OUR 28TH YEAR OF WEEKLY INDEPENDENT NEWS, ARTS & EVENTS FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA VOL. 28 NO. 18 DEC. 1-7, 2021
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C ONTENT S
NEWS
NEWS
FEATURES 8 OUT ON A LIMB Local tree companies design backyard fun
14 THE HILLS ARE ALIVE New shops join scenic views among Mars Hill’s attractions
PAGE 30 GOING OUT IN STYLE Halloween has come and gone, but a look at Asheville’s costume shops suggests that area residents can always find an excuse to get dressed up. And just as clothing styles vary from person to person, so too do the approaches of local shop owners and designers. COVER PHOTO Tempus Fugit Design
WELLNESS
FEATURES
COVER DESIGN Ele Annand 23 Q&A WITH JILL SPARKS A-B Tech Business Incubator head talks evolution of local small-business landscape
4 LETTERS 4 CARTOON: MOLTON 4
28 SKIN DEEP Asheville’s skin care shops soothe winter dryness
CARTOON: IRENE OLDS
5 CARTOON: BRENT BROWN 6 COMMENTARY 8 NEWS
A&C
25 COMMUNITY CALENDAR 32 CRAFTING THE PERFECT GIFT Local arts shops create unique holiday offerings
28 WELLNESS 30 ARTS & CULTURE 42 CLUBLAND
A&C
46 FREEWILL ASTROLOGY 36 SNACK TIME WNC food companies offer sweet and savory treats
46 CLASSIFIEDS 47 NY TIMES CROSSWORD
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OPINION
Film and video scene thrives beyond Asheville Film Festival In the most respectable of efforts, I can rally to acknowledge reporter Edwin Arnaudin’s recent article in the Mountain Xpress, “Flickers of Light: A Look Back at the Asheville Film Festival’s Brief, Exciting Run” [Nov. 17] about the failed efforts over the years of the Asheville Film Festival. My invitation is to turn your lens in another direction. Our town is full of filmmakers, talented, inspired artists, actors and skilled technicians in this industry. Two active, annual film festivals worth noting are the long-running Asheville 48 Hour Film Project, with hundreds of participants and many award-winning efforts from directors — and musicians, as well, from Music Video Asheville, also with hundreds of inspired fans. All told, the number is in the thousands of those inspired by and who make local film and video productions. The medium of the screen has indeed been democratized by technologies like our phones and streaming services, but make no mistake, the love of film and video production is alive and thriving in our town.
C AR T O O N B Y RA N D Y MO L T O N Do we need an actual Asheville Film Festival? It’s a great invitation to explore, and it clearly just needs a commitment to leadership and a budget. As for fans, well you can trust, there are thousands of locals here who would applaud the effort. — Trey Scott Hendersonville
Editor’s note: Thank you for your feedback. Regarding Xpress’ coverage, our writers have covered the local film scene over the years, including in a July 21 piece, “Hub Incentives: Filmmaker Transplants Discuss Working in Asheville.” The newspaper’s regular Screen Scene column is on hiatus because of limited space and a lack of regular events due to pandemic restrictions.
On local government corruption
C A R T O O N B Y I R E N E O L DS
In the 4
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Editor’s note: In an Xpress newsletter, we highlighted recent articles about the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners’ decision to revise the county’s conflict-of-interest policy in light of a government corruption scandal that resulted in prison time for top county employees in 2019. We asked readers: “Will this move head off future problems or should more be done? What is the most effective way to ensure that local government operates in an aboveboard fashion?” Here is one response: Personally, I don’t think so. Not enough checks and balances on line-item expenditures. I feel there were more involved in the past corruption. Too much money involved and a lot of cover-up for individuals possibly involved. When you have one party controlling Asheville/Buncombe government, either Republican or Democrat, the fox is guarding the henhouse.
CARTOON BY BRENT BROWN Asheville is proud to be a sister city of many democratic cities where a lot of misuse of government funds occur. Go figure. This policy is more of the same — all talk equals no action. — Donald O. Funderud Sr. Asheville
We need fair voting maps here and everywhere Our names are Michael and Brenda, and we have lived in Hendersonville for 15 years.
We advocate federal reform to ensure we have fair maps nationwide. The Freedom to Vote Act and John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act will end partisan gerrymandering and ensure more fair, transparent and nonpartisan maps. This applies to North Carolina in particular. More than one-third of states have confirmed some of their final maps that will be in place for the next 10 years. This means that we have very little time to pass federal reform to ensure we can litigate and advocate for fair maps nationwide. — Michael Fender Hendersonville
Editor’s note Due to changing health recommendations related to COVID-19, readers are encouraged to check with individual businesses for the latest updates concerning upcoming events.
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OPINION
Hey, Grandpa
“They’re trying to teach us the truth about our local history.”
The Gospel According to Jerry
BY JERRY STERNBERG “Hey, Grandpa, did you grow up in Asheville? Where did you go to school?” “Claxton, David Millard and Lee Edwards.” “I know Claxton is still here, but I never heard of the other two.” “Well, David Millard was on Oak Street near the First Baptist Church. It was torn down later, and they changed the name of Lee Edwards to Asheville High School.” “What did they teach in these schools? Did you learn about American history? You know, things like the Wilmington massacre and Black Wall Street and Juneteenth? “I’m sure you remember the ‘greatest generation.’ Did you learn that when Black vets returned home after World War II, many were deprived of a college education that was owed them under the GI Bill because the all-white colleges and
universities wouldn’t accept them? Or that they were also prevented from taking advantage of the promised help with home loans because the banks were doing something I think was called redlining? “I bet you were shocked to learn that many of these men who returned to their Southern homes were tortured or lynched when they demanded the same rights and privileges that white people enjoy. Some people claimed that even though these folks put their lives on the line fighting for our country, watched their comrades die in battle, and too often came home with grievous wounds, they were just too ‘uppity.’ “When you were growing up, did Black people have to sit at the back of the bus? Were there separate bathrooms and drinking fountains for Blacks and whites? Is it true that at the Plaza Theatre, Blacks could only sit in the balcony?
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JERRY STERNBERG “We even learned that Black people couldn’t go to Mission Hospital. No matter how sick they were, they had to go to a little clinic on Biltmore Avenue. They also couldn’t live in the white parts of town but were consigned to Shiloh or the Depot/ Southside area, where they would be with ‘their own kind.’ “We were also surprised to find out that they were often harassed or turned away when they went to the polls to vote. Why was this, Grandpa?” “It was the law.” “Why was it the law?” “People thought Blacks were dirty, diseased and dumb and that they posed a threat to whites.” “But Grandpa, I remember you talking about Lily Mae, the Black lady that your family hired as a housemaid and nanny. You told us how much you and your brothers and sisters loved her. You said she cooked and cleaned the house for you all and how she still found time to play with you and care for you when you were sick, to scold you when you didn’t do your homework or your chores, and even to hold you and console you when you felt sad. You said all of you tried very hard not to displease her because you loved and respected her so much. So was Lily Mae dirty, diseased and dumb?” “There were some good ones.” “Grandpa, you seem annoyed that I’m asking you about this. Were there Black kids in your school?” “No.” “Did you ever play with any Black children? I think you said that Lily Mae would sometimes bring her children over to your house to play. I remember you particularly liked
her oldest son. I even remember his name: Roosevelt. You said he was a little older than you but that he taught you to shoot baskets and all about the ways of the woods. You said he went away to the war, and when he came back, he somehow managed to get into college on the GI Bill and became a very successful banker. “I remember once you took us grandkids to meet him and said he was still one of your best friends. You also told us that one time when you were laid off from your job, he got you a loan that saved you from losing your house. “Grandpa, was Roosevelt dirty, diseased and dumb?” “That’s enough!” “Why are you getting so angry and red in the face, Grandpa?” “Never mind that. Where are you getting all this s--t?” “Why are you using bad words, Grandpa? They’re just trying to teach us the truth about America and our local history. They even discussed the visits by Paul Robeson and Lena Horne, internationally known artists who came to Asheville to perform and weren’t allowed to stay at the white hotels, including the Battery Park and the Grove Park Inn, or to be served in any of the white restaurants. “They’re also teaching us about the terrible treatment our local Cherokee Indians received. Did you know, Grandpa, that when gold was discovered in Georgia in 1828, white men confiscated Cherokee land and forced thousands of them to march all the way to Oklahoma, and many died along the way? “Did you learn about all this in your school history lessons, Grandpa? You always said we should always tell the truth, and you told us to ask questions anytime we needed to know something. “Where are you going, Grandpa? Wait, please don’t leave. I have more questions... “Grandpa!!!” An anthology of columns by Asheville native Jerry Sternberg, a longtime observer of the local scene, is available from Pisgah Legal Services for a $25 suggested donation. To order your copy of The Gospel According to Jerry: 90th Birthday Edition, visit pisgahlegal.org/jerry, or send a check to: PLS, P.O. Box 2276, Asheville, NC, 28802. All proceeds will support the nonprofit’s work. X
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NEWS
Out on a limb
Local tree companies design backyard fun
BY JESSICA WAKEMAN jwakeman@mountainx.com While an undisputed highlight of living in Western North Carolina is proximity to the great outdoors, there’s something to be said for one’s own backyard. (Better bathroom facilities, for one.) Chances are that during the COVID-19 pandemic, many families have spent more time outside than usual. This year, the best holiday gift might be a backyard upgrade — adding a treehouse, tree fort, tree swing or funky, psychedelic-colored Tree Weave. Or, if one’s pockets are very deep, a luxury treehouse. No need to find a YouTube tutorial. There’s a burgeoning WNC industry of builders, weavers and other creatives aiming to make local trees as special as possible. ‘Magical encounters’ Most people with trees on their property only have a few that are the right size and structure for a treehouse, explains Mark Craven, founder of Liminal Feats. “The primary factors in determining the trees [to build in] are the health and vigor of the tree, so that it can adapt to the new loads and forces you’re putting on it,” he explains. Some trees, or clusters of trees, have wide enough trunks to support treehouses by themselves. Other trees may need posts or a supplementary foundation. Liminal Feats mostly designs treehouses for children, so Craven likes to get wish lists before starting a project. The most popular request is adding a manual dumbwaiter: a “milk crate tied on the rope through a pulley so they can hoist their stuff up there,” he explains.
RAINBOW BRIGHT: Liz Thomas sits on a Tree Weave, which contains colored rope and a choice of more than 50 color options for paracord. Photo courtesy of River Echeverria Dumbwaiters are easy to install, and kids seem to love them. Trapdoors, climbing ropes and slides are other add-ons Craven offers. He steers people away from installing backyard zip lines, as he believes zip lining should have pro-
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fessional oversight. He can also add windows and doors for a four-season treehouse. Typical costs range between $5,000 and $10,000, Craven says. But if a treehouse isn’t in the budget or Mother Earth’s plans, Liminal Feats also builds tree forts (constructed with supports on the ground, like a playhouse) and tree swings. Craven thinks chairstyle swings are more fun than tire swings, and he recommends Lounger hanging chairs from local brand Eagle’s Nest Outfitters. Craven also consults with families who want to build swings or houses in their trees at home. But he notes that professionals — both builders like him and certified arborists whom he often mandates for projects — are safer. “It’s pretty easy to throw a rope over a branch and make a swing,” he says. “But if the tree has health issues that you weren’t able to diagnose, or if the rope that you
bought from Home Depot was not adequate to be left outdoors all the time, that rope’s going to fail eventually. And it’s probably going to fail when there’s someone swinging on it.” Craven began his career in 2009 at Navitat Canopy Adventures, a zip line tour operator in Barnardsville. But a desire to be more present as a parent led him to embark on his own business using the skills he’d learned in the outdoor challenge industry. “I’ve had so many magical encounters in the forest, in the wilds and with trees,” he says. “And I want other people to have those experiences, too.” ‘True monkeys’ River Echeverria describes a Tree Weave as “a very elaborate cross between a trampoline and a treehouse — they’re insanely bouncy.” A better explanation may be to call Tree Weaves rainbow spiderweb play structures that
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WALL FOR Y’ALL: A kid-sized climbing wall decks out this treehouse built by Mark Craven of Liminal Feats. Photo courtesy of Craven nestle amid tree limbs like giant hammocks. (Still confused? Look at the pictures on Instagram. com/treeweaves.) One thing is for sure: Tree Weaves, built by a team led by Echeverria and his partner, Alex Patton, are unique. He was an avid practitioner of slacklining, a sport similar to tightrope walking, in Colorado. “Me and my friends would make these types of tree nets to hang out in the forest, just in spots we would slackline,” Echeverria explains. He got the idea for Tree Weaves from those ropes and, after moving to Asheville, launched the business in 2017. Tree Weaves have a taut structural perimeter constructed with rope; various colors of paracord, a type of nylon, are tightly woven
inside. Unlike the solid structure of a treehouse, Tree Weaves move with the motion of those playing on them. The company can weave an installation into almost any tree, Echeverria says, and if a property is treeless, it can install posts. “They’re just bouncy play structures where kids can be true monkeys,” Echeverria says. “These parents are always like, ‘My kids are spending so much time inside. I want them to hang out in our backyard.’” Installation costs vary widely based on the owners’ request and the size of the trees involved. A smaller Tree Weave, ranging from 6-feet-by-6-feet to 10-feet-by-10feet, costs $2,000 to $5,000 and can
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N EWS
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TREE TOPS: Mark Craven, founder of Liminal Feats, shows his son Burl Hardy Craven how fun it can be to climb a tree. Photo courtesy of Craven take up to a week to build. A larger weave can cost up to $20,000, and the process — involving up to 600 feet of rope and 20,000 feet of paracord — can take months. The average budget is $8,000, Echeverria says. A Tree Weave contains colored rope and a choice of more than 50
color options for paracord. “We do a lot of installations where we’ll do random color combinations, like turquoise and lavender, or like mustard yellow and maroon, or all six shades of purple that are available,” Echeverria explains. Occasionally, clients request green or brown to blend in with nature,
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Flow Physical Therapy and Pilates but kids appreciate when the colors are funkier and brighter. The installations are usually 6 or 7 feet off the ground — enough to seem exciting for kids but still provide a fun hangout spot for adults. “Our mom clients will text me photos of them and their gal pals drinking wine in the net at 3 p.m. while their kids are at school,” Echeverria says with a laugh. Grown-up clubhouse Most treehouses are for kids. But one Asheville company builds treehouses for grown-ups. World Treehouses specializes in “luxury, high-end treehouses,” says Erin Everett, the company’s outreach coordinator. Each treehouse is an original design determined by the trees around it. Everett’s husband, Adam Laufer, is the lead builder, and World Treehouses employs a team of handcrafters with backgrounds in custom furniture-making to create what she calls “art in the trees.” Construction typically costs $500 to $1,000 per square foot, she says, with total costs often reaching several hundred thousand dollars.
Laufer and his team can add steel-engineered hardware, or “artificial limbs,” in trees to hold an increased load. Depending on the tree’s location, the treehouse can have electricity and plumbing installed by the team’s contractors. Some clients place them adjacent to an existing house or cabin to serve as an office or artist’s studio — often with a suspension bridge connecting to the main property. (Everett suggests watching the Animal Planet reality show “Treehouse Masters” for inspiration.) Everett used to own an Asheville publication called New Life Journal, which closed in 2009; Laufer is a former yoga teacher and builder who used to construct zip line courses at Navitat. The couple started World Treehouses in 2016 to encourage more people to enjoy trees. “[Laufer] loved being in the trees, but he didn’t feel like zip lines were the way to connect with trees,” Everett says. Their hope was to make treehouses be “a place where you can meditate with the trees and sleep in the trees,” she explains. X
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FEA T U RE S
Q&A with Jane Carter, therapist and small-business coach There are thousands of books containing business advice on topics like brand development, marketing, startup funding and networking. But less frequently addressed are the psychological and emotional impacts of being a business owner. That’s where Jane Carter, who holds dual professions as a therapist and a business coach, comes in. She guides her clients through the ups and downs of owning a business by building emotional resilience and reminding them why they got started. Carter, who grew up in Atlanta, has called Asheville home for the last 20 years. The licensed clinical mental health counselor often finds herself cozying up in one of Asheville’s many bookstores or coffee shops and buying books “faster than I can read them,” she says. Xpress caught up with Carter to learn about what business coaches do, the importance of facing one’s fears and why starting a business is not for the faint of heart. This interview has been condensed for length and edited for clarity. What is business coaching, and who are your typical clients? If you think about an athletic coach, they’re there to help you with your skills and your strategy but they’re also there to help you with your mindset, your “inner game.” So a business coach is going to help you with skills and systems, how to do your marketing, how to make more money and how to manage your time. But also a good business coach is there to help you with your mindset.
Starting a business is not for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of courage and putting yourself out there. It’s very vulnerable. [It helps to have] a coach who can give you some insight and also give you encouragement to help you see where you might be getting in your own way, so that you can enjoy the process of running a business and not just feel stressed and burned out. I would say on a deeper level, your business coach is there to remind you why you’re doing this and what your deeper purpose is. That can help you stay motivated when you’re going through all the challenges that come when you’re running a business. I think everyone can benefit from coaching. I tend to work with deep-feeling people, a lot of healers and creative types, artists, writers, nutrition coaches — people who really care about the work that they’re doing. They don’t just want to make a lot of money; they want to run a business that feels very aligned with who they are. You’re also a therapist. How does that inform your business coaching? I’ve been doing psychotherapy for 20 years. I’ve always been fascinated by what makes real change happen in people’s lives and wanting people to be able to live up to their full potential. Like a lot of therapists, I got into the field because me and my family benefited from therapy. Then I got into coaching because I benefited from business coaching when I first started my private practice. There’s so much overlap between therapy and business coaching. I
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MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS: Jane Carter blends her roles as therapist and business coach to help small-business owners be their best selves. Photo courtesy of Carter actually call coaching “stealth-therapy” because it’s a deeper issue than just knowledge. All the information that anyone needs about how to start and run a business is out there. As one of my favorite authors, Derek Sivers, says, “If more information was the answer, we’d all be billionaires with perfect abs.” Just like with therapy, [in our businesses] we all have these old stories playing out. We have these negative beliefs and assumptions. We have our old wounds. A lot of that deeper stuff gets stirred up when you take a risk such as starting a business. Once I realized that it was an emotional process too, I was able to draw on those therapy skills in coaching.
As a therapist, on a practical level, I have knowledge about how the brain works and about human behavior. I can use that as people are dealing with things like money, marketing and messaging. But on that deeper level, I’m trying to help them have more self-awareness and self-compassion so that they can do work in a way that feels like they’re bringing their best self to it, as well as making good money and having more time and freedom. What is a common issue that entrepreneurs struggle with, and how would you approach helping them? It all comes down to fear. Anytime someone is stepping up and playing a bigger game, taking a risk and getting out of their comfort zone, it creates a fear response. As a therapist, I’m really used to helping people work through their fear. It takes courage for people to take steps like starting that business, posting something on social media, putting out a blog post or reaching out to someone who they’re scared to contact. Every time a business owner takes a risk in their business and gets rewarded, they’re overcoming that fear and becoming more confident. I often tell people that the confidence comes later. All you can do in the beginning is take courageous action over and over again. That’s when confidence comes and that’s where success comes. What’s the best entrepreneurial advice you’ve received that you’d like to share with others? Don’t go at it alone. Make sure to have support and help — whether that’s a coach or a group of other business owners. Having support is so important. Another piece of advice is to do it scared. There’s no way around it.You have to do things scared! You have to take risks and sometimes, you will fail. And that’s OK, because all of it is fertilizer for your growth. It’s all part of the process. Getting out of your comfort zone is the only way to get to where you want to be. My very Asheville answer is: Whatever is different — or even weird — about you is your greatest asset. We all have those ways that we don’t fit in or we feel weird or different. The more that you accentuate what’s different about you instead of trying to minimize it, the people who need that are going to connect with you. And that’s really healing, not only for you but for the people who resonate with that aspect of you.
— Brooke Randle X
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NEWS
The hills are alive
New shops join scenic views among Mars Hill’s attractions BY LINDA RAY
lindarayaccess@gmail.com After more than a year of lockdowns and hesitant restarts, the Madison County college town of Mars Hill is feeling the effects of shifting trends, says Angela Morgan, owner of Black Bear Realty. “People have decided they want to have a less congested life but still have access to restaurants and shopping,” she notes. “And during the lockdown, people had a lot of spare time to go online and look for places to live and open small businesses.” Quite a few of those internet surfers have since turned into residents, with significantly higher home prices and a larger volume of residential sales recorded in Madison County in 2021 compared with previous years. Some of the recent arrivals have launched new enterprises, with at least six businesses opening since last fall. Driven by their proximity to Asheville and scenic landscape, Morgan says, “Mars Hill and Marshall are definitely up-and-coming.”
GOOD VIBRATIONS
When ayurvedic practitioner Abbas Rakhshani moved his holistic health practice from a Walmartanchored shopping center in South Asheville to Mars Hill this year, “I thought I would have to educate the community about mind/body wellness,” he says. But he needn’t have worried: Local residents have been “very receptive.”
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Yoga Wellness Center, agrees. “I think my family got off the boat from Scotland and came right to these mountains,” she says. “I’ve always been interested in holistic medicine. Growing up, we just called it mountain medicine.”
PAST PERFECT: Mars Hill’s Main Street has retained its picturesque look of bygone days, with much of the streetscape remaining unchanged except for the paved roads and motor cars there now. Photo courtesy of the town of Mars Hill “I feel my vibrations have lifted here,” Rakhshani reports. Many of his Asheville clients followed him to Mars Hill, and his practice has grown substantially. “I have four times as many clients than when I was in South Asheville,” he says. Rakhshani purchased the former law office where The Yoga Wellness Center is now located. In addition to his own practice, the space also
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houses a mental health counselor, massage therapist and children’s speech therapist. “Growth here is inevitable,” Rakhshani says. “And I, like many of the other small-business owners here, plan on staying actively involved in the town’s growth.” Mother-daughter business partners Michele Clark and Sydney Keating opened The Wild Violet, an all-organic grocery and café, from a kiosk in the fall of 2020. In August, the store opened its brick-and-mortar location at 14 Main St., where offerings include local produce, bulk miso, local kimchi and herbs. A range of reusable containers and totes — part of the shop’s commitment to zero-waste retail — are also for sale. A café serves teas, juices, smoothies and vegetarian dishes. While some may find new-age health- and wellness-oriented businesses a strange fit for Madison County, Clark says locals often remark that the store reminds them of how they grew up. Native Shasta Wilde, administration and marketing manager at The
A COMMUNITY EFFORT
Miryam Rojas, a native of New York and former Floridian, discovered Madison County while visiting friends in Asheville. After deciding to put down roots in Western North Carolina, Rojas renovated Mars Hill’s old skating rink to open Mars Landing Galleries, an art gallery and working artists’ studio, in July. Joining Rojas in the purple building behind the town’s library is Meadowsweet Creamery, which serves up homemade ice cream sandwiches that Rojas describes as “food art.” “The sophisticated flavor combinations we do go really well with the ambiance of the gallery,” says Meadowsweet’s Michael Clem. According to the shop’s Facebook page, those flavors have included apple pie ice cream with cheddar cookies, lavender with lemon curd, blue cheese, cantaloupe thyme and sweet corn, among others. Those hankering for a sweet treat can bypass the art gallery and access the creamery via a back entrance, where picnic tables invite customers to linger. Rojas and other local business owners joined forces to launch a monthly First Fridays event to build awareness of all that’s going on in the town. Next happening 5-8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3, the festive occasion includes live music, art and seasonal beverage offerings. Visitors who have their event cards punched by at least four participating merchants may enter a drawing for a special prize. Another First Fridays leader, LeeAnn Petropoulos, opened Yiayia Black Sheep yarn shop on Main Street in April. She says she loves the “fabulous little community” of Mars Hill and wants to see it grow while maintaining its tightknit sense of community. “I want to do my part to bring more people here but keep it small at the same time,” she explains.
OUT ON THE TOWN
Meanwhile, the town continues to offer more reasons for residents to stay and visitors to linger. Hickory Nut Gorge Brewery and Camden’s Coffee House opened in 2019. “The brewery and the coffeehouse have been a great addition, and I think
FIBER OPTICS: LeeAnn Petropoulos, owner of Yiayia Black Sheep, says she won’t sell any yarn that she herself won’t use. She prefers supersoft and organic. Photo by Linda Ray help draw other small businesses,” says Sandy Stevenson, director of the Madison County Visitor Center on Main Street. She’s not worried about encroachment from malls and big-box stores. “We’re too small to be on their
radar,” she says. “And we don’t have any flat land.” The mountains have been good to a few longtime businesses on Main
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WHERE THE ART IS: Mars Landing Galleries owner Miryam Rojas loves to show off works like this piece by Mars Hill artist Perry Olds. Photo by Linda Ray Street. Across the street from the visitor center, Stackhouse has been running a brisk lunch and dinner service built around burgers, barbecue and beer since 2015. “We stay busy,” says kitchen manager Kevin Cirtain. “A lot of people are moving out this way, and we have a large, regular local crowd.” The same goes for local institution The Original Papa Nick’s, which first opened in Mars Hill in 1991, according to the eatery’s website. Stevenson says it can be difficult to get a seat for dinner at the family-owned pizzeria and Italian restaurant, especially when special events are going on, such as shows at the Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre or local performances by the national champion Bailey Mountain Cloggers.
GOING FOR GROWTH
Mars Hill’s population of about 3,000 — which includes students at Mars Hill University — is spread across 2 square miles of mountain terrain, according to Nathan Bennett, the town manager. With a 20-minute commute to Asheville on Interstate 26, the hamlet increasingly attracts residents who want to live in a small town but work in a bigger city. Growth has been pretty consistent, Bennett says, as the 2010 census showed residency at about 1,800. Current housing construction projects include a 100-unit and a 20-unit subdivision; both are geared toward working families. According to Bennett, an additional 58-unit 16
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single-family home subdivision near the interstate was recently approved. He says he frequently responds to inquiries about commercial vacancies in the historic downtown but doesn’t know of any firm new offers on the table. “We’re in a good position with the investments made in infrastructure over the last 20 years,” Bennett says, “and we don’t have a lot of restrictions on growth,” adding that the town’s aldermen and mayor are in agreement about the focus for Mars Hill’s future. The plan is to keep it intimate, while growing the tax base and attractiveness for visitors and residents alike. X
First Fridays On the first Friday of each month, this special event invites community members and visitors to support Mars Hill businesses. WHEN Friday, Dec. 3, 5-8 p.m. WHERE Downtown Mars Hill FEATURING Tree lighting, meet Santa Claus, caroling, hot chocolate, ornament making, Bailey Mountain Cloggers and more. MORE INFORMATION Check out the Mars Hill First Fridays Facebook page at avl. mx/auz.
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FEA T U RE S
Q&A with Stephanie Swepson-Twitty, CEO of Eagle Market Streets Development Corporation The Block, an area that spans Eagle and South Market streets in downtown Asheville, was once home to a vibrant residential and commercial district for Black residents. But between the 1950s and 1980s, Asheville’s urban renewal policies that sought to address allegedly “blighted” areas of the city by removing homes and businesses to make way for new developments, forced out Black residents and business owners. Stephanie Swepson-Twitty of Old Fort knows the history of The Block firsthand. After a career in banking and finance, she and her husband opened a shop in 2002, Stevie’s Originals, which sold home decor from the Ivory Coast and Ghana. However, running the business proved to be a struggle for the young entrepreneurs. “We quickly determined that we were sorely lacking in the expertise needed to operate a business,” Swepson-Twitty remembers. “It was more than just being able to show up and be in the shop and treat customers with respect.” She also recalls that “the foot traffic at that time in the Eagle Market Street District was almost nonexistent.” Swepson-Twitty then decided to switch gears. She joined the Eagle Market Streets Development Corp., an Asheville nonprofit founded in 1994 by Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church senior pastor John Grant and his congregants, as an AmeriCorps intern. The nonprofit aims to increase economic and social
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COMMUNITY BUILDER: Stephanie Swepson-Twitty is dedicated to bringing customers and residents back to The Block. Photo courtesy of Swepson-Twitty opportunities in the area through property development and workforce development. By 2008, Swepson-Twitty took to the helm of the organization as the president and CEO. She remains closely involved in the effort to help bring customers and residents back to The Block. Xpress spoke with SwepsonTwitty about the rich history of The Block and the Eagle Market Streets District, and where the area may be heading next. This interview has been condensed for length and edited for clarity. The Housing Act of 1949, which initiated Asheville’s urban renewal project, displaced millions of predominantly African American individuals and families between the 1950s and the 1980s. Can you describe what The Block and the larger Eagle Market Street District used to be like before urban renewal began? Before urban renewal, the area was exceptionally dense with housing and commercial properties. In fact, in 1972 — before urban renewal happened in Asheville — there were
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about 72 conventional residences and about 50 small businesses in the district on The Block. I talk about the district because the Eagle Market Streets District actually spanned Eagle and South Market Streets and College Street, what’s known in the community as East End/Valley Street. It spanned all the way to what is now called South Slope. But before urban renewal came through, it was known as Southside. When [the city] finished with the so-called improvements, the only thing left was The Block. But even in that iteration, there was still an attempt to thrive in the area. There was a pool hall and shoe shineshop [and] The Ritz Cafe. Eagle Market Streets Development Corp. opened in 1994. What was the original vision for the nonprofit? It opened, like many other grassroots organizations that sprang up from the ‘90s through about 2008, as a response to what the community was seeing as a challenge in their neighborhoods. Dr. John Grant is trustee, and some of his congregants were sitting around his kitchen table.
They basically said Eagle Market Streets is so decimated that we actually only have land holdings now of the church, the YMI, the Del Cardo Building, and the Ritz building, the Dr. Collette building. Those five structures were the last bastion of real estate being held by communities of color. They became determined to hold those properties in trust for the community until such time that they could be developed. Eagle Market Streets was born out of an idea to protect the last pieces of real estate that belonged to the African American community at that time in the Eagle Market Streets District. How has The Block changed in recent times? Can you tell me what the area looks like today? In 2010, Eagle Market Streets and Mountain Housing Opportunities entered into a partnership to redevelop about a block of buildings that we had from the end of Limones [restaurant] around to what’s known as 46 South Market St. We were intentional about having the history be forward-facing and the future embraced by that history. You have Eagle Market Streets and Mountain Housing Opportunities as property owners in the district. You have [Mount Zion] still holding significant properties there. And then the YMI Cultural Center continues to be an icon in The Block. We also have Noir Collective AVL, which is an African American-owned business, and [City Council member Sandra] Kilgore Realty. Eagle Market Streets is within the Del Cardo Building, and Sole82 on S. Market Street, which is a sneaker shop. There are all kinds of emerging businesses trying to get their feet on the ground. What do you think The Block and the Eagle Market Streets District will look like 10 years from now? I hope it’s headed towards more equitable inclusiveness, particularly as it relates to the small businesses — [especially ones] that might be in the outdoor or tourism industry. Everything from tech people to people who have storefronts carrying merchandise. I really think that small business will continue to drive us for probably another millenium, so we want to ensure that we have as many participants in that swell as we possibly can. It’s the mission of Eagle Market Streets to develop people, property and businesses, and we envision equity and inclusiveness in all communities. We have a real opportunity to continue to build on the work that we’ve started already.
— Brooke Randle X
SNAPSHOT
CODE PURPLE: Tourists and local shoppers watched from crowded sidewalks as a group of roughly 50 protesters marched through downtown Asheville on Black Friday, demanding adequate shelter for those experiencing homelessness during the cold winter months. “Shame on Asheville, everyone deserves a home,” the group chanted. “Stop the sweeps. People are freezing in the streets.” Photo by Thomas Calder
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Card-carrying members Specialty shops find plenty of reasons to join Go Local
BY JUSTIN MCGUIRE jmcguire@mountainx.com When long-time Asheville residents Margaret Lancaster and Rick Ramsey opened Dog & Pony Show on Haywood Street in August, they knew one thing for certain: They were going to join the Go Local Card network. “I had a Go Local Card, and so I knew the program and understood the program,” Lancaster says. “When we became independent shop owners ourselves, there was no question we wanted to offer a gift back to our community when shopping in our store.” Dog & Pony Show is one of more than a dozen locally owned, independent specialty shops to join Go Local Asheville, the organization that administers the cards, in 2021. More than 500 businesses overall participate in the card program, now entering its 11th year. Go Local allows businesses to offer discounts and freebies to people who buy the card and present it as they shop. Half of the money raised from selling each $20 card goes to Asheville City Schools; the program raised more than $34,000 for education in 2020 and nearly $200,000 since 2012. “When a business signs on, they are saying they stand in solidarity with and support all local, independent businesses; they support our local schools; and they care about our locals,” says Michele Bryan, program and Go Local Card manager with Go Local Asheville. “For a free membership, it communicates many
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WHAT’S IN STORE: Margaret Lancaster and Rick Ramsey decided to partner to open Dog & Pony Show after Lancaster lost a corporate job during the pandemic. “I was looking for what I was going to do with the rest of my life,” she says. Photo by Michelle Baker things about a business loud and clear to the community.” The specialty stores that joined Go Local this year did so for a variety of reasons, ranging from a desire to support Asheville’s schools to a potential sales boost after pandemic-related slumps. But without exception, the owners interviewed by Xpress emphasized the importance of the program’s focus on supporting local businesses, particularly at a time when supply chain issues are plaguing national markets. “By buying from local businesses, you support people who are making a living in your community, Lancaster says. ”[You are] investing back into Asheville; this circle keeps our community vital.“
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THE SHOW MUST GO ON
Dog & Pony Show was born when Lancaster lost her corporate job during the early days of the pandemic and she decided to pursue her dream of opening a business in downtown Asheville. She partnered with her friend Ramsey, a longtime community leader who spent many years chairing the Asheville Downtown Association board.
The store, located at 59 Haywood St., sells a mix of curios, including new products and gifts, locally made art and vintage items sourced from estate sales, antique shows and auctions. Because of national supply chain problems, keeping the store supplied with new items has sometimes presented challenges. Some deliveries may not arrive on time or show up in erratic patterns, Lancaster says. But stocking work by local artists and vintage goods bought locally has not been an issue. “We can go out in the community and find things,” she says. “We’ve had people actually bring things in. We’re very selective, but boy, if it’s something cool, we’re absolutely happy to have it in our store.” More than that, she adds, the store can hand-deliver items bought by people living locally.
GROWN LOCAL
Downtown Asheville businesses aren’t the only ones who benefit from Go Local. Herschel’s, a country store and farmers market that opened in Black Mountain in May, joined the program in September.
“Any conduit that serves to pair local businesses with the community is a win in our book,” says Andrea Watson, who owns and operates the store with her husband, James. “Our friends and neighbors work, eat and play here. Supporting each other helps our community thrive economically and socially.” Local connections are particularly vital to a business like Herschel’s, which gets many of its products directly from local farmers, food producers and artists. The store sells fresh seasonal produce, meat, cheese, milk, local eggs, candles, soap, jams and jellies, jerky, local honey, old-fashioned glass bottle sodas and more. “In our case, food is not shipped across the country, and in many cases, we have met and frequently converse with many of the people who grow and produce the goods and products we sell,” Watson says. “Local goods also tend to be less sensitive to the wild fluctuations in prices and current supply chain issues.”
FUELING RECOVERY
Unlike Dog & Pony Show and Herschel’s, which opened in 2021,
Ariel Gallery has been around for 20 years. The Biltmore Avenue artist-owned fine craft cooperative joined Go Local over the summer. The gallery sells locally made craft products, including ceramics, glass, wood, furniture, fiber and jewelry. The artist/owners take turns working at the gallery. “We were closed for 2 1/2 months last year at the beginning of the pandemic,” says Steven ForbesdeSoule, a gallery co-owner/member. “After re-opening, our business was slow at first but picked up in August. We decided to add Go Local to stimulate local business.” So far, so good: Ariel has made a number of sales due to Go Local, Forbes-deSoule says, and he would recommend the program to other businesses. Dog & Pony Show and Herschel’s say they haven’t yet seen tangible results from being part of Go Local — the stores are just now appearing in the program’s printed directory (included with this issue of Xpress) for the first time — but they expect to. “I would always recommend a service that enhances the local community as this does,” Watson says. X
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BIZ BRIEFS
Sew Co. joins the RAD family In the early 2000s, Libby O’Bryan stayed busy doing domestic production management for fashion industry clients in New York and Chicago. But before long, she began seeing numerous factories shut down and brands take their work overseas. “I started to think about what that meant in terms of skill survival and how people’s jobs and their skills weren’t being valued anymore in our domestic manufacturing economy,” she says. After taking some time off and attending The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, O’Bryan decided to start a cut-and-sew factory to help fill those industry voids with jobs that people could be proud of and where creativity was encouraged. She soon found a like-minded partner in The Oriole Mill in Hendersonville and launched Sew Co. (pronounced “SoCo”) within its walls in 2010. The mill shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Sew Co. remained on-site and shifted its focus to personal protective equipment. In spring and summer 2020, the company produced masks for Weaverville-based Echoview Fiber Mill and 1,000 gowns a week for the state of North Carolina. During that time, O’Bryan was also in search of a new home for her business, preferably in Asheville, and found a space in the River Arts District at 240 Clingman Ave. Ext. After three months of renovation work in summer 2021, Sew Co. received its certificate of occupancy in October. “Most of our crew was living in Asheville, but we were traveling to Hendersonville. We were straddling these two communities and not really digging in to either of them. And then at the mill, we were in kind of an isolated location. We didn’t really have
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PATTERN FOR SUCCESS: Sew Co. founder Libby O’Bryan’s primary mission is the preservation of skill, and her industrial sewing facility is thriving as a result. Photo by Tim Robison neighbors,” O’Bryan says. “Now, we have this public facing location where we have a lot of artists and neighbors who we love and are connecting with.” Sew Co.’s team of 20 — 14-15 of whom are sewers — primarily handles contract work, although the space is also home to the company’s in-house brand, Rite of Passage, designed by O’Bryan’s business partner, Giovanni Daina Palermo. Drawing comparisons with the slow food and local food movements, O’Bryan and her colleagues see fashion becoming a consumer-driven market in which people want to know where and how clothing is made to create more meaningful connections. Spurring those changes is an increasingly youthful workforce. “We have a lot of young sewers under 30 here,” O’Bryan says. “There’s a lot of folks that really want to have that tangible hands-on skill and be physical in their day, not just be behind a screen. That’s been pretty cool to see, too, because for a while there, I was a little panicked that there would be this gap of expertise and skill as that older generation was retiring.” Sew Co. also follows the methods laid out in The Great Game of Business,
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which O’Bryan describes as “openbook management to the next level.” At weekly full-staff meetings, the team looks at financial numbers in real time so that all employees know how to read the company’s profit and loss statement and can contribute to generating projections for the month. “We’re trying to create a culture of agency and ownership within our staff so that they understand how their day-to-day actions affect our numbers — so that then those numbers can go into a profit-sharing model and they can benefit from those numbers,” she explained. “Long-term, it would be amazing if we could be worker-owned and really root that wealth and these jobs here in our community so that they don’t get exported and the people that are actually physically performing this labor with their bones are the people that are getting rewarded for it and have equity in it.” More information is available at avl.mx/aw7.
Everywhere a sign Asheville is home to many franchises, but Board & Brush Creative Studio
is its first to focus on DIY wood signs and home décor. The 1011 Tunnel Road, Suite 120 studio opened Nov. 20 and is run by Lynette and Todd Stewart, North Carolina natives who returned to their home state after 27 years as a U.S. Army family. Aspiring craftspeople of all experience levels are welcome to partake in the instructor-led workshops. Power tools, paint and all other materials are supplied by the studio, and new designs are issued on the first of each month — the latest of which feature holiday celebration themes. Each “Pick Your Project” workshop lasts roughly three hours and costs $68, with pre-registration required. Workshop attendance is currently capped at 18 to allow sufficient room to spread out, and all attendees are required to wear a mask. “Anybody can do it,” says Todd Stewart, who became an unexpected craft convert when Lynette brought him to a workshop at a Board & Brush in Virginia, where they lived prior to Asheville. “You’re not thrown out there on your own, and we lead you step by step. People are surprised at their own talent.” More information is available at avl.mx/aw8.
Boosted signals
UScellular may no longer be the sponsor of Asheville’s largest indoor performance venue, but the company continues to grow and add employment opportunities. Heading into the holiday season, the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the United States is hiring an additional 27 retail store associates in North Carolina. “We strive to provide an excellent wireless experience for our Asheville customers, so we need a diverse, motivated and collaborative team of associates to help us deliver on that goal,” says April Taylor, area sales manager for UScellular in Western North Carolina. Openings are primarily for salespeople, with a focus on selling family and small-business plans. Employees can expect to earn $21-$24 per hour in a combination of hourly pay and commissions when meeting sales targets, and medical and dental insurance, a 401(k), tuition reimbursement and additional incentives are included. All interviews will be conducted virtually in response to concerns over COVID-19. More information is available at avl.mx/aw5.
— Edwin Arnaudin X
FEA T U RE S
Q&A with Jill Sparks, head of A-B Tech Business Incubation Unlike modern job-hoppers who switch roles every few years, Jill Sparks jokes that she’s a “monogamous worker.” She spent over six years at Appalachian State University, primarily in career planning services, and for the past 16 years, she’s worked at A-B Tech. As executive director of the community college’s Business Incubation and Small Business Center, she helps people develop their small-business dreams into reality. But Sparks did not always envision herself working in higher education. As an undergraduate at App State, she earned a bachelor’s degree in history. “I wanted to write questions for ‘Jeopardy!’ or Trivial Pursuit,” she says. Sparks spoke with Xpress about how the local small-business landscape has evolved, why Asheville is hospitable to independent stores and why you want her on your team at a quiz night. Did you always know that you wanted to work with small-business owners? I actually started grad school for counseling. For me, it was too touchy-feely. I switched to the MBA program at Appalachian State University and was a banker. That was still helping people with their financial future. I was really involved at App as an alum, and a position in career planning came open. Since it was in the College of Business, they wanted someone who had a business background but also had the soft skills for counseling. I got lucky — it was a perfect combination of my skill sets. You’ve worked at the Small Business Center at A-B Tech for nearly 16 years. Have the demographics of people starting small businesses changed during that time? The barriers to starting a business have been reduced. You can do so much on your phone; you don’t have to go to Kinkos to print your business cards. The accessibility of promoting your product or service to a global market, really, is huge. I’ve seen more women come in and I think that’s a trend that is nationwide. Also, people of color are starting their own businesses. These are all trends that are reflected nationwide. And younger people,
SHE MEANS BUSINESS: Jill Sparks, executive director of A-B Tech’s Business Incubation and Small Business Center, says there are fewer barriers to starting a business nowadays. Photo courtesy of Sparks too. So many high school students already have businesses. Really? High schoolers? Yes. They can make something and sell it on Etsy or do their TikTok video and drive people to their Instagram. You just need a phone for many things. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s always easy and the money will fall out of the sky. Mobile commerce was not really a thing when I came on board in 2006. What one piece of advice would give to anyone starting a small business? The first thing is to ask yourself is why are you starting a business. Some people may hate their job so much that they overromanticize entrepreneurship. Folks really do have to be passionate and understand that being an entrepreneur and having your own business is 24/7. Also, they have to have a product or service that people are willing and able to pay for. You can have the best chocolate chip cookie in the world. But if no one knows about it, or you can’t communicate that to your target market, you might not be selling anything. And you have to research cash flow. Understanding the money is
probably key — what it costs to make or deliver your product or service to your market, what it costs to advertise for that, what it costs in your time, what it costs for any kind of infrastructure — really understanding the true cost of running a business. That is probably the No. 1 thing. Have you seen any trends in the types of small businesses people are starting?
Since the pandemic, a lot of people are looking at food manufacturing or craft beverages, and not necessarily alcohol. It can be tea; it can be kombucha. At A-B Tech Enka, we have Blue Ridge Food Ventures, which is a commercial kitchen, and also NC BioNetwork, which is a community college program. They have a test research and development kitchen and a laboratory, which can do a variety of testing for food, natural products and beverages. Having the resources in Western North Carolina helps people realize, “Oh, I was thinking I might want to bottle my hot sauce or make my famous chocolate chip cookies.” What makes Asheville a hospitable place for small businesses? There’s a certain sense of independence among folks in WNC — that, coupled with the artistic vibe that is here. Also, for a very long time, there were no chains downtown. Asheville has a great Go Local Card. That’s one of the most important cards I have in my wallet! Keeping shopping local top of mind is really important, and conveying that to tourists as well. We hope tourists are coming up for the local independent business scene, and making that accessible to them is key. If you were to ever open your own small business, what would it be? A bookstore. I put myself through college working at the college library at App State. Then I worked at an independent bookstore for about five years when I was saving for grad school, the Intimate Bookshop in Charlotte. You mentioned wanting to write questions for “Jeopardy!” Have you ever auditioned? No. But golly, history majors have random facts. I’ll see a passcode and I’m like, “Oh, 1588 — the defeat of the Spanish Armada!”
— Jessica Wakeman X
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‘Everything that’s worth seeing’ Performers from a musical comedy flop tour the city’s specialty shops, 1917
LIVE PROMO: A troupe of visiting performers toured Asheville’s specialty shops as part of a promotional campaign in December 1917. Despite the group’s tireless efforts, the production itself proved to be poorly attended by local residents. Screenshot from the Dec. 3, 1917, edition of The Asheville Times “All aboard for the Beauty Shop Special!” declared the Dec. 3, 1917, edition of The Asheville Times. “In three Maxwell automobiles 20 of the prettiest girls you ever saw, principals and members of the chorus of the ‘Beauty Shop,’ are going on a tour of Asheville Tuesday.” Tickets for the musical comedy had gone on sale two days prior. “The show is declared to be something unusual,” The Asheville Citizen reported in its Dec. 1, 1917, publication, “with a number of song hits and feature dances that are out of the ordinary.” According to The Asheville Times’ Dec. 3 article, the show’s cast was scheduled to take in “everything that’s worth seeing in the Mountain City.” This amounted to a series of promotional stops, including calls to the Whitemire Motor Sales Co. on Broadway, Dunham’s Music House on Pack Square, The New Globe (shoe store) on Biltmore Avenue and the Paramount Drug Store on Patton Avenue. Some of the visits offered the troupe members a chance to show off their talents. For example, at Dunham’s Music House, the production’s leading man, Frank W. Shea, performed a piano recital on one of the shop’s instruments. Meanwhile, at the drugstore, a dancing exhibition was led. 24
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But other appearances, such as the troupe’s hour at The New Globe, seemed quite underwhelming. “The beauties will demonstrate the newest ladies’ footwear,” the paper stated. The group’s tour was set to conclude at the offices of The Asheville Times, where “for half an hour [the troupe] will live the life of the ‘newsies,’ as they sell the last edition of the Times on the streets.” Despite the chorus’s jampacked promotional tour, the production itself appears to have been an overhyped, underattended flop. “A comparatively small audience witnessed the presentation of ‘The Beauty Shop’ at the Auditorium last night, but those who failed to see it did not miss anything extraordinary,” The Asheville Citizen declared in its Dec. 5, 1917, edition. “As it was presented here, ‘The Beauty Shop’ was a musical comedy with none too much music and not a world of comedy,” the article continued. “While the production has several good features, notably dancing specialties, it is lacking in good soloists. Of the chorus it may be said that its members made up in looks what they lacked in musical ability.” Editor’s note: Peculiarities of spelling and punctuation are preserved from the original documents. X
COMMUNITY CALENDAR DEC. 1-9, 2021
COMMUNITY MUSIC
For a full list of community calendar guidelines, please visit mountainx.com/calendar. For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, opt. 4. For questions about paid calendar listings, please call 828-251-1333, opt. 1.
Asheville Baroque Virtual Concert Lutenist Daniel Swenberg joins Gail Ann Schroeder for a program of music for viola da gamba, lute and theorbo. Pre-recorded in St Giles Chapel at Deerfield. SU (12/5), 3pm, avl.mx/awg
Online Events = Shaded WELLNESS Yoga and the 12 Steps of Recovery (Y12SR) The Y12SR model addresses addiction as a physical, mental and spiritual disease. WE (12/1, 8), 8:30am, Free, Asheville Yoga Center, 211 S Liberty St Montford Tai Chi Hosted by local acupuncturist Tyler White. All ages, every Thursday. TH (12/2, 9), 9am, Free, Montford Recreation Center, 34 Pearson Dr Yoga in the Park All-level friendly Hatha/ Vinyasa flow taught by certified yoga instructor Cieara Cartony along the French Broad River. SA (12/4), SU (12/5), 1:30pm, Carrier Park, 220 Amboy Rd Skate-ville All levels. Every Sunday. SU (12/5), 3pm, Carrier Park, 220 Amboy Rd Ben's Friends A local meeting of the national support group for people in the hospitality industry struggling with addiction. MO (12/6), 10am, Free, AB Tech Culinary Arts & Hospitality School, 30 Tech Dr Introduction to Tai Chi Taught by Roger Byrd Class size is limited. TU (12/7), 10:30am, Free, Asheville Yoga Center, 211 S Liberty St Steady Collective Syringe Access Outreach Free naloxone, syringes and educational material on harm reduction. TU (12/7), 2pm, Firestorm Books & Coffee, 610 Haywood Rd Bereavement Support Group For those over 21 who have lost an adult loved one, the session is peer-led and coordinated by trained and certified facilitator Will Weintraub. RSVP is required by calling Will, 412-913-0272. TU (12/7), 6pm, Woodfin YMCA, 40 N Merrimon Ave, Ste 101 Quest4Life 5Rhythms Waves Class Weekly instructional classes based on Gabrielle Roth's work. No dance experience
necessary. TU (12/7), 7pm, $12-22, Terpsicorps Academy, 1501 Patton Ave
BRO Revels! 2021 with the Kruger Brothers The orchestra's annual holiday concert, with the second half featuring the full orchestra alongside bluegrass trio the Krüger Brothers, performing a blend of traditional tunes and original compositions. SU (12/5), 3pm, $5-15, Lipinsky Auditorium-UNC Asheville, 300 Library Ln
WNC Prostate Group Us TOO This month’s speaker will be urologist Dr Nina Harkhani of Advent Health. For info 828-419-4565, wncprostate@gmail.com. TU (12/7), 7pm, Free, avl.mx/axe Ready. Set. Goals. A 45-minute workshop where certified health coaches will be teaching how to effectively set goals. WE (12/8), 4:30pm, Free, YMCA - Asheville, 30 Woodfin St
ART World AIDS Day: Day With(out) Art A partnership with WNC AIDS Project and Visual AIDS. WE (12/1), TH (12/2), FR (12/3), SA (12/4), SU (12/5), Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square The Last Rock & Roll Art Show Fourteen artists from NC were given 12 months to create or produce pieces for the exhibition. Artwork and photography for bands include popular acts such as Widespread Panic, Animal Collective and Wilco. WE (12/1, 8), TH (12/2, 9), FR (12/3), SA (12/4), SU (12/5), MO (12/6), TU (12/7), Push Skate Shop & Gallery, 25 Patton Ave Joyful Light A group show featuring images that welcome the light and joy of the season. A Meet the Artists event will be held on Dec. 3, 5-8pm. WE (12/1, 8), TH (12/2, 9), FR (12/3), SA (12/4), SU (12/5), MO (12/6), TU (12/7), Asheville Gallery of Art, 82 Patton Ave A Dance of Images and Words: The Nancy Graves/Pedro Cuperman Tango Portfolio Exhibition presents Graves’s eight prints alongside the portfolio frontispiece and a page of Cuperman’s tex. WE (12/1, 8), TH (12/2, 9), FR (12/3), SA (12/4), SU (12/5), MO (12/6), Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square
FILL IN THE BLANK: The Magnetic Theatre will present the dark comedy It’s the Most _____ Time of the Year: Oil on Canvas Friday-Saturday, Dec. 3-4, and Thursday, Dec. 9, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 5, at 4 p.m. Written by local author Erin McCarson and directed by Jessica Johnson, the show features, from left, Strother Stingley, Jane Hallstrom, Clara Burrus, David Mycoff, Petey Smith-McDowell and Dillon Giles. Photo by Cheyenne Dancy Photography Gestures: Mid-Century Abstraction from the Collection This exhibition explores works in a variety of media that speak to the vibrant abstract experiments in American art making during the middle of the 20th century. WE (12/1, 8), TH (12/2, 9), FR (12/3), SA (12/4), SU (12/5), MO (12/6), Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square Modernist Design at Black Mountain College Highlights the collection of design from Black Mountain College and situates it in the context of its influences and surroundings at BMC. WE (12/1, 8), TH (12/2, 9), FR (12/3), SA (12/4), SU (12/5), MO (12/6), Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square Ruminations on Memory On view in conjunction with A Living Language: Cherokee Syllabary and Contemporary Art. WE (12/1, 8), TH (12/2, 9), FR (12/3), SA (12/4), SU (12/5), MO (12/6), Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square Small Work/Big Impact An annual exhibition that assembles intimately-scaled works in a variety of media by gallery artists and special guests. WE (12/1, 8), TH (12/2, 9), FR (12/3),
SA (12/4), SU (12/5), MO (12/6), TU (12/7), Momentum Gallery, 24 N Lexington Ave Nocturne A collection of works in a variety of media that celebrates the drama and mystery of the night. WE (12/1, 8), TH (12/2, 9), FR (12/3), SA (12/4), SU (12/5), MO (12/6), TU (12/7), Momentum Gallery, 24 N Lexington Ave Bullets & Bandaids A touring exhibition from a nonprofit veteran and civilian collaborative project. TH (12/2), 5pm, One World Brewing West, 520 Haywood Rd Unearthing Our Forgotten Past Exhibit exploring the Spanish occupation of Fort San Juan and the native people who lived in the Joara area of WNC. Sponsored by the Western NC Historical Association. TH (12/2, 9), FR (12/3), SA (12/4), Smith-McDowell House Museum, 283 Victoria Rd NUMBERNINE Art Exhibition & Opening Reception All new works by Trust Studio, with music by DJ Little Fury and Peruvian food by Caro. FR (12/3), 6pm, The Refinery AVL, 207 Coxe Ave
ART/CRAFT STROLLS & FAIRS FernLeaf Craft Fair: Winter Fest Over two dozen local artisan vendors with a kids crafting table, live DJ, gift wrapping station, raffle, bonfire, soups and hot drinks. A portion of sales to benefit FernLeaf Community Charter School. SA (12/4), 10am, Free, Fern Leaf Charter School, 58 Howard Gap Rd, Fletcher Jackson Arts Market Weekly event every Saturday through Dec. 18. SA (12/4), 1pm, 533 W Main St, Sylva
Fairview Handmade Market Twenty local craft vendors, live music and a food truck, outdoors. Bring donations for Food for Fairview to be entered to win a prize. SU (12/5), Turgua Brewing Co, 3131 Cane Creek Rd, Fairview Mountain Makers Craft Market A monthly indie art fair designed to cultivate community in WNC, with 20+ artisans selling handmade and vintage goods. SU (12/5), 12pm, Free, Haywood Square Plaza, 308 N Haywood St, Waynesville
SPOKEN & WRITTEN WORD Julyan Davis presents A History of Saints at Blue Spiral Gallery The author presents his debut novel. WE (12/1), 5:30pm, Blue Spiral 1, 38 Biltmore Ave
Malaprop's Crime and Politics Book Club Participants will discuss Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy TH (12/2), 7pm, Registration required, avl.mx/a3t Atlas of the Heart Launch w/Brené Brown The author discusses her book with Priya Parker. TH (12/2), 8pm, Registration required, avl.mx/av7 North Carolina: Land of Water, Land of Sky A discussion among Bland Simpson, Ann Cary Simpson and Tom Earnhardt, co-hosted by UNCA Press and the NC Arboretum. The Rev. Kirk Brown will provide introductions. MO (12/6), 6pm, Registration required, avl.mx/av8 Hybrid Event: Mallory McDuff presents Our Last Best Act, with Liz Teague This event with Mallory McDuff will feature music by singer and songwriter Liz Teague, who also works as a city planner in Waynesville. TU (12/7), 6:30pm, Registration required, Malaprop's Bookstore and Cafe, 55 Haywood St
Malaprop's Book Club Participants will discuss Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar. WE (12/1), 7pm, Registration required, avl.mx/aa2
Malaprop's WILD (Women in Lively Discussion) Book Club Participants will discuss Vesper Flights by Helen MacDonald. TU (12/7), 6:30pm, Registration required, avl.mx/9or
Weaverville Library Afternoon Book Club A discussion of Wonder by R.J. Palacio. TH (12/2), 3pm, Registration required, avl.mx/axc
Miss Malaprop's Storytime Recommended for ages 3-9. WE (12/8), 10am, Registration required, avl.mx/7b9
Swannanoa Library Book Club A discussion of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. TH (12/2), 4pm, avl.mx/axb
Discussion Bound Book Club Participants will discuss Bohemians, a novel by Jasmin Darznik. WE (12/8), 12pm, Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square
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UNC Press Presents G. Samantha Rosenthal, author of Living Queer History, in conversation with Samantha Allen The authors discuss Rosenthal's book. WE (12/8), 7pm, Registration required, avl.mx/avd 2021 Thomas Wolfe Memorial Award The award ceremony will celebrate the five finalists for the 2021 award with readings and remarks by each author. TH (12/9), 6:30pm, avl.mx/axi
THEATER A Flat Rock Playhouse Christmas A family-friendly holiday song and dance revue, featuring seasonal classics along with several new adaptations and medleys. TH (12/2, 9), FR (12/3), SA (12/4), SU (12/5), WE (12/8), Various times, Flat Rock Playhouse, 2661 Hwy 225, Flat Rock The Nutcracker and the Mouse King Tenth annual performance from Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre, based on the original, dark story written in 1816 by German author E.T.A. Hoffmann. FR (12/3), 7:30pm, SA (12/4), 2pm & 7:30pm, $23-32, Diana Wortham Theatre, 18 Biltmore Ave
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A Darkly Hilarious Holiday Alternative: It’s the Most ____ Time of the Year: Oil on Canvas A dark comedy with a contemporary take on family dynamics, traditions, and the power of love. Written by local author Erin McCarson and directed by Jessica Johnson. FR (12/3), SA (12/4), 7:30pm, SU (12/5), 4pm, TH (12/9), 7:30pm, $25, The Magnetic Theatre, 375 Depot St
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An Appalachian Christmas Carol Through the use of shadow theatre and moving panoramas the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future lead Zebulon in an exploration of the life of Venus, a woman enslaved by the Vances. SA (12/4), H (12/9), 6pm, Vance Birthplace, 911 Reems Creek Rd, Weaverville Reasonably Priced Babies The troupe will ask the audience for suggestions that they will make come to ife, including improvised music. SA (12/4), 7pm, $15, Black Mountain Center for the Arts, 225 W State St, Black Mountain
CLASSES, MEETINGS & WORKSHOPS Introduction to Medicare - Understanding the Puzzle The Council on Aging of Buncombe County, in conjunction with the N.C. Department of Insurance’s SHIIP, is presenting a webinar that will explain how Medicare works. To register, visit www. coabc.org or call (828)277-8288. TH (12/2), 2pm, avl.mx/9hz Spanish Conversation Group Practice your language skills, weekly. Presented by Enka-Candler Library. TH (12/2), 4:30pm, avl.mx/axd WE do Standup: Intro to Comedy Workshop A workshop to try standup for the very first time. To reserve, email modelfacecomedy@gmail.com. TH (12/2), 7pm, $20, The Getaway River Bar, 790 Riverside Dr
What Can We Do about Single-Use Plastics? Anna Alsobrook of MountainTrue and Drew Ball, former executive director of Environment NC, will talk about how single-use plastics are polluting our waterways and what we can do locally.com, (828) 683-2176. TH (12/2), 7pm, Free, avl.mx/977 Livable Appalachia: Transportation Solutions A series presented in partnership with AARP and national and local leaders. FR (12/3), 10am, avl.mx/awy Mountain True Hike to Tusquitee Bald A moderate to strenuous 7.2 mile hike. SA (12/4), 9am, $5-15, Registration required, Bristol Fields Horse Camp, Hayesville Revising Your Work Writers of fiction and non-fiction will learn how to edit and revise their works before submitting to an agent or publisher. In-person and online. SA (12/4), 10am, The Writers' Workshop, 387 Beaucatcher Rd
FOOD & BEER Weaverville Tailgate Market Local weekly market every Wednesday through Dec. 22. WE (12/1, 8), 2pm, 60 Monticello Rd, Weaverville RAD Farmers Market Local weekly market every Wednesday through Dec. 22. WE (12/1, 8), 3pm, 289 Lyman St ASAP Farmers Market Local market, Saturdays through Dec. 18. SA (12/4), 9am, A-B Tech, 340 Victoria Rd
West Asheville Tailgate Market Local market every Tuesday through Dec. 21. TU (12/7), 3:30pm, 718 Haywood Rd
HOLIDAY EVENTS 15th Annual Gingerbread Cookie Contest Entries Sought Cookies must be 100% edible and submitted by Dec. 1. Winners will be announced during Narnia Studios’ 27th Annual Christmas Open House on Dec. 3, with cookies on display throughout that weekend. Narnia Studio, 408 N Main St, Hendersonville Deck The Trees: A Black Mountain Christmas Thirty-five plus decorated trees situated at the Monte Vista Hotel and in stores and businesses throughout Black Mountain and the Swannanoa Valley area, to help raise funds for the Swannanoa Valley Christian Ministry Fuel Fund. Daily through Jan. 3. Free, Monte Vista Hotel, 308 W. State St, Black Mountain Winter Wonderland The historic 1920s Grove Arcade is decked for the holidays with Mr. and Mrs. Claus visits, a tree lighting ceremony, indoor snow and more. Through Jan. 3. Grove Arcade, 1 Page Ave NC Arboretum Winter Lights This year’s theme is Forest and Garden Whimsy. The event is the Arboretum’s largest annual fundraiser, to support educational programs. Nightly through Jan. 1. 6pm, $25-30 per vehicle, NC Arboretum, 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way
Lake Julian Festival of Lights A drive-through tour with thousands of lights around the lake, with 20% of proceeds to benefit Special Olympics of Buncombe County. Nightly through Dec. 23. 6pm, $10-25 per vehicle, Lake Julian Park and Marina, 406 Overlook Extension, Arden Peppermint Bear Scavenger Hunt Help mama bear Peppermint locate her lost cubs by picking up a scavenger hunt brochure at the Hendersonville Visitor Center and search for them at downtown merchants. Daily. Historic Downtown Hendersonville, 145 5th Ave, Hendersonville Winter Tree Carnival Over 50 decorated trees will be on display, featuring creative, unique decor from local brands and non-profits. Daily except Monday (weather permitting). Outdoors. Free, Rabbit Rabbit, 75 Coxe Ave Miracle on Haywood Road A holiday-themed pop up bar with specialty drinks and decor. Nightly except Wednesdays. The Golden Pineapple, 503 Haywood Rd Sippin’ Santa A holiday oasis with festive décor and a tiki themed cocktail menu, with 10% of all proceeds from the sale of signature glassware to the James Beard Foundation’s Open for Good campaign, to aid the relief efforts of independent restaurants. Daily. The Montford Rooftop Bar, 199 Haywood St 29th Annual National Gingerbread House Competition A holiday tradition, on display daily through Jan. 22. The Omni Grove Park Inn, 290 Macon Ave
NCGC Winter Wonderland With glass ornaments, snowflakes, snowmen, candy canes, and live glassblowing demonstrations. WE (12/1, 8) TH (12/2, 9), FR (12/3), SA (12/4), SU (12/5), MO (12/6), North Carolina Glass Center, 140 Roberts St, Ste B Holiday Magic Marketplace and Exhibition An invitational event with homemade gifts created by local artists including jewelry, pottery, sculpture, paintings, photography, fibert arts, wood working and more. Saturdays with music and games from 1-4pm. Through Dec. 23. WE (12/1, 8), TH (12/2, 9), FR (12/3), SA (12/4), TU (12/7), 11am, Transylvania Community Arts Council, 349 S Caldwell St, Brevard Holiday Pop Up Market 50+ vendors of handmade, vintage and fair trade from sweet treats to jewelry, decor, greeting cards, and more. TH (12/2), 12pm, Archetype Tap Lounge + Venue, 174 Broadway Kris Kringle Holiday Market Over 30 local vendors, Santa Claus, carolers, hot cocoa, a scavenger hunt and more. FR (12/3), 2:30pm, Smathers Square, 118 Main St, Canton A Dickens Christmas Over two dozen roving Dickens-themed acts will be performing entirely outdoors, around the Village and on the Village Green stage. FR (12/3), SA(12/4), Historic Biltmore Village, 10 Brook St Olde Fashioned Christmas Shops stay open late, Santa hosts an event on the square, carriage
rides, Christmas music from the Hendersonville High School brass ensemble, plus refreshments and hot apple cider. FR (12/3), Historic Downtown Hendersonville, 145 5th Ave E, Hendersonville Bullington Gardens Holiday Craft & Greenery Sale Locally-grown holiday plants, limited ornaments and wreaths and swags enhanced with botanicals gathered on the grounds will be sold. FR (12/3), SA (12/4), Bullington Gardens, 95 Upper Red Oak Trail, Hendersonville Candlelight Christmas Tours Visitors will take part in a guided tour of the decorated 1880 farmhouse, visit with the heritage weavers and fiber artists, listen to live music by local high school students, partake in hot cocoa and cookies, and more. FR (12/3), SA (12/4), 5pm, $15-20, Historic Johnson Farm, 3346 Haywood Rd, Hendersonville Holly Jolly Shopping Event Visit with Santa at the Old Depot, walk the Christmas tree-lined streets and enjoy the entertainment on the corner of Sutton Ave and Cherry St. FR (12/3), 5:30pm, Downtown Black Mountain, 125 Cherry St, Black Mountain The Holiday Bazaar Since 1980, providing local, sustainably produced food and crafts. Over 40 vendors, Saturdays through Dec. 18. SA (12/4), 8am, North Asheville Tailgate Market, 3300 University Heights A Very Merry Ugly Sweater Run Runners can choose from a 5k or 10k. A virtual race option for each distance is also available. Holiday cheer is strongly encouraged. SA (12/4), 8:30am, The Riveter, 701 Old Fanning Bridge Rd, Mills River 94th Annual Holiday Greens Market This historical event features unique, handmade goods created by regional artists including wreaths, centerpieces, pottery, ornaments, baked goods and more. One hundred percent of the proceeds supports local horticulture and conservation scholarships and projects. SA (12/4), 9am, Clem's Cabin, 1000 Hendersonville Rd
Hendersonville Holiday Market Regular season vendors, in addition to a plethora of handmade artisan crafts including unique gifts and holiday decorations. SA (12/4), 10am, Hendersonville Farmers Market, 650 Maple St, Hendersonville Shabbat Chanukah Shabbat Services followed by dairy Kiddush luncheon. SA (12/4), 10am, Chabad House, 127 McDowell St Holiday Arts Festival at The Refinery AVL Items from cards, prints, t-shirts, silk scarves, mixed media, paintings and more, from a non-profit supportive art space for creatives who have been impacted by mental health needs, addiction or being unhoused. SA (12/4), 11am, The Refinery AVL, 207 Coxe Ave Sixth Annual Holiday Craft Bazaar An array of over 26 all local craft vendors w/ live music from Bald Mountain Boys and Doug McElvy and Friends, full menu, bar and kids area. SA (12/4), 11am, Free, Asheville Music Hall, 31 Patton Ave Black Mountain Christmas Parade An annual event featuring over 50 floats, vehicles and performers, as well as Santa Claus. SA (12/4), 2pm, Black Mountain Swannanoa Chamber of Commerce, 201 E State St, Black Mountain Holiday Harp and Flute: Festive and Merry Presented by Pan Harmonia, with Kate Steinbeck on flute and John Wickey on harp. Donations appreciated. SA (12/4), 3pm, Free, St Mary's Episcopal Church, 337 Charlotte St Light Up the Night Holiday Stroll This celebration features activities including the official tree lighting ceremony, caroling and the reading of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. SA (12/4), 4pm, Downtown Brevard, 175 East Main St, Brevard Hallelujah! A Christmas Celebration with Montreat College Choir & Orchestra An annual concert with choir students and alumni as well as faculty and staff performers, plus an orchestra with students and community members. SA (12/4), 7pm, Anderson Auditorium, Lookout Rd, Montreat
Photos with Santa Visitors receive one free 4” by 6” photo and digital download of a single image (while supplies last). SA (12/4), SU (12/5), Asheville Outlets, 800 Brevard Rd Holiday Bazaar More than 30 vendors with crafts, art, and unique vintage finds, with Root Down food truck and a full bar. Bring donations of non-perishable food items, lightly used coats and blankets, and new toys for a collection in partnership with Beloved Asheville. SU (12/5), 12pm, Salvage Station, 468 Riverside Dr Refraction Holiday Arts Market A curated art market celebrating the vibrant artistic energy at the heart of the River Arts District. SU (12/5), 12pm, The Wedge at Foundation, 5 Foundy St Historic Johnson Farm Christmas Tours Tour the decorated farmhouse and learn about the farm’s history. MO (12/6), TU (12/7), WE (12/8), TH (12/9), 10:30am, $5-15, Historic Johnson Farm, 3346 Haywood Rd, Hendersonville Blue Ridge Ringers: Carols of the Bells WNC's community handbell ensemble will perform traditional carols from around the world mixed with contemporary holiday music. MO (12/6), 12pm, Free, Transylvania County Library, 212 S. Gaston St, Brevard Starlight Luminary Display This drive-through event will feature approximately 2,000 luminaries as well as seasonal music. Donations accepted to support DayStay Adult Day Services, a non-profit adult day care. MO (12/6), 5:30pm, Forest Lawn Memorial park, 1 Chapel of Faith Dr, Candler Advent Pause Concert with Tate Addis An instrumental concert with organ, offered in the FBCA sanctuary. Tuesdays during Advent. TU (12/7), 12pm, First Baptist Church of Asheville, 5 Oak St Home for the Holidays with Halie Loren Jazzy Christmas favorites and original songs. TU (12/7), 7:30pm, Brevard Music Center, 349 Andante Ln, Brevard International Holiday Market Weavings, jewelry, clothing, pottery,
parasols, purses, shoes, and children's items, handmade from all over the world. WE (12/8), 9:30am, Harvest House, 205 Kenilworth Rd Santa Paws at Highland Brewing Photos with Santa Paws to benefit the Asheville Humane Society. Pets welcome. WE (12/8), 5pm, Highland Brewing Co., 12 Old Charlotte Hwy Citizen Vinyl Holiday Pop Up Local goods and items. TH (12/9), 9am, Citizen Vinyl, 14 O Henry Ave Holiday Storytelling With local tellers Chuck Fink, Kathy Gordon, Chet Allen and Jill Totman. Sponsored by the Weaverville Center for Creative and Healthy Living. TH (12/9), 6pm, Lake Louise Community Center, Weaverville
SPIRITUALITY Baha'i Sunday Devotional An informal, unstructured gathering via Zoom. All are welcome. SU (12/5), 10am, avl.mx/a4t Conditions of Life Three members of the Gurdjieff Foundation of WNC will share how the Gurdjieff teaching has shaped their understanding of the pandemic, and how COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their practice. SU (12/5), 4pm, Gurdjieff Foundation of WNC, 4 Richmond Ave Jewish Women's Circle: Torah and Tea The theme is "Well-Connected." TH (12/9), 10:30am, Chabad House, 127 McDowell St
VOLUNTEERING Experiential Garden Volunteers Needed Looking for people who are interested in landscaping, gardening, carpentry, and art. Please contact Polly Phillips at pphillips@ verneremail.org. Verner Center for Early Learning, 2586 Riceville Rd Project Linus The WNC chapter is seeking volunteers to make children’s blankets to donate to area children in crisis. Contact Ellen Knoefel at (828)645-8800, gknoefel@charter. net or Pat Crawford (828)873-8746.
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DEC. 1-7, 2021
27
WELLNESS
Skin deep
Asheville’s skin care shops soothe winter dryness
BY SOORYA TOWNLEY sagesroad@gmail.com Everyone knows Asheville is the place to go for craft beer, outdoor gear and anything a person could possibly want with a black bear emblazoned on it. Less attention is paid, though, to the many businesses selling locally made skin care products. True to Western North Carolina’s independent-minded ethos, many of these skin care lines are made in smaller batches using sustainably sourced ingredients and without potentially irritating chemicals. Asheville may have gotten an Ulta Beauty this year, but there are plenty of places to shop local when trying to nourish chapped winter skin. Here are four shops that sell skin care products, from soaps to serums to bath bombs. GREAT-GRANDMOTHER’S INSPIRATION Owner Victor Taylor of Appalachian Natural Soaps got an
SCRUBBING BUBBLES: Victor Taylor of Appalachian Natural Soaps got an early start learning about soap making from his great-grandmother. Photo courtesy of Taylor
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early start learning about soap-making from his great-grandmother, with whom he lived in the Blue Ridge Mountains. “I thought my name was ‘Git Wood’ until I was 12 because I ran back and forth keeping the fire going for her concoctions,” he laughs. She made her soaps from pork fat and lye. As an adult, Taylor inherited his great-grandmother’s soap pot. One day, he showed off his soap-making skills to his wife, Pam Taylor, and their children. “Pam washed with one bar for a week and marveled at how her skin allergies disappeared,” he says. (Larger skin care brands that use petroleum and sulfites, which are used as preservatives, in their products may have caused irritation, he believes.) As soon as the couple began gifting their soaps to friends, they switched from animal fat to vegetable
oils and added plant extracts and essential oils as well. Word got around about their soaps, and Appalachian Natural Soaps opened in 2008. Taylor’s great-grandma’s original pot still sits inside Taylor’s store, and their skin care products are still produced locally. They are made without fragrances, preservatives and paraffins, a petroleum-based wax. Appalachian Natural Soaps sells other skin care products, like an exfoliating coffee butter face and body polish, a hand sanitizer made from essential oils, bath bombs, beard balm, lip balm and hand soap. Taylor is proud that his Sunshine moisturizer contains six botanical oils (organic jojoba oil, extra virgin organic coconut oil, golden shea butter, argan oil, mango butter and cocoa butter).
Eat, Drink & Be Merry
Do your part to prevent underage drinking. Talk to your kids about healthy, safe options to celebrate the holiday season!
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The brand has had “outstanding experiences” in the community, Taylor says. “Before the Parkridge Hospital [now AdventHealth Hendersonville] was sold, they entrusted us to make soap for the newborns,” he explains. “It was an honor.” avl.mx/av1
SLOWING DOWN
Heidi Vasone began making skin care products while she was a stayat-home mom and she launched Bonny Bath in 2009. Determined not to add processed chemicals to her products, she chose plants and essential oils as ingredients. “All my efforts came out of persistence to raise my four children using as many wholesome remedies from Mother Earth as possible,” she says. Vasone’s products range from body butters, baking soda-based deodorant, organic perfume and even tooth polish. She offers a few moisturizers called Shimmers — made from raw organic shea butter, raw organic coconut oil and mica — which come in several shades. Additionally, Renewing Skin Serum is made from organic avocado oil,
ARTISAN-APPROVED Seventeen years ago, Cara Steinbuchel was co-manager of a ceramics studio in Asheville called Mud Hunter Pottery Gallery. The owner asked her to concoct a lotion to help potters whose hands had dried out from working with clay. She loaned Steinbuchel the money to get started, and the rest is “herstory.” Right away, customers exclaimed how Steinbuchel’s formula, containing shea butter, aloe and macadamia nut oil, relieved their dryness. Potters’ Skin Butter, which bills itself as “deep hydration for hard-working hands,” was born. Of course, Potters’ Skin Butter can be used by anyone — although it did get a shoutout in a May 2021 issue of Harper’s Bazaar magazine by ceramicist Tracie Hervy. The testimonials on Cara Mae Skin Care’s website include accolades from everyone from farmers to nurses to beauty bloggers. With creative input from Michelle Rogers, Steinbuchel’s spouse and chief operations officer, and support from Mountain BizWorks, the business has expanded to offer four scents: lavender, mint, tangerine and an unscented lotion for those with sensitive skin. All versions of Potters’ Skin Butter come in both hand and body lotion varieties. Cara Mae Skin Care also proudly uses spring water for its lotion from Blue Moon Water, an Asheville-based company that sources from a mountain spring in Henderson County. avl.mx/av4 X
FREE ADVICE: Heidi Vasone loves to give personalized recommendations from the Bonny Bath booth at the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project farmers market. Photo courtesy of Soorya Townley rosehip seed oil and frankincense and cedarwood essential oils. She loves working in Asheville’s many outdoor markets, like the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project Farmer’s Market and the Maverick’s Freedom Market in Weaverville. She also enjoys giving personalized skin care recommendations. “I consider my booth a hub for patrons to discuss their problems,” she says. “I take the time to address my customer’s needs to make sure everyone feels heard and fulfilled. I am teaching people to slow down.” avl.mx/av2 ‘MOTHER NATURE KNOWS BEST’ In 2011, Jennifer Maves dreamed of helping others with skin “food” and launched ZenJenSkin, her organic skin care line. “I include plant extracts instead of water as a base to my products,” Maves says. “Since I am a small business, not producing on a massive scale, I can add more nutrient value to my formulas.” ZenJenSkin includes a wide variety of skin care products, including toners, dark circle repair cream, face lotion and lip balms. Her cacao brightening face mask contains powdered cacao beans and camu camu powder, which contains vitamin C. And her Zensitive Serum for Sensitive Skin contains ingredients that are gentle on dry and allergy-prone skin, like colloidal oatmeal, chamomile and aloe vera. Many of the ingredients in ZenJenSkin products are Amazonian plant-based, after Maves traveled to
Ecuador and Peru and learned about moriche (also called buriti palm). Moriche contains vitamin A, as well as beta carotene, according to the journal Ecology of Food and Nutrition. Maves also learned the sacha inchi nut (also called the mountain peanut), whose oil is extracted and used for skin care products, according to the health news website Healthline. “I love the pure essence of using the whole plant instead of an isolated portion,” says Maves. “Mother Nature embodies harmony, and she knows best!” avl.mx/av3
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ARTS & CULTURE
Going out in style
Costume shops serve diverse community desires business picked up and led to the best Halloween she’s had since owning The Costume Shoppe. “Everyone was ready to get out of their homes,” she says. The two-month Carolina Renaissance Festival in Huntersville also drove sales this October and November. Now Watts is gearing up for Christmas, one of the store’s busiest times each year as people rent Santa Claus, Grinch and elf outfits. Meanwhile, New Year’s Eve, the local Mardi Gras scene and Easter typically keep the shop busy through April. But once the Easter bunny leaves town, Watts says things calm down for a bit. The downtime allows her to focus on ordering, though finding quality textiles that can withstand the wear and tear of rentals has become more difficult. “The Costume Shoppe has been in business so long that it’s outlasted some vendors. Some places where you could get certain things have gone away, and it can be tricky trying to figure out applying that kind of quality in the market now,” she says. “But some of my vendors are still family-owned businesses, so you can literally just call them up and talk to the cousin or their uncle and ask them specific questions about the costumes that you’re thinking about buying.” avl.mx/aul
BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN earnaudin@mountainx.com Halloween has come and gone, but a look at Asheville’s costume shops suggests that area residents can always find an excuse to get dressed up. And just as clothing styles vary from person to person, so, too, do the approaches of local shop owners and designers. While some arrived to the industry by happenstance, others have spent decades developing their craft.
MAINTAINING TRADITIONS
The private Facebook group WAX – West Asheville Exchange is a valuable resource for selling a range of items, reuniting owners with lost pets and serving as a sounding board for neighborhood happenings. For Tawnya Watts, it also proved useful for buying a business. Such was the case in 2017 when one of Watts’ friends saw a post advertis-
OUTFITTED: This Biomech set is one of many pieces that Organic Armor founder Paul Hersey has crafted over the years. Photo by Nic Adams ing the sale of The Costume Shoppe. Susan Sertain, who’d owned the store for 15 years, was looking to sell it, and the friend immediately thought of Watts to purchase the storied establishment. “It’s one of those old Asheville businesses,” says Watts. Approaching 40 years, the shop has hopped around downtown with stints on Haywood Street, Lexington Avenue and Broadway. But today, it’s located at The Mills at Riverside in Woodfin. Despite the nomadic existence — or perhaps because of it — The Costume Shoppe has maintained 30
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a steady customer base over the decades. Though people can purchase costumes, wigs, makeup, masks and other accessories, rentals comprise the bulk of Watts’ business. “It’s a lot of regular folks who are just dressing up for various weirdo purposes of Asheville,” Watts says. “There’s always nonstop shenanigans in this area.” At onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Watts shifted to an appointment-only model and was kept financially afloat by creative, longtime renters who used the costumes for photo shoots or outdoor and drive-by events. Once regular operations resumed in 2021,
ETHICAL ETHOS
Daniella Miller hadn’t thought about fashion much until heading off to college. Though she studied painting and therapy at the New School for Social Research in New York City, the Pennsylvania native often found herself in the company of fashion students from the nearby Parsons School of Design — and her mind started whirring. “I’m from Pittsburgh, so, ecologically, things happened a lot quicker there from all the industry than they did in other places,” Miller says. “I was into ecology pretty hard, and the fashion industry was the second-largest polluter at the time. So I decided to use the skills that I already had ... to practice an ecologically sustainable brand.” Uninterested in the bustle of Manhattan, Miller left school and started Royal Peasantry in Cleveland in 1999. She then moved around before landing in Asheville in 2007. Over those 20-plus years, Royal Peasantry has stood apart from many
fashion enterprises for its ethical practices, as well as other creative and humanist approaches. “We make our own inventory, and that means every piece is going to be different, no matter what,” Miller says. “And we definitely spend four times our rent on labor and fair wages, so that’s different.” Miller feels an overreliance on hashtags and descriptors have limited artists’ imaginations. Any real designer, she maintains, should be known by their name and personal style, and she’s quick to note patterns that have arisen in her work. “It’s pretty fantastical. We definitely do fantasy stuff and things that people always imagined but never knew where to find,” Miller says. “When you use upcycled materials, they’re from anywhere from the turn of the century all the way to yesterday, manufactured in China. The materials lend all the different timelines, blended together, and gives it a special quality.” In addition to its purchasable offerings, Royal Peasantry has a robust rental side, outfitting people with capes, wings, headdresses, gators,
A WOMAN FOR ALL SEASONS: Tawnya Watts is the latest owner of The Costume Shoppe, which has operated from numerous Asheville locations over the past 40 years. Photo courtesy of Watts
gowns and more. But when the pandemic hit and dress-up events were canceled, Miller and her colleagues pivoted, making everything from wallets to larger pieces that they knew collectors would want to buy. “We made some amazing costumes — full-body harnesses that looked like Viking princess meets She-Ra,” Miller says with a laugh. “Very wild stuff, but every one was bought. Just knowing our market and having a supportive customer base that didn’t want to see us go down or worry too much was really nice.” avl.mx/aum
RENEWED PASSION
The seeds of Organic Armor date back to the 1990s when Paul Hersey began making costumes and props using a combination of latex rubber, fiber and acrylic for a core audience of Burning Man attendees. From there, the then-Los Angeles resident started selling his work at festivals along the West Coast that catered to that same crowd, and it was a huge hit. “Organic Armor was highly appreciated on the playa because it’s lightweight, easy to clean and is original art,” Hersey says. “It was enough to let me quit my day job as a mainframe programmer.” The company officially launched in Asheville in 2007, and the addition of a website and social media presence soon attracted cosplayers, belly dancers and Renaissance fair attendees, leading to steady commission work. Photographers’ interest in shooting Hersey’s costume pieces led to stunning imagery and a global reputation, and in 2014 the mermaid/ merman contingency from around the world flocked to Organic Armor for its elegant, lightweight, comfortable nature and ability to be worn in water. Regardless of a costume’s theme, nearly all customers wanted to know how Hersey and his wife, Jennifer Murphy, made their work. “At first I didn’t want to share the process. I was worried someone would rip off our designs. But after about eight years I realized no one could do it like I do — no one else would have the patience,” Hersey says. “And the materials are so versatile, I felt like I should share it because other artists could take it in new directions that I would never think of or have time to do.” Ultimately, Hersey launched an online course, distilling the methods into easy steps that have attracted students as young as 6. Hersey says he’s amazed and thrilled with the work that is made from the core
STANDING OUT: Royal Peasantry’s commitment to ethics — from sourcing materials to fair pay for employees — sets it apart in the design and costume world. Photo by Leo Vaan/Royal Peasantry materials, which he stresses aren’t expensive, dangerous or toxic. But at the end of 2018, Hersey was in an accident that forced him to stop everything — including the long hours of work that, over the course of many years, had made him feel burned out. Once recovered, he had a hard time getting back into that grind and soon developed additional health problems that came with prescribed medication that left him perpetually tired. Studio work was nearly impossible, and though he and Murphy continued to teach workshops until the pandemic hit, he turned down all commissions. Then in late summer of this year, an old friend showed up at his house, excited about a Halloween costume he wanted for a trip to Las Vegas. “He was so lit up and energized that it kind of rubbed off on me. It was a fairly simple unicorn headdress that I felt was doable in the time frame, so I surprised everyone by saying, ‘Yes,’” Hersey says. “I
had fun with it, and in the process cleaned up and organized my workspace. Now I’m figuring out what’s next. I don’t have to make it financially to support my family anymore, so it’s kind of like it was at the very beginning again. Just me making stuff I want to see.” avl.mx/aun X
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CRAFT
Crafting the perfect gift Local arts shops create unique holiday offerings
BY GAIL SOLOMON gailwriter@msn.com “Painting your own pottery is cheaper than therapy and a lot more fun,” says Linda Chester, co-owner of Fired! Up Creative Lounge. And after nearly two years of navigating COVID-19, she and other local arts and crafts businesspeople are ready to embrace the joyous holiday spirit and the unique opportunities their storefronts offer shoppers. But along with looking ahead, these business owners can’t help but look back on the obstacles they’ve overcome and the ways the past 21 months have changed and impacted their day-to-day operations. LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER For Chester, the chance to purchase Fired Up! Creative Lounge in 2009 fulfilled a long-held dream. With a background working in multiple mediums, including glass fusing and ceramics, she saw the shop’s potential to go beyond its original paint-your-own ceramics model. Since purchasing the store, Chester, with help from her daughter and store manager, Cassidy, has expanded activity options as well as the business itself, with a second storefront in Hendersonville. Prior to COVID-19, Fired Up! regularly hosted group events, including birthday celebrations, bachelorette parties, team-building workshops and group therapy sessions. However, last year’s lockdown,
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FRESH PAINT: Amid last year’s lockdown, Linda Chester, right, and her daughter, Cassidy, spruced up their downtown Asheville shop, Fired Up! Creative Lounge, with fresh paint and a new mural. Photo courtesy of Fired Up! Creative Lounge Linda notes, forced the company to pivot in order to survive. In June 2020, the business introduced pottery-to-go, allowing customers to select their desired pieces and paint options online. Linda and Cassidy would then create individualized kits for pickup. “This enabled us to make a little income to help keep us afloat during that time,” says Linda. The mother-and-daughter team also kept busy repainting the downtown store, which now includes a mountain scene mural that Cassidy completed before the shop’s reopening in July 2020. Abiding by CDC guidelines, the shop continues to require masks
and limits total store capacity. And though special holiday events of yesteryear remain temporarily tabled, Fired Up! features a host of fused glass and ceramic ornaments, along with unique holiday gifts such as earrings, pendants and wine bottle stoppers. “I am really looking forward to bringing back the events that we had introduced six months before the pandemic hit,” Linda says. “Realistically, though, I don’t expect to see this happen until things are a lot safer with COVID, probably not until 2022.” avl.mx/4q3
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WINTER WONDERLAND
Like Fired Up!, the N.C. Glass Center also took some of its offerings beyond its home base. In summer 2021, spurred by the pandemic and the limitations it imposed on crowd size, the River Arts District glass studio purchased a mobile glassblowing furnace. Since August, member artists have visited 10 locations with the equipment, including Foundation Studios, Wedge Brewing Co. and Atelier Maison & Co. “The mobile furnace enables the center to get out and about in the community, exposing more people to glass art making and breaking down transportation barriers that might prevent people from visiting the center itself,” says Janice Gouldthorpe, the nonprofit’s executive director. “In the year ahead, we’ve already lined up visits to veteran centers, schools and even the North Carolina Trucking Association.” The center’s 10-member teaching staff is also back at work on-site. The shop’s open garage doors provide ventilation, and total capacity for its main and secondary galleries is restricted to 15 and 12, respectively. “The center is very mindful of the number of people in our space,” Gouldthorpe points out, noting that masks are required at all times and that all staff members have been vaccinated. From now through Friday, Dec. 31, the center’s Winter Wonderland gallery displays ornaments, snowflakes, snowmen, candy canes and glass-blown creations of all varieties for purchase. An official gala opening takes place Friday, Dec. 3, 3-6 p.m. “Supporting local artists is what the center is all about,” says Gouldthorpe. “Having contact with the artists who made these items, who put their heart and soul into
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UKRAINIAN FOLK ART: Since she was a child, local artist Andrea Kulish has been designing psyanky eggs. Today, she offers classes in her Studio A gallery at Pink Dog Creative. Photo courtesy of Kulish the creations they made, adds an immeasurable dimension to the purchase itself.” avl.mx/aux
FRAGILE AND COLORFUL
Not far from the N.C. Glass Center, Andrea Kulish’s Studio A
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at Pink Dog Creative brings a bit of Ukrainian tradition to the River Arts District. Pysanky is a wax-resist method for designing and decorating eggs. As a child growing up in Hudson, N.Y., Kulish, a first-generation Ukrainian American, learned the process from her mother, an art teacher.
“From the time I was 5, I’d sit in on my mother’s classes every week and make pysanky,” Kulish remembers. “She would put rolls of paper on the walls so I could draw at home. I grew up surrounded by this artistic environment. I guess it’s in my blood.” In addition to teaching pysanky at her studio, Kulish has taught throughout the region, hosting workshops at the Biltmore Estate, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNC Asheville, The N.C. Arboretum and the Greenville Center for Creative Arts. “I feel like it’s my life’s mission to share these eggs with everyone I can,” says Kulish. “Drawn from Ukrainian folk art, the symbols and designs we use embody wishes for good health, long life, strength and protection.” In response to the pandemic, Kulish took her pysanky workshops online. Like Fired Up! patrons, clients were able to order supplies online and pick up kits at her studio. Kulish says the online workshops broadened her audience in a way that never would have happened otherwise. A large California company, for example, hired her for an Easter employee event. Following the lockdown, Kulish reopened Studio A in October 2020 and now offers both in-person and online sessions. Masks are required, and class sizes have been reduced for everyone’s safety. Supplies are available at the studio, which also sells Kulish’s own pysanky eggs, mixed media artwork, notecards, T-shirts and woodcut prints. As in years past, Kulish offers ornamental pysanky eggs as holiday décor and gifts. “It means a lot to me have my pysanky eggs grace homes and Christmas trees throughout the greater Asheville community,” she says. “Sharing these eggs means sharing the good luck and good
NEW STITCH: Following last year’s lockdown, husband-and-wife team Rik and Elizabeth Schell relocated Purl’s Yarn Emporium from its downtown location to Hendersonville Road. Photo courtesy of the Schells wishes that the designs represent. It is a very special tradition and an even more special honor for me to be able to share it locally.” avl.mx/auy
DOMINO EFFECT
When Rik and Elizabeth Schell bought Purl’s Yarn Emporium in 2010, the couple’s mission was “to create a crafting community,” says Rik. In doing so, the same community enabled the business to survive the rigors of the pandemic and its recent move to Hendersonville Road. For many shops, Asheville’s growth over the past 10 years has helped sustain business. But for Purl’s, the downtown area’s congested sidewalks and packed parking lots did more harm than good. “The backbone of the emporium’s business was people coming in to stitch and participate in knitting groups and special events,” Rik explains. The influx of tourists made it more difficult for the emporium’s large local base — which Rik calls Purl’s “bread and butter” — to easily access the shop. When the store closed during the lockdown, the Schells pivoted to online sales and launched several virtual workshops. “These were a lifeline during the pandemic and enabled us to reach new friends worldwide,” Rik says. But as restrictions eased, the Schells faced a new dilemma. “We no longer considered our Wall Street home an ideal location,” Rik
says. “At the same time, we wanted to do right by our landlord.” As luck would have it, the store’s neighboring business, Early Girl Eatery, wanted to expand and offered to take over the emporium’s lease. In June 2021, Purl’s Yarn Emporium opened its new brickand-mortar shop in a former chiropractic office on Hendersonville Road, affording its customers the accessibility needed. “The Yarn Emporium continues its focus on building community with events, classes, getting people together and getting to know folks,” Rik says. “It’s the people-to-people connection that we foster. We always try to let our personality shine through.” Like other arts and crafts speciality shops, Purl’s offers special holiday items for knitters and nonknitters alike. Shoppers will find garlands of miniature knitted sweaters, ceramic ornaments with witty sayings, holiday stocking kits and decorations. Elizabeth credits the emporium’s survival on the strong local connections it has fostered over the years and urges everyone to support the local businesses that make the community so vibrant. “Our business neighbors are relying on local support,” she says. “This initiates a powerful domino effect. Keeping local businesses going enables them, in turn, to hire locally and raise salaries, thereby enriching the entire community.” avl.mx/9gv X MOUNTAINX.COM
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FOOD
Snack time
WNC food companies offer sweet and savory treats
BY SAVANNAH FOWLER
the world’s a better place for it.” avl.mx/av6
savannahbfowler50@gmail.com
With the holiday season in full swing, busy shoppers might be wise to pack a few snacks before heading out to their favorite local shops. Xpress caught up with owners of three WNC-based food companies to discuss the origins of their businesses, how they’ve continued to expand their reach amid the ongoing pandemic, and the sweet and savory goods that fuel their customers.
LOCALLY MADE, GLOBALLY INSPIRED
As a vegetarian, Gretchen Brown, co-founder of Münki Food Co., remembers an underwhelming selection of food options when she was growing up. Inspired to create snacks her younger self would have appreciated, she and her husband, Matthew, launched their Ashevillebased business in 2015. Offering vegan, gluten-free and zero-refined-sugar options, Münki Food Co.’s five trail mix products and superfood granola line also feature international flavors, such as curry, Jamaican jerk seasoning and banana-rama. Gretchen credits Matthew, who is originally from England, for inspiring the business’s global theme. From the very start, says Gretchen, Asheville has been an ideal home for the company. “There is such an interest in good eats here, and the food community isn’t that big — so you get to know everyone involved: suppliers, other makers, store managers, mentors.”
SNEAKY SNACK: Matthew Brown launched Münki Food Co. with his wife, Gretchen, in 2015. The local company specializes in globally inspired, vegetarian snacks. Photo courtesy of Münki Food Co. In the early days of the pandemic and amid last year’s shutdown, Gretchen notes, the company experienced a drop in orders it typically filled for weddings, corporate parties and other large events. “We were also in a lot of hotels, so we took a hit there when they had to close,” she says. “But our online presence went up, so there was a good balance.”
Along with the couple’s dedication to healthy snacks, the founders use their business to support their other passion: dogs. Münki’s ongoing “Buy a Bag — Help a Life” campaign donates a portion of every sale to Brother Wolf Animal Rescue. “I would love to encourage everyone to give back,” Gretchen says. “Whether it’s time or compassion or money or energy — just give it, and
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BROTHER AND SISTER
In neighboring Haywood County, siblings Jessica DeMarco and Dan Stubee combined their talents for cuisine and design, respectively, when they launched Copper Pot & Wooden Spoon in 2011. Working with local farms to source the majority of its produce, the company offers a variety of pickled items and jams, along with additional regional products, including Poppy’s Handcrafted Popcorn, Asheville Tea Co. and Hickory Nut Gap. “We work really well together,” DeMarco says of her brother, “as long as we give each other our respective space.” Like many local food-based businesses, Copper Pot & Wooden Spoon began small, fine-crafting its recipes while selling at Haywood’s Historic Farmers Market. Within three years, the pair invested in a commercial kitchen and later a storefront at 449 Pigeon St., Suite A, Waynesville. The company’s primary production season, says DeMarco, is April through October. Last year’s shutdown, she continues, required the business to scale back production, as many of the retail outlets carrying its products were closed. “We took the downtime to improve our website and online reach, which has replaced the festivals and farmers markets we used to participate in,” DeMarco says. Copper Pot & Wooden Spoon now offers online ordering with local pickup at its storefront, as well. Despite the company’s commitment to source produce primarily from local and regional farms and to use domestic packaging, supply chain woes continue to impact the business. “We went months without being able to source jars, lead time on all packaging doubled, and freight costs and ingredient costs have jumped significantly,” says DeMarco. “Order minimums for many bulk products we purchase through food-service distributors has also increased due to staffing and shipping challenges for our suppliers.” Local support, continues DeMarco, has been crucial for Copper Pot & Wooden Spoon’s survival during these trying times. “The community as a whole has an awareness and
NO SIBLING RIVALRY HERE: Since its 2011 debut, Copper Pot & Wooden Spoon continues to evolve its business model, thanks to the brother-and-sister team, Jessica DeMarco and Dan Stubee. Photo courtesy of Copper Pot & Wooden Spoon appreciation for local small businesses, and we’ve seen much support and loyalty from our customers throughout the challenges of the past year or so,” she says. And it doesn’t hurt to have a sibling at your side, as well. “It’s nice working with family, because you have this mutual goal,” DeMarco says. “There’s moments, of course, where siblings can be — you know. But we have a lot of skills that complement each other. And we understand each other, so it’s great to be able to work with somebody who gets you. It makes it fun.” avl.mx/ava
A GOOD IRISHMAN
Back in Buncombe County, Pennsylvania native and Asheville Pretzel Co. founder Steve
Michael continues to expand upon his passion for salty delights. The business, he notes, was inspired by Asheville’s reputation as Beer City USA. Unlike the bars and breweries in his home state, Michael discovered a lack of pretzel options at local watering holes upon his arrival in 2015. Initially, a mechanic by day and an aspiring pretzel-maker by night, Michael slowly built his company one recipe at a time. In the early days, he notes, “It took eight hours to make 15 bags of 4-ounce pretzels. Now, we make 300 bags of pretzels a day.” In addition to hanging up his mechanic coveralls, Michael now employs three people with one parttime employee. “We can’t make enough,” he says. “We went from almost going out of
THESE PRETZELS ARE MAKING ME THIRSTY: When Pennsylvania native Steve Michael first arrived in Asheville in 2015, he was shocked to discover the city’s local breweries didn’t offer pretzels to beer drinkers. Righting that wrong, he launched Asheville Pretzel Co. in 2015. Photo by Savannah Fowler business to working every night and all day Saturdays and Sundays.” Along with its original, mustard and garlic pretzels, the company has also added dog treats to its inventory. The decision was a no-brainer. “Dog pretzels came about one day when we had a tasting at a local bar,” Michael explains. “I counted 15 people and 22 dogs.” Like Münki Food Co. and Copper Pot & Wooden Spoon, the pandemic impacted Asheville Pretzel Co.’s bottom line, disrupting its regular distribution to hotels and breweries during the shutdown. “Without the great people at Ingles we would not still be in business,” Michael says. “The corporate people let me deliver to as many Ingles stores as possible, and all of the store
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managers have given me space to display all of our products.” Come the new year, Asheville Pretzel Co. plans to release three new dips — sweet and spicy, chocolate strawberry and honey mustard — in collaboration with local company Vegetable Kingdom. Meanwhile, Michael is also in the planning stages of opening several storefronts, where customers can eat baked goods made on-site while sipping soda or beer. “So many people have helped us a lot,” says Michael of the company’s ongoing success. “I can’t let them down.” Fortunately, he adds, “I am half-German and half-Irish. … The Irish side will not let me quit. A good Irishman will work two weeks after he dies, dig his own hole and then bury himself.” avl.mx/avf X
CURIOSITY SHOPPE
Antiques, Vintage Clothes, Jewelry & Unique Items. Extended Weekend Shopping Hours: 11am-7pm • Dec. 3rd open until 9pm 118 CHERRY STREET DOWNTOWN BLACK MOUNTAIN 828.669.7467 MOUNTAINX.COM
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FOOD ROUNDUP
What’s new in food
Holeman and Finch Public House opens on Biltmore When chef Linton Hopkins opened H&F Burger on Biltmore Avenue in December 2019, it was in part a reference to the cheeseburger made famous as a late-night-only special at Holeman and Finch Public House, which he and his wife, Gina Hopkins, opened in Atlanta in 2008. While the burger may have been the calling card to the Asheville restaurant, the menu went far beyond a double-beef patty, drawing dishes from Holeman and Finch’s concept while reaching deep into local sources. “When we opened H&F here in Asheville, it was essentially a smaller Holeman and Finch menu with the burger always available,” he explains. “The first months were great, and we were selling across the menu. Then COVID hit.” H&F Burger, like all North Carolina restaurants, closed to indoor dining; like many, it pivoted a short time later to delivery and takeout. Through their Atlanta-based hospitality group, the Hopkinses also created the nonprofit, Good Food Works, which locally began collaborating with Food Connection and MANNA FoodBank to provide 600 meals per week. In June 2021, weary of the COVID Coaster, Linton decided a reset was in order and closed the restaurant entirely to focus on that goal. “We want to be robustly who we are — whole animal, whole vegetable, chef-driven, craft-driven cooking,” he explains. “By resetting H&F Burger Asheville as Holeman and Finch, we are rebuilding, reclaiming and reinvesting in that ethos.” Among the investments in the Asheville Holeman and Finch Public House, which opens Wednesday, Dec. 1, is a dedicated oyster bar and a cured meats and cheeses station, as well as a robust menu of snacks, large plates, vegetables and parts that includes skillet sweetbreads, blackened chicken liver and veal brains. “My father is a neurologist and will not order the brains,” Hopkins says with a laugh. While the Asheville and Atlanta locations will have similar menu options, local produce, proteins and product will provide diners at each restaurant a unique experience. “I spend 75% of my time sourcing,” says Hopkins. “To me, being a chef is understanding the terroir of the food you’re cooking. We may have mushrooms on both menus, but the dish 38
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ROOM TO GROW: Chef de cuisine Antonio Perez, left, and chef/owner Linton Hopkins are ready to welcome guests to the dining room of Holeman and Finch Public House. Photo courtesy Hopkins and Co. will be different in Asheville based on farmers and foragers.” Asheville Holeman and Finch Public House’s chef de cuisine is Antonio Perez, and its lead bartender is Kelsey Kulp, who will create scratch cocktails also based on local available produce. Asheville diners can expect to see Linton in the restaurant on a regular basis, particularly since the Atlanta Holeman and Finch will not reopen until March. “Gina and I bought a house here,” he says. “We knew we had to be in Asheville to bring what Holeman and Finch is about here. I can’t cook unless I understand and know my sources and farmers. We want to be the local’s local place.” Holeman and Finch Public House is at 77 Biltmore Ave. For more information, including hours and menu, visit avl.mx/aup.
PeruvianJapanese fusion December brings the latest round of Mikasa Nikkei pop-up dinners, created by Ana Austin and chef Santiago Vargas. First launched in September, the culinary event features six courses of the Peruvian-Japanese fusion
cuisine known as Nikkei; during the pop-up, diners will also learn about the multicultural history and multiple microclimates of Peru, Austin’s and Vargas’ native country. “Peru has three ecosystems,” Austin explains. “The Andean mountains have crops specific to high altitude, the Pacific Ocean is very rich in seafood, and the Amazon Forest a completely different climate. The different microclimates and different soils give us a large variety of crops, produce and product.” Meanwhile, she continues, the history of Nikkei came about when a large migration of Japanese arrived in Peru in the late 1800s and early 1900s lured by the promise of jobs. Austin says the new arrivals began cooking their traditional Japanese foods using Peruvian products, resulting in Nikkei cuisine. The pop-ups began in Austin’s home but have since expanded to venues including Botanist & Barrel, Chestnut Ridge event center and Franny’s Farm. December pop-ups run 6:30-9 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 7; Wednesday, Dec. 8; Wednesday, Dec. 15; and Thursday, Dec. 16. Menus will not be released in advance. Tickets are $110 per person.
For more details, including locations, visit avl.mx/auo.
Bear of a brunch Sunday brunch can be so predictable: French toast, omelets, eggs Benedict — yawn. Leave it to the wholly unpredictable chef A.J. Gregson of Black Bear BBQ to add a smoky spin to the repast and make Saturday the new Sunday. In November, he kicked off Saturday brunch at his East Asheville restaurant. Gregson says, “We want to expand the view of what barbecue or smoked meats have to offer in a brunch setting.” Among the menu items are red eye gravy and fried ribs, smoked turkey leg gumbo with cheese grits and smoked rockfish fritters. Plus, says Gregson, “If you need a reason to eat funnel cake for breakfast, I got you. We have mini-funnel cakes, slathered in our house made banana pudding, in-house smoked bacon chips, dulce de leche drizzle, fresh whipped cream and banana slices.” Black Bear BBQ is at 800 Fairview Road. Saturday brunch runs 11 a.m.2 p.m. For more information, visit avl.mx/aub.
Pantry essentials Pitch in with the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville on Sunday, Dec. 5, to stock its new free-standing food pantry with canned goods and personal care items. The pantry is a joint venture with BeLoved Asheville to provide items at no cost to people in need. The food pantry will be across from City Bakery, 88 Charlotte St.; donations can be left anytime in the bin on the rear porch of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation. Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville is at 1 Edwin Place. For more information on how to volunteer, donate and what items are most needed for the winter, visit avl.mx/aue.
Worm baby worm Watch worms work with your own eyes when Bountiful Cities hosts a free vermiculture, worm composting workshop Sunday, Dec. 5, 2-3:30 p.m. at its Pearson Garden. The opportunity to build small worm compost systems and a demonstration of a worm tower make this an especially kid-friendly event, according to outreach coordinator Cathy Cleary. Chocolate “soil” cake with gummy worms and hot beverages will be served.
Pearson Garden is at 408 Pearson Drive. RSVP at Cathy@bountifulcities. org.
Wasted Don’t toss those scraps. On Thursday, Dec. 2, WNC Food Waste Solutions is hosting a demonstration by cookbook author Ashley English on how to turn food scraps into a couple of tasty dishes. The drop-in event will take place at Bottle Riot from 4:30-6:30 p.m., with the demo starting at 5:30. Bottle Riot is at 37 Paynes Way Suite 9. RSVP at avl.mx/av0
Yule be back
The Hop Ice Cream’s wildly popular Ice Cream Yule Logs with a new and improved chocolate cake recipe are being rolled out in both dairy and vegan options, multiple flavors and two sizes. Dairy ice cream choices are vanilla bean, salted caramel or peppermint stick; vegan logs are made with oat milk ice cream. Orders are live at avl.mx/auf and will be taken through Monday, Dec. 20. Curbside pickup is at The Creamery, 167 Haywood Road.
Two-stop shopping Provisions Mercantile is staging two holiday events for elves of all ages. On Saturday, Dec. 4, kids can decorate sugar cookies and have a cup of hot cocoa from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at the flagship store in West Asheville. On Thursday, Dec. 16 from 5-7 p.m. the Men’s Panic Party pairs live music and bourbon cocktails with professional guidance from staff and gift wrapping at both locations. Provisions Mercantile is at 728 Haywood Road and 14 Lodge St. in Biltmore Village.
Pop culture
Just in time for the release of seasonal flavors Reindeer Crunch, Chocolate Peppermint and Gingerbread, Poppy Handcrafted Popcorn has popped up a pop-up on Tunnel Road. The holiday store — with a full inventory of flavors, prepacked gift baskets and ornaments — will be open Wednesday-Friday, noon-7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; and Sunday, noon-5 p.m. Poppy Holiday Pop-up is at 4 S. Tunnel Road. For more information, visit avl.mx/auq.
— Kay West X
We Need Your Donations To Help Us Build Bikes As Holiday Gifts For Foster Children
Holiday Bike Build December 7th 5-7PM Smoky Park Supper Club 350 Riverside Dr. Asheville
Donate And Learn More At CANDAID.ORG MOUNTAINX.COM
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Refraction Holiday Art Market returns to River Arts District
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ARTS AND CRAFT (BEERS): The Refraction Holiday Art Market, which returns to Wedge at Foundation on Sunday, Dec. 5, is meant to be an immersive experience. “You come with the intention of knocking out your holiday shopping and end up running into a friend who you spend the afternoon catching up with,” says co-founder Amy Massey. Photo courtesy of Massey Come in for a beer, head home with a new painting. That’s one of the ideas behindRefraction Holiday Art Market, which returns to Wedge at Foundation in the River Arts District on Sunday, Dec. 5, noon-6 p.m. The event first launched in 2019 but was canceled last year due to COVID-19. “The experience reads somewhere between an art market, a gallery opening and a community hang,” says Amy Massey, an Asheville artist who founded the event with her husband, Andrew. “It’s not structured in the typical art market rows of 10-by-10 booths arranged in clean lines. The layout is organic, with artists spread throughout the bar itself as well as the outdoor patios.” The gathering will feature more than 15 local creatives working in mediums such as ceramics, handcarved wooden spoons, silversmithed jewelry, paintings and prints, macramé and embroidered fiber art, as well as wreaths made withhomegrown and harvested flowers, and wearable botanicals. Meanwhile, DJ Malinalli will provide the day’s entertainment. With shipping woes anticipated this holiday season, Massey believes
it’s important to support local artists and shop small. Many of the participants at this year’s event, she continues, work at Wedge Brewing Co. or are longtime regulars. “Asheville has grown so much in the last few years, and the Wedge has grown, too, but that artist community still sits at the heart of it,”she says. Wedge at Foundation is at 5 Foundy St. For more information, visit avl.mx/auu.
A day of infamy
Tuesday, Dec. 7, marks the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the event that led the United States to enter World War II. John Gripentrog, department chair of history, political science, religion and philosophy at Mars Hill University, thinks the attack has lost some of its cultural significance. “Pearl Harbor is important because it’s a reminder that democratic institutions, so easily taken for granted, were at stake after Dec. 7, that self-government is fragile and that foundational principles like
the peaceful transfer of power were dearly paid for in World War II,” he says. Gripentrog’s recently published book, Prelude to Pearl Harbor: Ideology and Culture in US-Japan Relations, 1919-1941, traces the escalation of hostilities between the two countries across the 1930s, leading up to the outbreak of war in 1941. Specifically, it looks at how visceral tension between Japan’s regionalist ideology and the American emphasis on liberal internationalism was at the heart of the conflict, says Gripentrog. “The standard ‘road to Pearl Harbor’ narrative typically reduces the clash to one about resources and economic security,” he notes. “I don’t dismiss that interpretation, but I find it incomplete. It’d be like talking about 19th-century American expansionism without talking about the ideology of manifest destiny.” For more information on Prelude to Pearl Harbor: Ideology and Culture in US-Japan Relations, 1919-1941, visit avl.mx/aut.
Christmas tours at Historic Johnson Farm Henderson County’s Historic Johnson Farm, built by hand 187680, will host a number of Christmas events throughout December. “For any of the tours, visitors will learn how the Johnson family celebrated Christmas while enjoying the time-period decorations,” says Mandy Gibson, executive director of the Historic Johnson Farm Foundation. Candlelight Christmas Tours will be held Friday, Dec. 3, and Saturday, Dec. 4, at 5 p.m., 6:15 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The first two tours each evening will be geared toward families with children. Reservations and prepayment are required for the candlelight tours. The farm will also host Daytime Christmas Tours at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Dec. 6- Friday, Dec. 10, and again Monday, Dec. 13–Friday, Dec. 17. The daytime tours also have a self-guided option, with or without audio, each day, 1-3 p.m. Historic Johnson Farm is a heritage education museum owned by Henderson County Public Schools; the tours provide a significant portion of its operating expenses. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for students and seniors (65 and over), and free for those under 5.The farm can be found at 3346 Haywood Road, Hendersonville. For more information, go to avl.mx/9av.
It’s no secret
Asheville author Robert McGee was one of the winners in the 2021 NCState Fiction Contest. McGee’s short story Secrets was the honorable mention selection in the category for unpublished works of 1,200 words or less. “Very broadly, the story has to do with an incident at a lake,” McGee says. “An elderly woman tending a small boy leaves him in the car alone, and the car rolls toward the water. She has to run to stop the car and save him.” From that point, the story looks at the many secrets held by the woman and other characters and how they could be exposed depending on her actions. McGee says being recognized in the contest, which was judged by award-winning novelist Gabriel Bump, provides him motivation to keep writing and not give in to the despair many authors feel. He has submitted the story to a few literary journals, a process that he says requires patience. “I’ve had magazines hang onto my work for 10-12 months before acceptance in the past, but I have a feeling that this one will find the right home,” he says. For more information and to see a full list of the winners, go to avl.mx/aus.
Holiday revelry
The Blue Ridge Orchestra will be joined by bluegrass trio the KrügerBrothers for its annual holiday concert at UNC Asheville’s Lipinsky Auditoriumon Sunday, Dec. 5, at 3 p.m. The first half of BRO Revels! 2021 will feature the full orchestra ensemble performing a mix of classical and holiday songs. During the the second half, the full orchestra and theKrüger Brothers will play a blend of traditional tunes and original compositions for full orchestra by Jens Krüger. Originally from Switzerland, the Krüger Brothers began playing North American folk music at an early age and were inspired by recordings of Arthel “Doc” Watson, Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, Bill Monroe and others. Lipinsky Hall is at 300 Library Lane on the UNC Asheville campus. Tickets are $15 for general admission, $10 for members and $5 for students. For more information or to buy tickets, visit avl.mx/auv.
Oh, the humanities Western Carolina University and the Bob Moog Foundation were among 10 cultural organizations to win community engagement grants from North Carolina Humanities, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The organization grants the awards to nonprofit groups that use the literature, history, philosophy and other humanities disciplines “to deepen human connections, broaden perspectives, equip communities with empathy, understanding and respect and inspire community across differences,” it says in a press release. WCU was granted $3,500 for its 2022 Spring Literary Festival. Attendees of the annual event willconsider issues of immigration, power, gender, femininity, race, religion, disability, identity and more. The Bob Moog Foundation was awarded $3,500 for Patching Sound: Understating Modular Synthesis, a display at the Moogseum, 56 Broadway. For more information, visit avl.mx/auw.
— Justin McGuire X
MOVIE LISTINGS Edwin Arnaudin’s latest critiques of new films available to view in local theaters and on popular streaming services include: HOUSE OF GUCCI: Ridley Scott’s true crime saga is bolstered by big performances from Lady Gaga and a nearly unrecognizable Jared Leto. But the poorly developed central storyline of Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver) breaking bad manages to hamper its flow. Grade: B-minus. Rated R BELFAST: Writer/director Kenneth Branagh’s heartfelt, B&W ode to his working-class Northern Irish upbringing during “The Troubles” suffers from uneveness and heavy-handed messaging that’s borderline patronizing. In other words, it will probably win the Academy Award for Best Picture next March. Grade: B-minus. Rated PG-13
Find full reviews and local film info at ashevillemovies.com patreon.com/ashevillemovies MOUNTAINX.COM
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The featured icon indicates which venues or artists require proof of vaccination for upcoming shows. Due to the evolving nature of the matter, the list may not be comprehensive. Before heading out, please check with all venues for complete information on any vaccine or negative COVID-19 requirements. For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, opt. 4.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1 185 KING STREET Trivia Night, 7pm ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Asheville's Best Karaoke, 8pm ARCHETYPE BREWING Bluegrass & Brews w/ Knob Creek Incident, 6pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY • Queer Comedy Party featuring Kathleen McDonaldk 7pm • Aquanet: Goth Nightk 9pm, ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Disclaimer Stand-Up Lounge Comedy Open Mic, 8pm BLACK MOUNTAIN BREWING Dark City Kings (rock), 2pm Jay Brown (roots), 6pm CITIZEN VINYL Open Folk, 6pm CORK & KEG Miss Tess (New Orleans jazz, honky tonk, Southern r&b) k 8pm DOUBLE CROWN Western Wednesday w/Vanden Landersk 8pm GREEN MAN BREWERY Green Man Trivia, 12:00am HI-WIRE BREWING BIG TOP Free Weekly Trivia Night, 7pm
HIGHLAND BREWING COMPANY Well Crafted Wednesdays w/Matt Smith, 6pm ICONIC KITCHEN & DRINKS Marc Keller (acoustic), 6pm OFF THE WAGON All Request Piano Show, 8pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam, 6pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Wild Wednesday Funk n Rock w/Free Anesthesia, 10pm SALVAGE STATION Ghost-Note (dance/ electronic)k 8pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia, 6:30pm THE DUGOUT 3 Cool Cats (oldies), 7pm THE GREY EAGLE The Steel Wheels (rock, folk)k 8pm
BLUEGRASS IN THE FORECAST: Songs From The Road Band will hold its annual Asheville Winter Grass show outdoors at One World Brewing West Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 4-5, 3-7 p.m. The Asheville-based band, featuring, from left, Mark Schimick, Gabe Epstein, Sam Wharton, James Schlender and Charles Humphrey III, will host special guests Jim Lauderdale and Andy Buckner. Photo courtesy of Songs From The Road Band THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2 131 MAIN Aaron LaFalce (soul, rock, pop), 6pm
ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Will Ray and the Space Cooties (rock, blues, jam), 7:30pm
185 KING STREET Caleb Caudle (country, soul), 7pm
ASHEVILLE PIZZA & BREWING CO. Game Room Comedy, 7pm
305 LOUNGE & EATERY Bob Sherill (singer-songwriter), 1pm
BEN'S TUNE UP Offended! Open Mic (comedy), 9:30pm
TRISKELION BREWING CO. TriskaTrivia, 7pm
ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Move On Up: Soul/R&B Nightk 9pm
CASCADE LOUNGE Team Trivia, 7:30pm
TURGUA BREWING CO Trivia Night, 6pm
ASHEVILLE CLUB Mr Jimmy (blues), 5pm
THE OMNI GROVE PARK INN The B's (jazz, standards), 7pm THE ORANGE PEEL Mipso (bluegrass, indie folk)k 8pm
GINGER'S REVENGE CRAFT BREWERY & TASTING ROOM Gluten-Free Comedy (open mic), 6pm
HIGHLAND BREWING DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Drag Music Bingo w/ Divine the Bearded Lady, 6pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 The Jackson Grimm Band w/Jane Kramer (Americana, folk, old time), 7:30pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Bluegrass Jam w/Drew & the Boys, 7pm OFF THE WAGON All Request Piano Show, 8pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Phursdays w/Gunslinging Parrots (Phish tribute), 9:30pm RYE KNOT KITCHEN BREWERY DISTILLERY Chris Flanders (acoustic), 6pm SILVERADOS Laurel River Connection (90s country, Southern rock, bluegrass), 7pm THE 2ND ACT Russ Wilson & The 2nd Act Orchestra (swing), 7pm THE DUGOUT Twisted Trail (Southern rock, country), 8pm THE ORANGE PEEL Darrell Scott (singer-songwriter)k 8pm
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TRISKELION BREWING CO. Jason's Krazy Karaoke, 6:30pm
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3 185 KING STREET Kevin Daniel and the Bottom Line (Americana), 8pm 305 LOUNGE & EATERY Geriatric Jukebox (oldies), 5pm ALLEYCATAVL Total Request Dance Party w/DJ BlueLlama, 10pm AMERICAN VINYL CO. Valley Maker, Fleur Geurl & Reddenhollow (singer-songwriter, folk), 7pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Everybody Free Dance Partyk 10pm ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Mr Jimmy's Big City Blues, 7:30pm BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS Ben Phantom (singer-songwriter), 3pm BURNTSHIRT VINYARDS CHIMNEY ROCK Roots and Dore (roots), 5pm DRY FALLS BREWING CO. Howl in the Valley (Americana), 7pm
GINGER'S REVENGE CRAFT BREWERY AND TASTING ROOM Urban Soil Duo (singer-songwriter, root rock), 7pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 • Cristina Vane (Delta blues, old time), 7pm • Clark Beckham (r&b, soul, pop), 8:30pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Tan and Sober Gentlemen (Celtic punk-grass), 7:30pm MAD CO. BREW HOUSE Big Ivy Project (acoustic duo), 6pm OFF THE WAGON All Request Piano Show, 8pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Free Dead Friday ft. Gus & Phriends w/ Generous Electric Duo (Grateful Dead tribute, rock), 9:30pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Isaac Hadden Project (jazz, funk-rock), 7pm SALVAGE STATION The Mantras w/The Snozzberries & Chilltonic (rock, jam)k 8pm
THE GREY EAGLE Sierra Ferrell (indie, bluegrass, folk)k 9pm THE ODDITORIUM Deathcrown, Augur & Ape Vermin (metal), 9pm THE ORANGE PEEL Larkin Poe (rock)k 8pm HARRAH'S CHEROKEE CENTER Watchhouse (Americana, folk)k 8pm WORTHAM CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS Will Kimbrough (Americana, blues), 7pm TRISKELION BREWING CO. BadRabbit (alt rock, alt country), 7pm UPCOUNTRY BREWING COMPANY Iggy Radio (rock, metal, blues), 6pm
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4 185 KING STREET West Fork Fiasco (rock), 8pm ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB House After Dark w/DJ Soulistk (dance), 10pm
SLY GROG LOUNGE Indelible Sauce (rock, funk, jazz), 7pm Indelible Sauce, '75
ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY • Beauty Parlor Comedy: Blaine Perryk 7pm • Hip Hop Night: Vinyl Timetravelersk 10pm
THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR Getaway Comedy: Scott Eason, 8pm
ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR 40 20 10s (Americana, outlaw country), 7:30pm
NOW OPEN! BREVARD MUSIC CENTER Seth and Sara (Americana, country, pop), 7pm
BURNTSHIRT VINYARDS CHIMNEY ROCK Eric Congdon (acoustic), 2pm
305 LOUNGE & EATERY Bob Sherill (singer-songwriter), 1pm
BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS Eric Congdon (acoustic), 2pm
HIGHLAND BREWING DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Captain Pat (blues), 1 pm
ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Drag Bingo w/Calcuttak 8pm
ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 Happy Holidays from Love Bubble (holiday jazz, rock, 60's pop), 7:30pm
GREEN MAN BREWERY Old Time Jam, 5pm
ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Grateful Family Band Tuesdays (Dead tribute), 6pm
HI-WIRE BREWING BIG TOP Free Weekly Trivia Night, 7pm
STATIC AGE RECORDS Lung, Okapi & Trash Police (punk), 8pm
BURNTSHIRT VINYARDS CHIMNEY ROCK J. Stephens (singer-songwriter), 2pm CITIZEN VINYL 2021 NewSong Music Performance & Songwriting Competition Finals, 8pm CORK & KEG Soul Blue (soul, R&B) k 8pm DRY FALLS BREWING CO. Appalachian Renegades (Southern rock, blues), 7pm FLEETWOOD'S Fantømex, Shutterings & Idol Zero (alternative, indie), 8pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 • The Rough and Tumble (Americana, folk)k 7pm • Mark Erelli and Mary Bragg (Americana, bluegrass, folk)k 8:30pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST • Asheville Winter Grass w/Songs From The Road Band & Jim Lauderdale, 3pm • Asheville Winter Grass After Party w/ Supper Break, 7pm SALVAGE STATION SexBruise? (pop)k 8pm STATIC AGE RECORDS DJ Lil Meow Meow, 9pm SUNNY POINT CAFÉ Albi (vintage jazz), 6pm THE GREY EAGLE Southern Culture on the Skids w/Pierce Edens (country, rock)k 8:30pm THE JOINT NEXT DOOR Mr Jimmy Quartet w/ Ellard James "Moose" Boles (blues)Next Door, 7pm HARRAH'S CHEROKEE CENTER Midland w/Hailey Whitters (country)k 8pm TRISKELION BREWING CO. Mojomatic (blues, rock), 7pm
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 5 185 KING STREET Open Electric Jam w/ King Street House Band ft. Howie Johnson, 6:30pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY • Life's a Drag Brunchk 11:30am • Sunday Dance Party w/DJ RexxStepk 10pm BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS Seth & Sara (acoustic duo), 2pm
JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Bluegrass Brunch w/ Supper Break, 12pm
MAD CO. BREW HOUSE Karaoke Night, 6pm MILLS RIVER BREWING Trivia Night, 6pm
THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR Turntable Tuesday, 10pm THE GREY EAGLE Asheville Waits Band (Tom Waits tribute) k 8pm THE ORANGE PEEL Pink Sweat$ (R&B, soul)k 9pm WAGBAR Tuesday Trivia Night, 6pm
WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN Reggie Headen & the Jason Christofaro Quartet (Abby Lincoln tribute), 7:30pm
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8 185 KING STREET Trivia Night, 7pm ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Asheville's Best Karaoke, 8pm
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ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Asheville Winter Grass w/Songs From The Road Band & Andy Buckner, 3pm STATIC AGE RECORDS Crazy Doberman (jazz), 8pm THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR Sissy Sunday Drag Show, 9pm THE GREY EAGLE • Holiday Spectacular Drag Brunch FUNdraiser for Tranzmissionk 12pm • Michigan Rattlers (folk rock)k 8pm THE ODDITORIUM Jacob Danielsen-Moore, Jon Charles Dwyer, Cliff B. Worsham (folk, indie, alternative), 8pm TRISKELION BREWING CO. Jason Whitaker (acoustic), 3pm
MONDAY, DECEMBER 6 ASHEVILLE CLUB Freshen Up, Comedy Open Mic, 7pm DOUBLE CROWN Country Karaoke, 10pm HIGHLAND DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Cheers to Chess, 5pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Quizzo! Pub Trivia w/ Jason Mencer, 7:30pm LITTLE JUMBO Jay Sanders' Sinfonietta (jazz)k 7pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. House of SYNth, 6:30pm THE GREY EAGLE Zack Mexico w/Stagbriar & Axxa/Abraxas (psychedelic pop, indie rock)k 8pm THE JOINT NEXT DOOR Mr Jimmy & Friends (blues), 7pm
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7 185 KING STREET Tuesday Casual Collaborations w/the Travis Book Band with Mary Lucey, Tommy Maher, Tim Gardner (roots), 6pm
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CLU B LA N D ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY • Aquanet: Goth Nightk 9pm • Move On Up: Soul/R&B Nightk 9pm ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Inter Arma, Yautja, Eye Flys & Yashira (edm), 7pm BLACK MOUNTAIN BREWING Jay Brown (roots), 6pm GREEN MAN BREWERY Green Man Trivia, 7pm HIGHLAND BREWING COMPANY Well Crafted Wednesdays w/Matt Smith, 6pm ICONIC KITCHEN & DRINKS Marc Keller (acoustic), 6pm OFF THE WAGON All Request Piano Show, 8pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam, 6pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Wild Wednesday Funk-n-Rock w/Free Anesthesia, 10pm
ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Latin Night (dance), 6pm
305 LOUNGE & EATERY Bob Sherill (singer-songwriter), 1pm
SALVAGE STATION Mike Zito (with Roots & Dore), 8pm
ASHEVILLE CLUB Mr Jimmy (blues), 5pm
SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia, 6:30pm THE GREY EAGLE Riddy Arman w/The Local Honeys (country) k 8pm THE OMNI GROVE PARK INN The B's (jazz, standards), 7pm THE ORANGE PEEL Flamingosis (soul, funk, electronic)k 8pm TRISKELION BREWING CO. TriskaTrivia, 7pm TURGUA BREWING CO Trivia Night w/Pub Trivia Nerds, 6pm
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9
ASHEVILLE PIZZA & BREWING CO. Game Room Comedyk 7pm BEN'S TUNE UP Offended! Open Mic (comedy), 9:30pm CASCADE LOUNGE Team Trivia, 7:30pm FLEETWOOD'S Terraoke (karaoke), 6pm GINGER'S REVENGE CRAFT BREWERY & TASTING ROOM Gluten-Free Comedy (open mic), 6pm HIGHLAND BREWING DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Drag Music Bingo w/ Divine the Bearded Lady, 6pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 Griffin House (folk, folk rock, indie), 7:30pm
131 MAIN Aaron LaFalce (soul, rock, pop), 6pm
JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Bluegrass Jam w/Drew & the Boys, 7pm
185 KING STREET Aaron Woody Wood (Americana), 7pm
OFF THE WAGON All Request Piano Show, 8pm
ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Phursdays w/ Gunslinging Parrots (Phish tribute), 9:30pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Into the Fog (acoustic/jamgrass), 7pm RYE KNOT KITCHEN BREWERY DISTILLERY Chris Flanders (acoustic), 6pm STATIC AGE RECORDS Gray Heron, Illustrateur, Fix Collection, Hook Up (post-punk, alternative), 8pm THE 2ND ACT Russ Wilson & The 2nd Act Orchestra (swing), 7pm THE GREY EAGLE Bully w/Graham Hunt Band (alternative, indie)k 9pm THE ODDITORIUM FOTOCRIME, Fool's Ghost, Secret Shame (rock), 7pm THE ORANGE PEEL Hiss Golden Messenger (folk)k 9pm
2022
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FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): It’s a favorable time to get excited about your long-range future—and to entertain possibilities that have previously been on the edges of your awareness. I’d love to see you open your heart to the sweet dark feelings you’ve been sensing, open your mind to the disruptive but nourishing ideas you need and open your gut to the rumbling hunches that are available. Be brave, Aries! Strike up conversations with the unexpected, the unknown and the undiscovered. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A Tumblr blogger named Evan (lotad.tumblr.com) addressed a potential love interest. “Do you like sleeping, because so do I,” he wrote. “We should do it together sometime.” You might want to extend a similar invitation, Taurus. Now is a ripe time for you to interweave your subconscious mind with the subconscious mind of an ally you trust. The two of you could generate extraordinary healing energy for each other as you lie together, dozing in the darkness. Other recommended activities: meditating together; fantasizing together; singing together; making spiritual love together. (P.S.: If you have no such human ally, sleep and meditate with a beloved animal or imaginary friend.) GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini author Chuck Klosterman writes, “It’s far easier to write why something is terrible than why it’s good.” That seems to be true for many writers. However, my life’s work is in part a rebellion against doing what’s easy. I don’t want to chronically focus on what’s bad, sick and desolate. Instead, I aspire to devote more of my energy to doing what Klosterman implies is hard, which is to write sincerely (but not naively) about the many things that are good, redemptive and uplifting. In light of your current astrological omens, Gemini, I urge you to adopt my perspective for your own use in the next three weeks. Keep in mind what philosopher Robert Anton Wilson said: “An optimistic mindset finds dozens of possible solutions for every problem that the pessimist regards as incurable.” CANCER (June 21-July 22): An organization in Turkey decided to construct a new building to house its workers. The Saruhanbey Knowledge, Culture, and Education Foundation chose a plot in the city of Manisa. But there was a problem. A three-centuries-old pine tree stood on the land. Local authorities would not permit it to be cut down. So architects designed a building with spaces and holes that fully accommodated the tree. I recommend you regard this marvel as a source of personal inspiration in the coming weeks and months. How could you work gracefully with nature as you craft your future masterpiece or labor of love? How might you work around limitations to create useful, unusual beauty? LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Author Melissa Broder wrote a preposterous essay in which she ruminated, “Is fake love better than real love? Real love is responsibility, compromise, selflessness, being present and all that shit. Fake love is magic, excitement, false hope, infatuation and getting high off the potential that another person is going to save you from yourself.” I will propose, Leo, that you bypass such ridiculous thinking about love in the coming weeks and months. Here’s why: There’s a strong chance that the real love at play in your life will feature magic and excitement, even as it requires responsibility, compromise, selflessness and being present. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo author Andre Dubus III describes times when “I feel stupid, insensitive, mediocre, talentless and vulnerable — like I’m about to cry any second — and wrong.” That sounds dreadful, right? But it’s not dreadful for him. Just the opposite. “I’ve found that when that happens,” he concludes, “it usually means I’m writing pretty well, pretty deeply, pretty rawly.” I trust you will entertain a comparable state sometime soon, Virgo. Even if you’re not a writer, the bounty and fertility that
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emerge from this immersion in vulnerability will invigorate you beyond what you can imagine. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “The problem with putting two and two together is that sometimes you get four, and sometimes you get 22.” Author Dashiell Hammett said that, and now I’m passing it on to you — just in time for a phase of your cycle when putting two and two together will probably not bring four, but rather 22 or some other irregularity. I’m hoping that since I’ve given you a heads-up, it won’t be a problem. On the contrary. You will be prepared and will adjust faster than anyone else —thereby generating a dose of exotic good fortune. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In her poem “Is/ Not,” Scorpio poet Margaret Atwood tells a lover, “You are not my doctor, you are not my cure, nobody has that power, you are merely a fellow traveler.” I applaud her for stating an axiom I’m fond of, which is that no one, not even the person who loves you best, can ever be totally responsible for fixing everything wrong in your life. However, I do think Atwood goes too far. On some occasions, certain people can indeed provide us with a measure of healing. And we must be receptive to that possibility. We shouldn’t be so pathologically self-sufficient that we close ourselves off from tender help. One more thing: Just because that help may be imperfect doesn’t mean it’s useless and should be rejected. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “All my days I have longed equally to travel the right road and to take my own errant path,” wrote Norwegian-Danish novelist Sigrid Undset. I think she succeeded in doing both. She won a Nobel Prize for Literature. Her trilogy about a 14th-century Norwegian woman was translated into 80 languages. I conclude that for her — as well as for you in the coming weeks and months — traveling the right road and taking your own errant path will be the same thing. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn author Susan Sontag unleashed a bizarre boast, writing, “One of the healthiest things about me — my capacity to survive, to bounce back, to prosper — is intimately connected with my biggest neurotic liability: my facility in disconnecting from my feelings.” Everything about her statement makes me scream “NO”! I mean, I believe this coping mechanism worked for her; I don’t begrudge her that. But as a student of psychology and spirituality, I know that disconnecting from feelings is, for most of us, the worst possible strategy if we want to be healthy and sane. And I will advise you to do the opposite of Sontag in the coming weeks. December is Stay Intimately Connected with Your Feelings Month. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In some small towns in the Philippines, people can be punished and fined for gossiping. Some locals have become reluctant to exchange tales about the sneaky, sexy, highly entertaining things their neighbors are doing. They complain that their freedom of speech has been curtailed. If you lived in one of those towns, I’d advise you to break the law in the coming weeks. In my astrological opinion, dynamic gossip should be one of your assets. Staying well-informed about the human comedy will be key for your ability to thrive. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “Originality consists in thinking for yourself, and not in thinking unlike other people,” wrote Piscean author James Fitzjames Stephen (1829–1894). Another way to say it: Being rebellious is not inherently creative. If you primarily define yourself by rejecting and reacting against someone’s ideas, you are being controlled by those ideas. Please keep this in mind, dear Pisces. I want you to take full advantage of your astrological potential during the next 12 months, which is to be absolutely original. Your perceptions and insights will be unusually lucid if you protect yourself from both groupthink and a compulsive repudiation of groupthink.
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REAL ESTATE & RENTALS | ROOMMATES | JOBS | SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENTS | CLASSES & WORKSHOPS | MIND, BODY, SPIRIT MUSICIANS’ SERVICES | PETS | AUTOMOTIVE | XCHANGE | ADULT Want to advertise in Marketplace? 828-251-1333 advertise@mountainx.com • mountainx.com/classifieds If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Remember the Russian proverb: “Doveryai, no proveryai,” trust but verify. When answering classified ads, always err on the side of caution. Especially beware of any party asking you to give them financial or identification information. The Mountain Xpress cannot be responsible for ensuring that each advertising client is legitimate. Please report scams to advertise@mountainx.com RENTALS HOMES FOR RENT CHOICE RENTAL: SEEING IS BELIEVING 2bd/2ba, Deluxe Chalet in the Mts. with vista views from wrap around decks with gardens and privacy tastefully furnished and immaculate west Burnsville with easy access to 26; 20 min to Weaverville and 45 min to Asheville; Gas Fireplace and 3 big screen tv's and much more. no pets. ref. $1500+ 1 OR 2 people, 1 car please. Lets talk…Text 954.496.9000.
EMPLOYMENT SKILLED LABOR/ TRADES HIRING MANUFACTURING POSITIONS (ALL EXPERIENCE LEVELS!) MAU is hiring for multiple manufacturing positions. Our recruiters are standing by to help you land your next career! We have positions available for all shifts and all experience levels. 828-558-2800 • jobs. hendersonville@mau.com • https://www.mau.com/ hendersonville-nc.
SALES/ MARKETING
SALES PROFESSIONAL Mountain Xpress is looking to add a new member to our sales team. This is a full-time position with benefits. Ideal candidates are personable, organized, motivated, and can present confidently, while working within a structure. Necessary skills include clear and professional communications (via phone, email, and in-person meetings),
detailed record-keeping, and working well in a team environment. While no outside sales experience is required, experience dealing with varied and challenging situations is helpful. The position largely entails account development and lead generation (including cold-calling), account management, assisting clients with marketing and branding strategies, and working to meet or exceed sales goals. If you are a high energy, positive, cooperative person looking to join an independent, community-minded organization, please send a resume and cover letter (no walk-ins, please) explaining why you are a good fit for Mountain Xpress to: xpressjob@mountainx.com
TEACHING/ EDUCATION A-B TECH IS HIRING A-B Tech is currently taking applications for a Full-Time position Computer and Online Training. For more details and to apply: https://www.abtcc. peopleadmin.com/postings/5889 A-B TECH IS HIRING A-B Tech is currently taking applications for a Full-Time position Campus Volunteers and Executive Assistant, Business and Finance Coordinator. For more details and to apply: https:// www.abtcc.peopleadmin. com/postings/5888 FT, GREAT PAY/BENEFITS, REWARDING Black Mountain Academy is seeking Overnight Residential Coaches for 3rd shift to work at our therapeutic boarding school supporting adolescent males with Level 1 (high-functioning) Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) or who have social challenges, anxiety, and difficulty in traditional academic settings.
Interested candidates, please send your resume and cover letter to jobs@ theblackmountainacademy. com.
SERVICES AUDIO/VIDEO CABLE PRICE INCREASE AGAIN? Switch To DIRECTV & Save + get a $100 visa gift card! Get More Channels For Less Money. Restrictions apply. Call Now! 877-6930625 (AAN CAN) DISH TV SPECIAL $64.99 For 190 Channels + $14.95 High Speed Internet. Free Installation, Smart HD DVR Included, Free Voice Remote. Some restrictions apply. Promo Expires 7/21/21. 1-855-380-2501 (AAN CAN) HUGHESNET SATELLITE INTERNET Finally, no hard data limits! Call Today for speeds up to 25mbps as low as $59.99/mo! $75 gift card, terms apply. 1-844416-7147 (AAN CAN)
CAREGIVERS COMPANION • CAREGIVER • LIVE-IN VACCINATED • Alzheimer's Experienced • Heart failure and bed sore care • Hospice reference letter • Nonsmoker, with cat, seeks live-in position • References • Arnold, (828) 273-2922.
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HOME IMPROVEMENT ELECTRICIAN ELECTRICAL SERVICE Power to the People! Serving Asheville and abroad. Troubleshooting, fixture hanging, can lights, generators, car chargers, remodels, new construction, we do it all! Licensed and insured. Free Estimates. 828-551-9843
ANNOUNCEMENTS ANNOUNCEMENTS A COURSE IN MIRACLES A truly loving, open study group. Meets second and fourth Mondays 6:30 pm on Zoom. For information, contact Susan at 828-712-5472 or email TJ at tjstierslcsw@ gmail.com. BATH & SHOWER UPDATES In as little as ONE DAY! Affordable prices - No payments for 18 months! Lifetime warranty & professional installs. Senior & Military Discounts available. Call: 1-877-649-5043 (AAN CAN) BECOME A PUBLISHED AUTHOR! We edit, print and distribute your work internationally. We do the work… You reap the Rewards! Call for a FREE Author’s Submission Kit: 844-511-1836. (AAN CAN) COMPUTER & IT TRAINING PROGRAM Train ONLINE to get the skills to become a Computer & Help Desk Professional now! Grants
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THE N EW Y OR K TI M ES C ROSSWORD P UZ Z LE and Scholarships available for certain programs for qualified applicants. Call CTI for details! 1-855-5544616. The Mission, Program Information and Tuition is located at CareerTechnical. edu/consumer-information. (AAN CAN) DONATE YOUR CAR TO KIDS Your donation helps fund the search for missing children. Accepting Trucks, Motorcycles & RV’s , too! Fast Free Pickup – Running or Not - 24 Hour Response - Maximum Tax Donation – Call 877-266-0681 (AAN CAN) NOTICE OF UNCLAIMED PROPERTY The following is a list of unclaimed and confiscated property at the Asheville Police Department: electronic equipment; cameras; clothing; lawn and garden equipment; personal items; tools; weapons (including firearms): jewelry: automotive items; building supplies; bikes and other miscellaneous items. Anyone with a legitimate claim or interest in this property has 30 days from the date of this publication to make a claim. Unclaimed items will be disposed of according to statutory law. For further information, or to file a claim, contact the Asheville Police Department Property and Evidence Section, 828232-4576. NOTICE OF DISPOSITION The following is a list of unclaimed and confiscated property at the Asheville Police Department tagged for disposition: audio and
video equipment; cameras; clothing; lawn and garden equipment; personal items; tools; weapons (including firearms): jewelry: automotive items; building supplies; bikes and other miscellaneous. All items will be disposed of 30 days from date of posting. Items to be auctioned will be displayed on www.propertyroom. com. SAVE MONEY ON EXPENSIVE AUTO REPAIRS! Our vehicle service program can save you up to 60% off dealer prices and provides you excellent coverage! Call for a free quote: 866-915-2263 (Mon-Fri :9am-4pm PST) STILL PAYING TOO MUCH FOR YOUR MEDICATION? Save up to 90% on RX refill! Order today and receive free shipping on 1st order - prescription required. Call 1-855-750-1612 (AAN CAN)
LEGAL NOTICES NON-RESIDENT NOTICE In the chancery court for Carter County at Elizabethton, Tennessee. Peter Arnold Zolton, Jr., Plaintiff VS Penny Leigh Marler Zolton, Defendant. Civil Action No. 31387. In this cause, it appearing from the Plaintiff's bill, which is sworn to, that the Defendant, Penny Leigh Marler Zolton, last known address, 258 Luther Road, Candler, NC 28715, it is ordered by me that publication be made for four successive weeks, as required by law, in the Mountain Xpress, a newspaper published in Asheville,
NC, in Buncombe County, with a general circulation in Candler, North Carolina, notifying said Defendant to appear before our said Chancery Court, at the Courthouse, 801 East Elk Avenue, Elizabethton, TN within (30) days after this notice has been published for four successive weeks in said newspaper, and make answer to said complaint, or the allegations there of will be take for confessed and this cause will be set for hearing ex parte as to Penny Leigh Marler Zolton. This, the 19th day of November, 2021. Andrew J. LaPorte, Clerk and Master. NOTICE TO CREDITORS STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF BUNCOMBE NOTICE TO CREDITORS The undersigned, as EXECUTOR of the ESTATE OF CAREY ELIZABETH WATSON, deceased, late of Buncombe County, North Carolina, notifies all persons having claims against said estate to present them to the undersigned c/o Lorin Page at Page Legal, PLLC, on or before March 1, 2022, or this Notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to said Estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned. This the 1st day of December, 2021. GREGG WATSON, EXECUTOR ESTATE OF CAREY ELIZABETH WATSON Dates of Publication: December 1, 2021 December 8, 2021 December 15, 2021 December 22, 2021 828-412-0513 www.pagelegalpllc.com
edited by Will Shortz | No. 1027 MIND, BODY, SPIRIT COUNSELING SERVICES ASTRO-COUNSELING Licensed counselor and accredited professional astrologer uses your chart when counseling for additional insight into yourself, your relationships and life directions. Stellar Counseling Services. Christy Gunther, MA, LCMHC. (828) 258-3229.
POSITIVE HYPNOSIS | EFT | NLP Michelle Payton, M.A., D.C.H., Author | 828-681-1728 | www.MichellePayton.com | Mind Over Matter Solutions books, online and in-person education, workshops and sessions. Positive Hypnosis—re-learning thru positive reinforcement, Emotional Freedom Technique, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Birth Mix Personality Assessment, Past Life Regression.
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ACROSS
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6 What often follows “Did you hear …?”
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14 Yet to be rented
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16 Hosp. scan
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19 Buddy 20 Cacophony 21 William who lent his name to a state 22 Masterful moves 24 Classic line from the Delicious Dish sketch on “S.N.L.” 28 Apple platform 29 Baked ___ 31 Belief system 34 Womb mate 37 Sue Grafton’s “___ for Innocent” 38 Classic opening line from an NBC sketch show
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44 Looks all over (for) 45 Reply to “Gracias” 48 “___ Duke” (1976 Stevie Wonder hit) 49 Classic line from the Wayne’s World sketch on “S.N.L.” 55 Doughnut go-with on an orchard tour 56 Indian honorifics
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65 How some will solve this crossword
25 Prep for a surprise party, in a way
47 Skin layer
66 Start of a playground selection process
26 Big dog’s bark
50 Overseer of Hamlet’s duel with Laertes
67 Humorous suffix with “most” and “best”
30 Doesn’t just assume, say
68 Religious offshoots
32 Mirin and sake
69 Made ewe cry?
DOWN 1 “Wabbit” pursuer Elmer 2 Diarist Nin
27 Nemesis
48 Uninspiring
51 Council site of 1545
31 Attired 33 Made level
52 Absorbs, as body moisture
34 Also
53 “Laughing” scavenger
35 Subj. of arms talks
54 New Haven Ivy Leaguer
36 ___ funk
55 ___ au lait
39 Hanks’s “Sleepless in Seattle” co-star
58 Begged
40 Sound from a fan
61 What the tangent of 45° is equal to
4 Grassy field
41 Portable structure that’s pitched
62 Something that’s catchy?
5 Greek “H”
46 Exist
63 Actress Arthur
6 Dressed like a Supreme Court justice
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS NY TIMES PUZZLE
3 Mel who voiced 1-Down
7 Overturn 8 Ogreish sort 9 Hockey great Bobby
57 Little dog’s bark
10 Scamp
59 “I’ll take that as ___”
11 Strong urge
60 Classic line from the Blue Öyster Cult sketch on “S.N.L.”
13 Some fine art
64 Pot-au-___ (French stew)
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42 King or queen topper 43 Baby ___ (“The Mandalorian” nickname)
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17 Classic line from the Superfans sketch on “S.N.L.”
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15 Unsuk Chin’s “Alice in Wonderland,” for one
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12 Sarong, for one 18 Imitates 23 Humorous suffix with “crap” and “schnozz”
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G A L D I D O A N D O D I S P S S E A F A N T J O B A O R A N G T B A O V A I N C E F I I G A A E A L S R N A L A S S Y
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DEC. 1-7, 2021
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