTES TO ASHEVILLE Guest house, vacation/short term rental in beautiful country setting. • Complete with everything including cable and internet. • $150/day (2-day

TROLLEY TOUR GUIDES If you are a "people person," love Asheville, have a valid Commercial Driver's License (CDL) and clean driving record you could be a great Tour Guide, Full-Time and seasonal part-time positions available.

Fire Walk With Me HHHHH

DIRECTOR: David Lynch PLAYERS: Sheryl Lee, Ray Wise, Michael J. Anderson, David Bowie, Heather Graham, Kiefer Sutherland SUPERNATURAL CRIME THRILLER Rated R As the connective tissue ostensibly created to tie up some loose-ends following the abrupt cancellation of Twin Peaks, David Lynch’s Fire Walk With Me was critically derided on its release in 1992 — not for what it was, but for what it wasn’t. Those looking for resolution to the seminal TV series’ notorious cliff-hanger were bitterly disappointed, audiences booed the film at Cannes, and the feature-length prequel was relegated to classification as lesser Lynch for two-and-a-half decades. With the eighteen episode resolution to the story, Twin Peaks: The Return, completing its run on Sept. 3, FWWM is overdue for a reevaluation within the show’s newly expanded context. Not only is it one of Lynch’s most underrated films from an aesthetic standpoint, it’s also essential to understanding what the hell is going on in the series’ latest episodes — and here’s a rare chance to catch up on the big screen, just in time for the finale. The Asheville Film Society is showing Fire Walk With Me on Tuesday, Aug. 29 at 7:30 p.m. at The Grail Moviehouse as part of the Budget Big Screen series. Admission is $6 for AFS members and $8 for the general public. Xpress movie critic Scott Douglas will introduce the film.

MOUNTAINX.COM

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

61

FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): Welcome to Swami Moonflower’s Psychic Hygiene Hints. Ready for some mystical cleansing? Hint #1: To remove stains on your attitude, use a blend of Chardonnay wine, tears from a cathartic crying session and dew collected before dawn.

Hint #2: To eliminate glitches in your love life, polish your erogenous zones with pomegranate juice while you visualize the goddess kissing your cheek. #3: To get rid of splotches on your halo, place angel food cake on your head for two minutes, then bury the cake in holy ground while chanting, “It’s not my fault! My evil twin’s a jerk!” #4: To banish the imaginary monkey on your back, whip your shoulders with a long silk ribbon until the monkey runs away. #5: To purge negative money karma, burn a dollar bill in the flame of a green candle.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A reader named Kameel Hawa writes that he “prefers pleasure to leisure and leisure to luxury.” That list of priorities would be excellent for you to adopt during the coming weeks.

My analysis of the astrological omens suggests that you will be the recipient of extra amounts of permission, relief, approval and ease. I won’t be surprised if you come into possession of a fresh X-factor or wild card. In my opinion, to seek luxury would be a banal waste of such precious blessings. You’ll get more health-giving benefits that will last longer if you cultivate simple enjoyments and restorative tranquility.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The coming weeks will be an excellent time to cruise past the houses where you grew up, the schools you used to attend, the hotspots where you and your old friends hung out, and the places where you first worked and had sex.

In fact, I recommend a grand tour of your past. If you can’t literally visit the locations where you came of age, simply visualize them in detail. In your imagination, take a leisurely excursion through your life story. Why do I advise this exercise? Because you can help activate your future potentials by reconnecting with your roots.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): One of my favorite Cancerian artists is Penny Arcade, a New York performance artist, actress and playwright. In this horoscope, I offer a testimonial in which she articulates the spirit you’d be wise to cultivate in the coming weeks. She says, “I am the person I know best, inside out, the one who best understands my motivations, my struggles, my triumphs.

Despite occasionally betraying my best interests to keep the peace, to achieve goals, or for the sake of beloved friendships, I astound myself by my appetite for life, my unwavering curiosity into the human condition, my distrust of the status quo, my poetic soul and abiding love of beauty, my strength of character in the face of unfairness, and my optimism despite defeats and loss.”

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The Witwatersrand is a series of cliffs in South Africa. It encompasses 217 square miles.

From this area, which is a tiny fraction of the Earth’s total land surface, humans have extracted 50 percent of all the gold ever mined. I regard this fact as an apt metaphor for you to meditate on in the next 12 months, Leo. If you’re alert, you will find your soul’s equivalent of Witwatersrand. What I mean is that you’ll have a golden opportunity to discover emotional and spiritual riches that will nurture your soul as it has rarely been nurtured.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): What I wish for you is a toasty coolness. I pray that you will claim a messy gift.

I want you to experience an empowering surrender and a calming climax. I very much hope, Virgo, that you will finally see an obvious secret and capitalize on some unruly wisdom and take an epic trip to an intimate turning point. I trust that you’ll find a barrier that draws people together instead of keeping them apart. These wonders may sound paradoxical, and yet they’re quite possible and exactly what you need.

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BY ROB BREZSNY

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Psychologist James Hansell stated his opinion of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud: “He was wrong about so many things. But he was wrong in such interesting ways. He pioneered a whole new way of looking at things.” That description should provide good raw material for you to consider as you play with your approach to life in the coming weeks, Libra. Being right won’t be half as important as being willing to gaze at the world from upside-down, inside-out perspectives.

So I urge you to put the emphasis on formulating experimental hypotheses, not on proving definitive theories. Be willing to ask naive questions and make educated guesses and escape your own certainties.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You’re entering a phase of your astrological cycle when you’ll be likely to receive gifts at a higher rate than usual. Some gifts could be big, complex and catalytic, though others may be subtle, cryptic or even covert. While some may be useful, others could be problematic. So I want to make sure you know how important it is to be discerning about these offerings. You probably shouldn’t blindly accept all of them. For instance, don’t rashly accept a “blessing” that would indebt or obligate you to someone in ways that feel uncomfortable.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): You are currently under the influence of astrological conditions that have led to dramatic boosts of self-esteem in laboratory rats. To test the theory that this experimental evidence can be applied to humans, I authorize you to act like a charismatic egomaniac in the coming weeks. JUST KIDDNG! I lied about the lab rats.

And I lied about you having the authorization to act like an egomaniac. But here are the true facts: The astrological omens suggest you can and should be a lyrical swaggerer and a sensitive swashbuckler.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I invite you to eliminate all of the following activities from your repertoire in the next three weeks: squabbling, hassling, feuding, confronting, scuffling, skirmishing, sparring and brawling.

Why is this my main message to you? Because the astrological omens tell me that everything important you need to accomplish will come from waging an intense crusade of peace, love, and understanding. The bickering and grappling stuff won’t help you achieve success even a little — and would probably undermine it.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Stockbrokers in Pakistan grew desperate when the Karachi Stock Exchange went into a tailspin. In an effort to reverse the negative trend, they performed a ritual sacrifice of ten goats in a parking lot. But their “magic” failed. Stocks continued to fade. Much later they recovered, but not in a timely manner that would suggest the sacrifice worked. I urge you to avoid their approach to fixing problems, especially now. Reliance on superstition and wishful thinking is guaranteed to keep you stuck. On the other hand, I’m happy to inform you that the coming weeks will be a highly favorable time to use disciplined research and rigorous logic to solve dilemmas.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In the coming days, maybe you could work some lines from the Biblical “Song of Solomon” into your intimate exchanges.

The moment is ripe for such extravagance. Can you imagine saying things like, “Your lips are honey,” or “You are a fountain in the garden, a well of living waters”?

In my opinion, it wouldn’t even be too extreme for you to murmur, “May I find the scent of your breath like apricots, and your whispers like spiced wine flowing smoothly to welcome my caresses.” If those sentiments seem too flowery, you could pluck gems from Pablo Neruda’s love sonnets. How about this one: “I want to do with you what spring does to the cherry trees.” Here’s another: “I hunger for your sleek laugh and your hands the color of a furious harvest.

I want to eat the sunbeams flaring in your beauty.

MOUNTAINX.COM

Training provided. Contact us today! 828 251-8687.

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ADMINISTRATIVE/ OFFICE OFFICE PERSONNEL NEEDED Office Personnel needed full-time for sales office. Applicant will be cross trained as receptionist and customer service sales representative.

Applicant must be available to work Monday-Friday 10:00 am until 6:00 pm, as well as rotating Saturdays from 10 am - 2:00 pm. As the first point of contact with the public, an applicant is expected to present a friendly, outgoing, energetic attitude both in-person and on the telephone. Applicant must be selfmotivating, computer literate, great at multi-tasking as well as being able to perform basic office tasks and be a team player. Applicant must be at least 19 years of age and have a Valid NC Driver's License. Applicant should apply in person at 1473 Patton Avenue, Asheville between the hours of 10:30 am - 5 pm Monday- Friday or call 828-258-8085. 828-258-8085 THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION IS LOOKING FOR A GIFT AND RECORDS SPECIALIST IN ASHEVILLE, NC TACF's mission is to return the iconic American chestnut to its native range and we're looking for administrative support at our National Office. To learn more, visit https://www.acf. org/about-us/employment/

SALES/ MARKETING ANNIE'S BAKERY • SALES ASSOCIATE Annie’s Bakery is seeking a Sales Associate to assist our Sales and Marketing Manager with promotion of our company. Duties include, but are not limited to, outside sales calls, communication with existing and potential customers along with social media updates, data collection and research.

Candidate should have strong communication, customer service and organizational skills.

Required experience in social media, Microsoft office, and proven success in sales and marketing. Quick advancement opportunities available for right candidate. Send resume to Mark@anniesbread.com HIRING FOR NAVITAT'S SALES AND CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM! Navitat Canopy Adventures, western North Carolina's premier zipline canopy tour company, is actively seeking enthusiastic, hard-working, customer service-oriented people to join our Sales and Customer Service Team. leadcro@ navitat.com www.navitat.com

RESTAURANT/ FOOD

FOOD SERVICE WORKERS NEEDED! Cooks, prep cooks, dishwashers needed for a private school in Arden. Opportunity for advancement. Uniforms/shoes/meals/benefits!

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DRIVERS/ DELIVERY IC IMAGINE CHARTER SCHOOL SEEKING BUS DRIVER FOR IMMEDIATE START IC Imagine is hiring a School Bus Driver for 2 routes per day. Pay is $12/hour. CDL B license with passenger endorsement, air brake, and school bus endorsements preferred.

PROFESSIONAL/ MANAGEMENT FULL-TIME GRANT WRITER Consulting firm serving nonprofits seeks a full-time grant writer, preferably living in the greater Asheville area, to work primarily from home. For details and to apply, please see http:// communicationmark.com/ who-we-are/job-opportunities

TEACHING/ EDUCATION IC IMAGINE CHARTER SCHOOL SEEKING LICENSED EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN'S COLLEGIATE LEADERS IC Imagine, a local public charter school, seeks Exceptional Children's Collegiate Leaders for immediate start. These individuals will join an innovative, collaborative team focused on developing the whole child.

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JOBS WANTED FUNDRAISER/ EVENT PLANNER Available for work. Strong Interpersonal and public speaking skills. Previous experience: Nonprofit founder, educator, support group facilitator.

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Hiring guides for the upcoming leaf season. Spend your days in the trees on our world class ziplines! Learn more at www.navitat.com PART-TIME MATH TEACHER Montford Hall is looking for a part-time math teacher to join our incredible academic team.

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EMPLOYMENT SERVICES ON-SITE COMPUTER REPAIR TECHNICIAN WANTED Computer Repair Technician to work on-site and in-shop fixing machines running Windows/ OSX; solving networking issues.

Experience with Managed Service Providers, iOS, and good customer service skills a plus. Living Wage Certified.

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RETAIL SEEKING FULL & PART-TIME SALES ASSOCIATES Mast General Store in Asheville is seeking a Full Time Fashion Sales Associate for immediate employment. Retail experience preferred; good communication & organizational skills essential. • Part Time Sales Associates: All

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TOOLS & MACHINERY WOODWORKER'S DREAM SHOP LIQUIDATION SALE Top notch power and hand tools. New, old and antique tools including Drill Press, Lathe, Power Saws, etc. contact: rebcasey@att.net

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CLASSES & WORKSHOPS CLASSES & WORKSHOPS EROTIC EMBRACE: THE RITUAL OF ROPE Register on "eventbrite" to attend this exciting, hands-on workshop about Shibari, Japanese Rope Bondage. Empower yourself and your partner with this sensual practice.

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ACROSS

1 Speedway event 5 Spanish toast 10 Back muscle, for short 13 One who’s tight-lipped 14 It’s just an excuse 15 “Oh, quit your joshin’!”

17 Supreme Court justices, e.g.

19 Second-place finisher, famously 20 Formal toast 22 Twenty-one places 25 One with a long sentence 26 “___ Restaurant” (hit 1968 album) 27 Custardy dessert 30 San ___, Italy 31 Flare-up of crime?

32 Line from “The Student Prince” appropriate for this puzzle 39 Trio x 3 40 Early 2000s Apple product 41 Attempted to sell 45 Bare-naked Lady 47 10 out of 10

edited by Will Shortz

No. 0719

48 Kid’s nighttime fear 49 Informal toast 53 Pic 54 Chubby 58 “Gone With the Wind” setting 59 Something to watch on la télé 60 Antidoping target, informally 61 Uganda’s Amin 62 German toast 63 A-1

18 Actress Skye 21 Savanna animal 22 Verify the age of, in a way 23 Blue Jay but not Cardinal, for short 24 ___ Valley, Calif.

27 Handled, as a case 28 Ain’t the way it should be?

29 Korean War soldier 31 “Rule, Britannia” composer DOWN 33 Prepared to 1 “Made for propose moments” 34 Part of the sloganeer cabinet that 2 Yodeler’s peak oversees hwys.

3 Partner of trade 35 Hold aside for a 4 ;-) or :-( year, as a college 5 Some plasma TVs athlete 6 Descriptive of los 36 “You’re lookin’ at Andes your guy” 7 Stead 37 Where the pews 8 It has hundreds are of thousands of PUZZLE BY MICHAEL S. MAURER AND PAWEL FLUDZINSKI 38 1980s Chrysler drivers 45 Went out in the 50 Institution often 55 Fake blood, offering 9 Satellite ___ rain, say named for a 41 Center e.g. saint: Abbr.

10 Hebrew toast 46 Start of a fairy 42 God, in the 56 Cool 11 Italy’s ___ Coast 51 Penultimate tale Torah word of a fairy 57 Gridiron 12 Attorneys’ favorite 43 Common poster 48 Roger who set highlights, for tale desserts? headline a home run short 16 Kind of jacket 44 Japanese toast record in 1961 52 War ace, e.g.

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS NY TIMES PUZZLE

2017

needs

Cook Dishwasher Servers $7.25/hr + tips

Business Partners Paul Caron

Furniture Magician

(PM Shifts Available) We are seeking self-motivated candidates with positive attitudes!

Experience is a plus!

Complete benefits package including 401k and profit sharing!

For more information about each position and to apply online, please visit

www.qualityoilnc.com/careers-currentopenings/# Hotel

• Cabinet Refacing • Furniture Repair

Contact givelocal@mountainx.com to get involved

• Seat Caning • Antique Restoration • Custom Furniture & Cabinetry (828) 669-4625

MOUNTAINX.COM

• Black Mountain

AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

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AUG. 23 - 29, 2017

MOUNTAINX.COM