August 2015 Rapid River Arts & Culture Magazine

laugh look listen Global Symphony Project Leicester Studio Tour

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Laugh Your Asheville Off

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Cheryl Keefer Fine Artist

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Local Dining Guide

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30-32 • Reel Takes Movie Reviews

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12-15 • What to Do Guide™

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2 August 2015 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — Vol. 18, No. 12

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Celebrating Our 63rd Season!

pg. 21

2015 ~ 2016 Friday, September 25, 2015 ~ 8 PM

ARIEL STRING QUARTET Friday, November 6, 2015 ~ 8 PM

FAURÉ QUARTETT (Piano Quartet) Friday, March 4, 2016 ~ 8 PM

AMERICAN STRING QUARTET Sunday, April 3, 2016 ~ 4 PM

DORIC STRING QUARTET with JONATHAN BISS, Piano Sunday, May 1, 2016 ~ 4 PM

HARLEM STRING QUARTET All Performances at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 1 Edwin Place, Asheville

828.575.7427 | AshevilleChamberMusic.org

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Vol. 18, No. 12 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — August 2015 3

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performance INTERVIEW WITH

INTERVIEWED BY

Charlie Gerencer

Inarguably unique and fun.

Executive Producer of the Laugh Your Asheville Off Comedy Festival

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Rapid River Magazine: So many of the main

stream comics have passed through Laugh Your Asheville Off (LYAO) over the years; were there any comics who were not big at the time but you knew would make it to “Name Brand” status and did?

Charlie Gerencer: Great question! And thank

sponsored by:

DENNIS RAY

you for making me feel like I know all about comedy! I do. No, really I’m not kidding, I do. In all seriousness, comedy these days is a massive series of subcultures almost too big to be considered subcultures. But for the purpose of this answer I’m sticking with it.

A few of the performers blowing up in popularity that you saw first at LYAO would be Rory Scovel (TBS’s Ground Floor), Seaton Smith (Fox’s Mulaney), Kyle Kinane and Ryan Singer. They are rising to the top of cult comedy stardom. Plus M. Dickson, who has crushed a comedy writing career in Hollywood.

There are many more, but those few jump out at me.

RRM: It’s a comedy festival. I’m sure there have been many behind the scenes funny moments. Care to share one or two with us?

CG: What’s your definition of funny? We’re not allowed back at the Downtown Inn anymore.

For reasons I can neither confirm nor deny.

I’ve heard tell of things happening during the daytime involving wooded places where comics and some new friends of the area saw some things. Whether those things were actually there I can neither confirm nor deny.

RRM: Living here in Asheville since ’96 I’ve noticed a huge shift toward younger demographics of those attending events, shows, festivals, etc., (young being twenty-somethings). Has your audience aged with you over the years, or continued on page 8

New Textures

Ancient Techniques

ROBERTO VENGOECHEA Designer/Goldsmith

100 Cherry Street ~ Black Mountain pg. 24

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828.669.0065 | www.VisionsofCreation.com

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web exclusives RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE Established in 1997 • Volume Eighteen, Number Twelve

AUGUST 2015

www.rapidrivermagazine.com Publisher/Editor: Dennis Ray Marketing: Dennis Ray, Rick Hills Staff Photographer: Amber Combs Copy Editor: Kathleen Colburn Poetry Editor: Carol Pearce Bjorlie Layout & Design: Simone Bouyer Accounting: Sharon Cole Distribution: Dennis Ray

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Sandi Anton, Petras Barcas, Hannah Barry, Carol Pearce Bjorlie, Heather Bronson, James Cassara, Kathleen Colburn, Michael Cole, KaChina Davine, Kelly Denson, Amy Downs, Cristof Ensslin, Max Hammonds, MD, Phil Hawkins, Marilynne Herbert, Christine Hield, Phil Juliano, Kate Justus, Chip Kaufmann, Michelle Keenan, Peter Loewer, Gina Malone, Tina Masciarelli, Kay Stegall Miller, Brian Postelle, Dennis Ray, Michelle Rogers, Steven Samuels, Jeannie Shuckstes, Lindsey Solomon, Greg Vineyard, Bill Walz, Daniel Weiser, J. & R. Woods, Anna Lee Zanetti, Rachel Zink.

CONTACT US Rapid River Arts & Culture Magazine is a monthly publication. Send all mail to: Rapid River Arts & Culture Magazine 85 N. Main St., Canton, NC 28716 Phone: (828) 646-0071 info@rapidrivermagazine.com

ADVERTISING SALES Downtown Asheville and other areas Dennis Ray (828) 646-0071 dennis@rapidrivermagazine.com Hendersonville, Waynesville, Dining Guide Rick Hills (828) 452-0228 rick@rapidrivermagazine.com All materials contained herein are owned and copyrighted by Rapid River Arts & Culture Magazine and the individual contributors unless otherwise stated. Opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Rapid River Arts & Culture Magazine or the advertisers found herein. © Rapid River Arts & Culture Magazine, August 2015, Vol. 18 No. 12

On the Cover:

Painting by Cheryl Keefer.

PAGE 22

4 Performance Interview with Charlie Gerencer. . . 4 Asheville Chamber Music Series . . . 6 Young Artist Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Magnetic Theatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Laugh Your Asheville Off. . . . . . . . 20 Mountain Dance & Folk Festival 21 HART . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

SHORT STORIES New stories are added each month!

Goats and Lavender and Mountains, Oh My!,

written by Ashley English

Rain, written by Michael Landolfi Forbidden Fruit,

7 Music

written by Nancy Dillingham

Free Planet Radio & The Opal String Quartet . . . . . . . . . 7 Jonathan Edwards / Seth Walker . . 27 Classic Wineseller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

9 Fine Art

The Mysterious Disappearance of Phyllis Rivers, Part 1, written by RF Wilson

Hiking the PCT Mountains & Deserts,

written by John Swart

Folk Art Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Leicester Studio Tour . . . . . . . . . . . 10 All Nations Trading . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Stephanie Grimes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Richard Baker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Cheryl Keefer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Elinor Bowman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Art After Dark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

12 Movie Reviews Chip Kaufmann, Michelle Keenan .12

16 Columns Greg Vineyard – Fine Art . . . . . . . . 16 Carol Pearce Bjorlie – Poetry. . . . . 28 Books & Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Bill Walz – Artful Living . . . . . . . . 33 Max Hammonds, MD – Health . . 33

25 Dining Guide Waynesville Craft Beer Faire . . . . . 25 Champa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Mountain Brew Fest. . . . . . . . . . . . 32

34 What to Do Guide

Discover More Exciting Articles, Short Stories & Blogs at www.rapidrivermagazine.com

Behind Bars, written by Celia Miles Cat Nap, written by Joe Perrone Jr.

Announcing: Flash Fiction contest.

See page 28 for details.

Short Story and Flash Fiction guidelines are available at rapidrivermagazine.com.

Rapid River Magazine’s copy editor, Kathleen Colburn, is editor and curator of the section. Please contact her by email to rrshortstories@gmail.com

SPECIAL SECTIONS Hendersonville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg 11 River Arts District . . . . . . . . . . . pg 17 Black Mountain . . . . . . . . . . . . . pg 19 Downtown Asheville . . . . . . pgS 20-22 Waynesville . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pgS 23-25

ONLY ONLINE Xenography: Songs from a Tech Raconteur Chris Stack’s debut album, Xenography, is the result of a lifetime of active listening combined with an assortment of unique musical and technical experiences.

Bring Us Your Best XII On display through Friday, August 28 at Blue Ridge Community Red Pony by College in Flat Christine Kosiba Rock. The opening reception and awards ceremony take place Friday, August 14, from 5-7 p.m.

Raise Your Hand Benefit Auction & Gala Auction treasures, celebrities, and fine cuisine. The celebrated benefit for the Western North Carolina Cindy Walton created this year’s signature AIDS Project will art work. be held Saturday, September 26 at the Asheville Event Centre on Sweeten Creek Road.

www.rapidrivermagazine.com

™

Best in Show by Phil Juliano . . . . 35 Callie & Cats by Amy Downs . . . . 35 Corgi Tales by Phil Hawkins . . . . 35 Dragin by Michael Cole . . . . . . . . 35 Ratchet & Spin by J. & R. Woods . . 35

38 Outdoor Adventure Gran Fondo Asheville. . . . . . . . . . . 38 WNC Battle of the Burger 2015 . . 38 Campfest – September 18-20. . . . . 39

IF YOU GO: Tell them you saw it in Rapid River Magazine!

Distributed at more than 390 locations throughout eight counties in WNC and South Carolina.

First copy is free – each additional copy $1.50

Vol. 18, No. 12 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — August 2015 5

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captivating performances Asheville Chamber Music Series Presents 63rd Season

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Concerts Feature Internationally Acclaimed Artists.

The Asheville Chamber Music Series (ACMS) will be presenting a distinguished roster of internationally acclaimed ensembles for its 2015-16 season, including the Ariel String Quartet, Fauré Quartett (Piano Quartet), American String Quartet, Doric String Quartet with pianist Jonathan Biss and the Harlem Quartet.

A special concert to benefit the Asheville Chamber Music Series will feature Gary Hoffman, cello and Giles Vonsattel, piano. All

BY

MARILYNNE HERBERT

concerts will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation located at the corner of Edwin Place and Charlotte Street in Asheville.

“We are looking forward to our 63rd season this year with another incredible roster of outstanding musicians and the opportunity to present our series in the newly expanded setting of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, our concert home,” says ACMS Presdent, Polly Feitzinger. “The newly designed sanctuary of the UU Congregation enables us to present larger ensembles and an expanded repertoire for the enjoyment of our audiences.”

FEATURED ENSEMBLES

The Harlem Quartet

Violinist Rachel Patrick and clarinetist Matthew Boyles make a return visit from California to perform with pianist and Artistic Director Daniel Weiser.

First up is “French Frolic” highlighting several French composers, including Debussy, Faure, Poulenc, and more. Saturday, August 1 at 7:30 p.m. at White Horse Black Mountain. $15-20. www.whitehorseblackmountain.com or call (828) 669-0816 AmiciMusic also presents “Around The World In 80 Minutes” with the same musicians. This concert features a quick musical trip to locations such as Romania, Italy, Argentina, Russia, Hungary, U.S. and more.

Wednesday, August 5 at 7:30 p.m. at White Horse Black Mountain. $15-20. www. whitehorseblackmountain.com or call (828) 669-0816.

6 August 2015 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — Vol. 18, No. 12

Friday, November 6, 2015 at 8 p.m.

The ensemble was awarded the ECHO Classic for their album “Classic Beyond Borders,” their second after their recording of Brahms’ piano quartets.

American String Quartet

Friday, September 25, 2015 at 8 p.m.

Friday, March 4, 2016 at 8 p.m.

Recently awarded the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award, the Ariel String Quartet performs widely in North America, Europe and Israel.

The Quartet is known for its performances of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg, Bartok, and Mozart.

Photo: Peter Schaaf

Doric String Quartet with pianist Jonathan Biss

French Frolic & Around the World in 80 Minutes

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Fauré Quartett (Piano Quartet)

Ariel String Quartet

AMICIMUSIC PRESENTS

AmiciMusic continues a summer of great chamber music with two weekends of concerts featuring beautiful music for clarinet, violin, and piano.

The Ariel String Quartet

Sunday afternoon, April 3, 2016 at 4 p.m.

The leading British string quartet amongst the new generation. Jonathan Biss has appeared with the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics; and the Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco Symphonies.

Harlem String Quartet Matthew Boyles, clarinetist.

Rachel Patrick, violinist.

Thursday, August 6 at 7:30 p.m. at All Soul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Biltmore Village. $15-20 at door. Discount tickets in advance at www.amicimusic.org Friday, August 7 at 7:30 p.m. at a House

Concert in Biltmore Lake. $35 includes food and drink. Tickets at amicimusic.org or (802) 369-0856.

Saturday, August 8 at 6 p.m. at the Stream-

side House Concerts in Arden. $25 includes potluck supper. Tickets at amicimusic.org or (802) 369-0856.

AmiciMusic is a non-profit organization based in Asheville dedicated to performing the highest quality chamber music in intimate spaces. For more information about AmiciMusic, please visit amicimusic.org or call Dan at (802) 369-0856.

Sunday afternoon, May 1, 2016 at 4 p.m.

The New York-based ensemble has performed throughout the U.S., as well as in France, the U.K., Belgium, Panama, Canada, and South Africa.

Gary Hoffman with Giles Vonsattel Friday, December 6, 2015 at 8 p.m.

Gary Hoffman is one of the outstanding cellists of our time, combining instrumental mastery, great beauty of sound, and a poetic sensibility. This special benefit concert is not part of the subscription series.

IF YOU The Asheville Chamber Music Series GO Season tickets are available for $150,

individual tickets are $38. Tickets to the benefit concert featuring Gary Hoffman with Giles Vonsattel are $40. To purchase season tickets, or for more information, please call Nathan Shirley at (828) 575-7427, support@ ashevillechambermusic.org, or visit the ACMS website, www.ashevillechambermusic.org.

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Free Planet Radio & The Opal String Quartet

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CD release of The Global Symphony Project: Ecstatic Verses.

Free Planet Radio and The Opal String Quartet were recipients of the prestigious Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program Grant for 2014 and will be showcasing original collaborative compositions from the ‘Global Symphony: Ecstatic Verses’ recording.

Free Planet Radio members consist of multi-instrumentalist Chris Rosser, two time Grammy Award winner Eliot Wadopian and world renowned percussionist River Guerguerian. The Opal String Quartet features Ginger Kowal and Mariya Potapova on violins, Kara Poorbaugh on viola, and Franklin Keel on cello.

For over a decade, Free Planet Radio has been bringing its exciting and innovative world-classical music blend to both concert stages and classrooms. Based in Asheville, this musical partnership began with a clear mission statement as “the shared vision of three multi-instrumentalists exploring the infinite and seamless relationships between musical cultures through the universal language of sound.”

Free Planet Radio performances expertly weave the melodic and rhythmic structures of Middle Eastern, Indian and North African music, with the subtleties and harmonic vocabulary of Western classical music. Performing mostly original compositions, even while playing extremely complex melodies and time signatures, the trio always maintains a sense of accessibility, spontaneity and easy engagement

BY

KACHINA DAVINE

with the audience.

Emerging from three of the country’s finest music schools, Free Planet Radio consists of two-time Grammy winner Eliot Wadopian leaping effortlessly between rhythm and melody on electric and string basses; River GuerFree Planet Radio and Opal String Quartet. guerian on an extensive array of global young people and maintain active teaching stupercussion instruments including Middle dios in the Asheville area.

Eastern frame drums and doumbek, the Indian The OSQ serves as Artists-in-Residence kanjira, African shakers, and Western drum for the educational outreach programs of set; and Chris Rosser exploring melody on the Asheville Chamber Music Series, the the 17-stringed Indian dotar, Turkish cumbus Asheville Symphony Guild, and the Brevard oud, guitar, piano and melodica.

Philharmonic.

The Opal String Quartet, formed in 2006, is a professional chamber ensemble based in Asheville. Known for its fiery intensity and IF polished precision, the OSQ is dedicated to YOU CD release celebration of ‘The Global bringing the art of chamber music to diverse GO Symphony Project: Ecstatic Verses’ by audiences by performing in a wide variety of Free Planet Radio & The Opal String venues, from schools, bars, and art galleries to Quartet, Friday, August 28 at 8:30 p.m. at the street corners and concert halls.

Isis Restaurant and Music Hall, 743 Haywood Rd. in Asheville.

While taking a fresh approach to traditional masterworks, the quartet specializes in the Tickets are $12 adv., $15 door. Dinner performance of contemporary repertoire, and reservations recommended for reserved seating. enjoys collaborating with living composers Tickets available by calling (828) 575-2737 or visit isisasheville.com. and premiering new works. OSQ members are passionate advocates of chamber music for

Classical Music is Alive and Well in Waynesville

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This summer, thanks to the Haywood County Arts Council, audiences in Western North Carolina need not look far for cultural opportunities.

BY

LINDSEY SOLOMON

Tickets are on sale now for the August 14 Young Artist Series performance, which brings to Haywood county Andrew The final concert of the SwanTyson, a 29 year-old native of nanoa Chamber Music Festival takes Durham. Hailed by BBC Radio place August 2, and the 10th year of 3 as “a real poet of the piano.” the Young Artist Series premieres Andrew Tyson is emerging August 14. Each show will highlight as a distinctive and important the unique talents of world-class Andrew Tyson, pianist new musical voice. On the eve performers, offering the region the of the 2015-2016 season, he chance to experience the beauty and captured First Prize at the Géza Anda Comvariety of classical music. petition in Zürich, where he was also awarded For the final performance of the Swanthe Mozart and Audience Prizes. The August nanoa Chamber Music Festival 2015 season, 14 concert will take place at First United the Haywood County Arts Council presents Methodist Church in Waynesville. Tickets are The Great Masters. The Jasper String Quartet, available for $22 per person. Please call the Philip Alejo, bass, and Inessa Zaretsky, piano, Haywood County Arts Council at (828) 452perform a free concert at First United Meth0593 to purchase. odist Church in Waynesville.

About the Haywood County Arts Council The Haywood County Arts Council is a non-profit agency that serves all artists and arts organization in Haywood County. As an affiliate of the North Carolina Arts Council, the Haywood County Arts Council seeks to fulfill its mission to build partnerships that promote art and artists, explore new cultural opportunities, and preserve mountain artistic heritage.

The Haywood County Arts Council is located at 86 N. Main Street in Waynesville. For more details, call (828) 452-0593, email info@ haywoodarts.org or visit HaywoodArts.org.

IF YOU Andrew Tyson, Friday, August 14 GO at First United Methodist Church

in Waynesville. Tickets are $22. For additional information about the Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival or the Young Artist Series, call (828) 452-0593, email info@ haywoodarts.org, or visit HaywoodArts.org.

Advertising Sales Representatives Needed Help us promote local arts, organizations, and businesses. Great for earning extra income. Set your own hours. Potential earnings are up to you!

Seniors are encouraged to apply.

INTERESTED? Call (828) 646-0071, or e-mail info@rapidrivermagazine.com

Vol. 18, No. 12 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — August 2015 7

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captivating performances World Premiere of The Jacob Higginbotham Show

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Not since his award-winning one-man lyric-drama, The Songs of Robert, has writer and performer John Crutchfield held himself up to public ridicule with such brave and solitary determination.

His latest solo play, The Jacob Higginbotham Show, is set in our very own Asheville (or, at least, in somebody’s Asheville), and tells the story of a strange little man “of a certain age” who has the bizarre habit of making spontaneous marriage proposals. These are universally rejected, of course, “until one day...”

Since 2009, audiences of the erstwhile No Shame Theatre at NC Stage, of Magnetic Midnight at The Magnetic Theatre, of the Asheville Fringe Arts Festival, and of the Juniper Bends Reading Series at Downtown Books and News have been tantalized by glimpses of Higginbotham as a work-in-progress. Now, the completed play will have its long-awaited world premiere in a Magnetic Theatre production, directed by and starring the playwright. It had better be good.

Working with sound designer and d.j.

Mary Zogzas, and drawing on his own extensive experience as poet, musician, dancer, and abuser of home furnishings, Crutchfield creates a world that is at once magical and harrowing, beautiful and strange, and finally, very, very awkward.

Cruthfield’s previous productions by The Magnetic Theatre include Ruth; The Labyrinth; Solstice; The Strange and Tragical Adventures of Pinocchio, or Why Didn’t I Just Stay a Damn Puppet?, The Songs of Robert,

‘Charlie Gerencer’ cont’d from pg. 4

are you seeing a large number of young people coming to Laugh Your Asheville Off?

CG: This is another great question. And one that when answered will not potentially get anyone arrested. The LYAO festival, I can say this with all honesty, is the most eclectic festival in the area in terms of it’s audience demographic.

Our event is like a classy, well…I don’t know what it’s like because we are inarguably unique and fun. You see 18 year olds sitting next to a retired couple sitting in front of WLOS news anchors and next to local restaurant owners, and so on. It’s amazingly eclectic and harmonious.

The energy mixed with all the comedy gives you tingles to be part of it. I think it’s equal parts human across the board. If they’ve aged with me then the city is in big trouble because I feel more immature than ever.

RRM: How do you select the comics who will be performing?

8 August 2015 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — Vol. 18, No. 12

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SART presents Radio Gals

STEVEN SAMUELS

at Crest Mountain Dinner Show

Writer and performer John Crutchfield stars in The Jacob Higginbotham Show.

and Landscape with Missing Person.

The Jacob Higginbotham Show is written, directed, and performed by John Crutchfield, with d.j./sound design by Mary Zogzas, and lighting by Jason Williams.

IF YOU The Jacob Higginbotham Show at GO Magnetic 375 (375 Depot Street in

the River Arts District). Discount previews Thursday & Friday, August 20 & 21, at 7:30 p.m., $12 in advance/$15 at the door. Performances Thursday-Saturday, August 22-September 12, at 7:30 p.m., $18 in advance/$21 at the door. For tickets, call the Box office at (828) 239-9250, or visit www. themagnetictheatre.org.

CG: We have an open submission process online that runs late February through the beginning of May. Comics submit a 7-10 minute link to their performance set and our talent director/producer Ryan Folks organizes them and we watch and watch and watch. Then collectively we watch and watch.

The energy of live stand-up relieves the weight we all carry.

After that we narrow down the submissions to fit many different criteria. Number one, of course, being are they funny? Then there are many other aspects of the performer that we discuss and bicker back and forth about, then we culminate a lineup and design them so every show is different and every show is unique.

You’ll never see onstage anywhere ever what you will be able to see at our event. The talent scouts and Hollywood executives I bring in to town appreciate this effort too. It makes it fun and not typical for them.

The Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre closes out their 2015 season with their own bananas rendition of the uncorked and exuberant musical Radio Gals.

Written by Mike Craver and Mark Hardwick, performances take place August 5-30; Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. Radio Gals is a dinner show with doors opening at 6 p.m. and 1 p.m. respectively.

Show only $25; show and dinner $44. Held at Crest Mountain Dinner Show.

IF YOU GO: Radio Gals, August 5-30 at Crest Mountain Dinner Show, 30 Ben Lippen School Road, Asheville. For more details, call (828) 252-2637 or visit www. crestmountainpresents.com

RRM: Talk a little about the energy of attending a live stand-up instead of watching them on television.

CG: There’s no comparison in energy. Laughter is funny. Get it? That was stupid and I shouldn’t have typed that. What’s even more stupid is I’m still typing about its stupid-ness.

I’m digressing. Comedy is subjective no matter where you’re watching it. However, experiencing stand-up comedy at our live event, the laughter becomes contagious and spreads like wild fire.

You feel yourself letting go and relaxing and being more open to laughing at everything this crazy world offers us and from many perspectives. It’s an awesome experience when the energy of live stand-up relieves the weight we all carry.

IF YOU The 9th Annual Laugh Your GO Asheville Off Comedy Festival,

August 12-15. Tickets available at LaughYourAshevilleOff.com

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fine arts & crafts

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Wood Day at the Folk Art Center

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Master craftspeople from the Southern Highland Craft Guild will be celebrating the medium of wood on August 8 at the Folk Art Center.

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HANNAH BARRY

The annual event, held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., showcases a variety of tools and processes for creating bowls, brooms, flutes, chairs, carvings, treenware, as well as heritage toys. A range of techniques from woodturning on the electric lathe, to the heritage crafts of coopering and whittling will be featured.

New this year is “50 Bowls in 5 Hours,” a combined challenge for woodturners Warren Carpenter of Seneca, SC and Joe Ruminski of Fairview, NC. The two turners plan to create fifty unfinished bowls on the lathe within the day. The bowls will be donated to the Guild.

For a complete list of participating artists visit www.craftguild.org/wood-day.

Visitors also have the opportunity to learn carving. Member Ronnie McMahan and the Western North Carolina Carvers will be teaching participants on bars of soap with spoons Brasstown carver, Carolyn Anderson demonstrates her wood carving technique. and other tools. Carving has been represented in the Guild since forming in 1930, and has continued through various artists, most memorably the Brasstown Carvers. Guild member Carolyn Anderson of the Brasstown Carvers and others will be demonstrating their craft with different types of Turning wooden tops and toys A display of hand-carved wooden wood. on an electric lathe. spoons made by artists of the Southern Admission to Highland Craft Guild.

Wood Day and the Folk Art Center is free. Headquarters to the Southern Highland Craft Guild, the Folk Art IF Center also houses three galleries, a library, YOU Wood Day, Saturday, August 8 from GO 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Folk Art Center Allanstand Craft Shop and a Blue Ridge Parkis located at Milepost 382 on the Blue way information desk and bookstore.

Ridge Parkway in east Asheville.

The Southern Highland Craft Guild is a For a complete list of artists participating in non-profit, educational organization estabWood Day, and to learn more about Southern lished in 1930 to bring together the crafts and Highland Craft Guild programs at the Folk craftspeople of the Southern Highlands for Art Center call (828) 298-7928 or visit www. the benefit of shared resources, education, craftguild.org/wood-day. marketing and conservation.

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Saturday & Sunday

August 15 & 16

PAINTING ✶ POTTERY ✶ JEWELRY QUILTS ✶ IRONWORK ✶ FABRIC & Much More!

www.ComeToLeicester.org Vol. 18, No. 12 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — August 2015 9

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fine arts & crafts Tradition. Vision. Innovation.

Milepost 382 - BlueRidge Parkway, Asheville, NC 828.298.7928

930 Tunnel Road/Hwy 70, Asheville, NC 828.298.7903

Come to Leicester Studio Tour

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This free, self-guided tour takes place August 15 & 16, 2015.

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CHRISTINE HIELD

The annual event features the artwork of members of the Leicester Artists, and invited guest artists, working from their studios located throughout the scenic countryside in Leicester, just outside of Asheville. Several artists will also be exhibiting at Addison Farms Vineyard in Leicester.

This year’s tour features the Bloomster Handler, Oslo, watercolor by Christine Hield work of several well-established natural fibers. Jewelry artists create mustpainters working in styles from realism have selections using gemstones, wood, to impressionism. There is an artist Egyptian faience and porcelain. who hand pours aromatherapy candles, We round out the offerings with the a blacksmith whose ironworks reflect ubiquitous potters of North Carolina, a love of nature, a wood worker who each interpreting the art form with a nod creates fun and functional small pieces of to the ancient and the contemporary. furniture and jewelry. Our fabric artists A printed version of the 2015 Come create quilts, fine hand woven textiles, to Leicester brochure is available at finer and hand felted fashion wear. establishments regionally, by request, Not to be missed is Leicester’s own and from our sponsors. Full information resident broom maker as he plies his regarding the tour, including an interacunique take on the regional Appalachian tive map and artists information, can be art form. Our lamp artist designs warm found at www.cometoleicester.org. and welcoming fine art additions for your home with handmade paper and

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Mountain Jewish Festival

Agudas Israel Congregation is presenting its first annual Mountain Jewish Festival in Hendersonville.

26 Lodge Street, Asheville, NC 828.277.6222

WWW.CRAFTGUILD.ORG The Southern Highland Craft Guild is an authorized concessioner of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior.

This festival will include tidbits of Jewish food and traditions. Homemade traditional Jewish food will be served and sold including: Chicken Soup with Matzah Balls, Chopped Liver, Kugels (noodle casserole), Hummus, and Potato Latkes. Homemade Baked Goods including Mandelbread, Rugalach, Hamentashen, and braided Challahs. In addition, Pastrami, Corned Beef, Knishes, Bagels with Lox and Cream Cheese, Babka (sweet yeast cake), and more, will be available to sample and for purchase.

Don’t miss the opportunity to come, see and learn how we celebrate our Jewish holidays and how we observe Shabbat. Sit in our Sukkah (outdoor arbor), enjoy the fruit and vegetable decorations, eat and enjoy!

Watch our new video about the history of the Jewish people in our very own Hendersonville. Live music featur-

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ing song leader, Penny White.

Special Jewish Holiday crafts are Art projects for kids. planned for the children. Docent tours will be available of our Sanctuary. Meet and greet our new Rabbi Rachael Jackson.

Free admission; food and craft tickets will be sold at the door. In addition, our Judaica Boutique will be open and stocked with beautiful new items. There will also be a Jewish Book Sale. Cash, check, and credit cards will be accepted.

IF YOU Mountain Jewish Festival, GO Sunday, August 16 from 11 a.m. to

3 p.m. The synagogue is located at 505 Glasgow Lane, Hendersonville. For more information, call (828) 693-9838, or visit www.agudasisraelsynagogue.org.

Pottery by Ed Rivera

Wood sculpture by Valerie Berlage

IF YOU The tenth annual “Come to GO Leicester” studio tour will be held

Saturday & Sunday, August 15 & 16 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days.

Details at www.cometoleicester.org.

Crimson Laurel Gallery

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Three outstanding shows.

This month, the gallery will feature significant collections of work, both sculptural and functional, with many of the pieces made especially for these exhibitions.

On display: new work by featured artist Frank Frank Boyden James Fisher, through September 2; exhibition of Kevin Crowe and seven past and present apprentices, “Getting it Right, Passing it On;” and, Frank Boyden’s “Ceramic Icon” show, through September 30. Works from the exhibitions can be seen and purchased online.

For more details call (828) 688-3599 or visit www.crimsonlaurelgallery.com

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Many different tribes are represented and most artists are longtime friends. Their first store was located in Calistoga, California (Napa Valley) for 15 years.

They carry quality Native American jewelry and art such as fetishes, artifacts, bows and quivers, pottery, music, books, talking feathers, Cherokee dream catchers, medicine wheels and much more. Most of their jewelry is hand made. Some of the bone carvings are from Bali and some jewelry is Peru, Guatemala and Mayan made.

All Nations Trading represents both Calvin Begay and David Freeland. Both use the inlay technique to create truly gorgeous and unique jewelry pieces.

Calvin Begay is a Navajo silversmith. His jewelry is all handmade, like the most popular horse pendants, dragonfly pendants and turtle pendants.

David Freeland draws much of his inspiration from nature using unconventional shapes and textures to create distinctive one of a kind designs.

Their friends Lonny and Michelle make fine jewelry from buffalo bone, which they hand cut and paint. You can find Cherokee dream catchers

by Tony Cucumber, Full Blood Cherokee, and Winterhawk Pottery. Also available, the always popular “Homeland Security, Fighting Terrorism Since 1492” tee shirts.

Jim and Anita have worked hard for years to build up a good circle of artist friends from around the nation. They invite you to come visit their store and experience firsthand the amazing craftsmanship. Be sure to check out Calvin Begay’s beautiful Midnight Sky series of inlay jewelry.

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514 North Main Street, Hendersonville, NC 28792 Mon-Sat 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sun 12 noon to 4 p.m.

(828) 698-4888, anita@spiritfeather.com www.spiritfeather.com

3 Biltmore Ave.

Downtown Asheville 828-225-8885

437 N. Main St.

www.champanc.com

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Hendersonville, NC 828-696-9800

Vol. 18, No. 12 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — August 2015 11

Reel Take Reviewers:

 - Fantastic  - Pretty darn good  - Has some good points  - The previews lied  - Only if you must

CHIP KAUFMANN is a film historian who also shares his love of classical music as a program host on WCQS-FM radio.

MICHELLE KEENAN is a long time student of film, a believer in the magic of movies, and a fundraiser for public radio.

M- Forget entirely For the latest REVIEWS, THEATER INFO and MOVIE SHOW TIMES, visit www.rapidrivermagazine.com

Illustration of Michelle & Chip by Brent Brown.

Questions/Comments?

BRENT BROWN is a graphic designer and illustrator.

View more of his work at www.brentbrown.com.

You can email Chip or Michelle at reeltakes@hotmail.com

Ant-Man 

Short Take: A refreshingly light superhero movie with big heart and lots of laughs

REEL TAKE: In the interest of full disclosure,

I’m not the half of Reel Takes that usually reviews the superhero movies. The last comic book I read was an Archie comic some time in the 1970s. (I don’t even think I was particularly aware that ‘Ant-Man’ even existed.) On the occasion when I do review one, I tend to think they take themselves way too seriously. Rumor has it the ‘fan boys’ like that kind of thing.

Fortunately for me, Ant-Man is likely to disappoint the serious fan boys. This film

Who says size doesn’t matter?

Paul Rudd is Ant-man.

benefits from and actually thrives on the merits of its charm and humor, thanks in large part to its lead actor, Paul Rudd. Whether the film’s light and breezy attitude is a plus or minus will depend on the viewer. For me, it was a definite asset.

I’d wager a guess that the style and tone of this film is due to director, Peyton Reed. This is not a name associated with Marvel Comic Universe and comic-con type fare. Reed is known better for things like Down With Love (a favorite of mine) and The Break Up. What Reed is able to achieve here is a stylish film with lots of visual effects and action, but a film where the visual effects and action sequences

take a back seat to the story, the characters and the humor.

Interestingly, the writing team is a mix of the usual and the unusual. Edgar Wright and Stan Lee tow the Marvel Universe brand (with references to The Avengers throughout), while Adam McKay and Paul Rudd (of the Anchorman team) and Joe Cornish (of the Hot Fuzz and TinTin teams) round out the creative team behind the story.

Rudd plays Scott Lang, a high tech cat burglar with a Robin Hood sensibility (which of course makes us like him even more) who, at the start of the film, is just being released from prison. Unbeknownst to him, his last heist caught the attention of Dr. Hank Pym Movies continued on page 13

THE MONTHLY REEL

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Theatre Directory

This August, take a Rogue Nation Vacation

The dog days of summer are here.

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MICHELLE KEENAN

Schumer’s Trainwreck.

Of this month’s offerings, the titles If tubing down the French Broad isn’t we’re most looking forward to run the your thing, there’s plenty of entertainment gamut from smart and entertaining at local theatres. Top on our list this month to just plain guilty pleasure. On the is Mr. Holmes, and the good Professor Christina Applegate and Ed Helms star in a reboot smarter side of things we’ve got Woody Kaufmann has the exuberant details for you. of National Lampoon’s Vacation.

Allen’s latest film, Irrational Man, InfiWe think we made a fairly safe judgment nitely Polar Bear starring Mark Ruffalo, call in reviewing Mr. Holmes over Pixels Chaos Film Festival (see details on page Diary of a Teenage Girl, and End of and some other mainstream, big budget 13). The Asheville Film Society is showcasthe Tour. In what I think will be smart and a (albeit perfectly entertaining) fare. ing its usual wonderful array of films on whole lot of fun, Guy Ritchie is giving The Chip also reviews Self-less, while I Tuesday nights at the Carolina Cinemas.

Man From U.N.C.L.E. new life. review the latest Marvel comic to get the Where else can you see The Palm Beach Rounding out this month’s releases are big screen treatment, Ant-Man. Rounding Story one week and Breakfast on Pluto the Ricki and the Flash starring Meryl Streep as a out our reviews this month is the first film next? has-been wannabe rock star, and Mission: Imby the ‘it’ girl of comedy right now, Amy The Hendersonville Film Society, possible Rogue Nation. Last but not hosted by the good Professor Kaufmann, least, National Lampoon’s Vacation also offers up a wide variety, including IT! a gets a reboot this summer as a now 1927 silent film starring Clara Bow, Steven middle-aged Rusty Griswald takes his Spielberg’s Young Sherlock Holmes, and family on a road trip to Wally World Fred Zinneman’s 1953 classic, From Here to jump start his marriage and bond to Eternity. We’ve also included listings with his kids. Ed Helms and Chrisfor the Thursday Night Horror Show tina Applgate star as this generation’s (another free offering from the Asheville Clark and Ellen. It is worth noting that Film Society folks) at the Carolina Cinema.

Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo See listings for all of these throughout this reprise their roles as Rusty’s parents. month’s section.

Locally, this month there are some great offerings as well. Western It looks like Tom Cruise could use a trip to Wally Until next month, we hope you beat Carolina University film students will World, but instead he’s accepted another Mission: the heat and enjoy the show! be featured at The Best of Controlled Impossible Rogue Nation.

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Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company Movieline (828) 254-1281 www.ashevillepizza.com

Beaucatcher Cinemas (Asheville) Movieline (828) 298-1234

Biltmore Grande

1-800-FANDANGO #4010 www.REGmovies.com

Carmike 10 (Asheville)

Movieline (828) 298-4452 www.carmike.com

Carolina Cinemas

(828) 274-9500 www.carolinacinemas.com

The Falls Theatre (Brevard) Movieline (828) 883-2200

Fine Arts Theatre (Asheville) Movieline (828) 232-1536 www.fineartstheatre.com

Flat Rock Theatre (Flat Rock) Movieline (828) 697-2463 www.flatrockcinema.com

Four Seasons (Hendersonville) Movieline (828) 693-8989

The Strand (Waynesville)

(828) 283-0079, www.38main.com

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(Michael Douglas). Pym was the original Ant-man and he wants to keep the technology he created out of the hands of evil doers, which includes his former protege, Darren Cross. Lang, who can’t even hold down a job at Baskin Robins, needs a good gig so he can regain visitation rights with his daughter and payback child support.

Pym has a daughter too, only his is grown and has issues with her father that are a tad bigger than ant-size. Hope (Evangeline Lilly), resents her father for not letting her in on his secretive work and not leveling with her about the death of her mother when she was just a girl. She has since aligned herself with Cross, but we must not lose hope.

Unlike Batman fighting for Gotham or Superman fighting for Metropolis, Lang and Pym are fighting for their daughters. Perhaps it’s little details like this that make it such a warm film. The film, story and central characters all have universal appeal; after all, every man is going to fight for his little girl.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t cite Michael Pena in the supporting cast as a definite stand out.

He plays one Lang’s ex-con friends. He’s a wine-loving, art-loving, waffle-making thief who’s greatest gift is relaying a story. The way the filmmakers have Pena tell the stories is a stroke of genius and is one of the ways this film shines.

If you see Ant-Man, stay for the end credits.

Suffice it to say Ant-Man will return and it’ll be a whole lot of fun. DC Comics can keep going dark (for the fan boys), but for my money, the Marvel Comics Universe is benefiting from the light.

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The Best of The Controlled Chaos Film Festival takes place Saturday, August 15 at the Martin Lipscomb Performing Arts Center in Highlands.

The festival showcases the best of Western Carolina University student films from its Film and Television Productions Program’s annual campus-based Controlled Chaos Film Festvial.

Students in WCU’s School of Stage and Screen write, direct, act, film, edit and produce the films and incorporate musical compositions created by students in the Commerical and Electronic Music Program and title sequences developed in the School of Art and Design. Genres include comedy, drama, documentary, animated film and promotional pieces.

The Date Night-themed event opens with a reception at 6 p.m. followed by a 90-minute screening at 7 p.m. A two-item

Mr. Holmes 

ing Short Take, I really, really liked this film.

Some of that has to do with the fact that I love Sherlock Holmes. Some of it has to do with the fact that the vast majority of the other movies that I have seen this year aren’t in the same league as this one. Most of it, though, has to do with the fact that Mr. Holmes is simply a remarkable movie.

Director Bill Condon, who used Ian McKellan to great effect in his earlier Gods and Monsters (1998), is back at the top of his game after being lucratively sidetracked by the Twilight series. Working with Ian McKellan again doesn’t hurt either and neither does making Sherlock Holmes the focus of the film.

Just as Gods and Monsters is a re-imagining of the final days of British director James Whale (he made the first two Frankenstein films with Boris Karloff among others), Mr.

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REEL TAKE: As is evident from the open-

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Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence.

Short Take: This unique look at one of literature’s most beloved characters is outstanding in every way. From all of the performances to the look, sound, and feel of the film, Mr. Holmes is extraordinary.

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An elderly Sherlock Holmes Ian McKellan) instructs his young protege’ (Milo Parker) in the art of beekeeping in Mr. Holmes.

Holmes takes the fictional character of Holmes and gives him a third act. Holmes is now 93 and living in Sussex where he keeps his bees and is slowly losing his memory.

The year is 1947 and the young son of Holmes’ housekeeper (Milo Parker in a wonderful performance) wants to know why Holmes gave up being a private detective.

Holmes is trying to write it down but his failing memory won’t allow him to recall what really happened. Slowly and painfully he does remember and this results in a remarkable discovery about himself and about Dr. Watson.

To say anymore about the story would be giving too much away but once the plot kicks in the movie keeps you interested until the final revelation. But there is so much to savor

BY

MICHELLE KEENAN

live auction during the intermission will give audience members an opportunity to win a 3-minute business or family video created expressly for them by students and faculty in the WCU film and television program, or a featured cameo Students prepare to shoot a scene from the FTP role in a senior thesis film. senior project film “Too Much To Ask.” Proceeds from the festival benefit will assist students and making The festival is rated PG-13 for adult senior project films, which often cost more language. For more information about the than $5,000 to create, and in acquiring esevent, visit bccff.wcu.edu. sential equipment for the program. The cost of admission to this limited seating event is $75 (plus $5 NC sales tax).

IF YOU Western Carolina University’s Best Tickets can be purchased at the Highlands GO of Controlled Chaos Film Festival Area Chamber of Commerce, the Cashiers & Benefit, Saturday, August 15 at Area Chamber of Commerce, the Highlands the Martin Lipscomb Performing Arts Performing Arts Center, or by calling the Center, Highlands, NC. 6 p.m. upscale WCU College of Fine and Performing Arts at movie fare and vino; 7 p.m. screening. $75 (828) 227-7028. plus $5 NC sales tax. bccff.wcu.edu

than just the plot. The performances, in addition to McKellan and Parker, are uniformly fine down to the smallest bit part. Laura Linney does a terrific job as Holmes’ widowed British housekeeper who tries to stay connected to her son as he begins to fall under the spell of who Holmes is and what he does.

The film jumps back and forth in time allowing Condon and his technicians to recreate different worlds and to keep the audience consistently engaged. One of the settings is post atomic bomb Hiroshima which gives us a provocative glimpse of what really happened there. Like any good story (especially a mystery) the more that gets revealed the more intriguing the film becomes. The case that brought about his retirement takes place in 1919 so that Holmes is trying to recall something that happened almost 30 years before While I found every aspect of this remarkable production beyond reproach, special mention should be made of the make-up job done on Ian McKellan. This is, unquestionably, the finest, the most natural old age make-up I have ever seen. These days old age make-up is often overdone just as in decades past it was underdone but this one looks just right aided immeasurably by McKellan’s spot on performance.

I don’t often say this, in fact I NEVER say this but Mr. Holmes is a movie that every discerning moviegoer should see. Of course it won’t play to The Avengers crowd but that’s fine. There’s more than enough material out there for them. If you enjoy quality movie-

making of the kind rarely seen today then you owe it to yourself (and to the movie) to see Mr. Holmes. Heck, you don’t even have to be a Holmes fan to enjoy it.

Rated PG(!) for thematic elements and some disturbing images.

Review by Chip Kaufmann

Self / less 

Short Take: The latest updating of the old mind transfer plotline benefits from being slickly made and from the solid performances of Ryan Reynolds, Matthew Goode, & Natalie Martinez.

REEL TAKE: The idea of transferring one’s mind / personality into another body is a very old one. Discounting possession which is a whole other genre, there are a number of cinematic versions starting much further back then you might imagine. A Florida Enchantment, starring stage actor Sidney Drew (John Barrymore’s uncle and Drew Barrymore’s namesake), dates from 1914 and involves a wife and husband trading places. In the mid 1930s when mad scientists were all the rage, Boris Karloff made a British film aptly titled The Man Who Changed His Mind.

Then there’s the inversion of the theme where the mind transfer is played for laughs as in the low budget Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters (1954) to both versions of Freaky Friday (1976, 2003) and more recently 2011’s Movies continued on page 14

Vol. 18, No. 12 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — August 2015 13

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HENDERSONVILLE FILM SOCIETY If you think they don’t make them like they used to, you’ll enjoy these great classic films. Coffee and wonderful flicks are served up on Sundays at 2 p.m. at Lake Pointe Landing in Hendersonville. For more information call (828) 697-7310.

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The Change-Up which also happened to star Ryan Reynolds. I give you all this background so that you can see how long the idea has been around and how hard it must be to come up with another version that’s compelling, well made, and worth sitting through but Self / less manages to succeed on almost every level.

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Ryan Reynolds body is already there waiting to be occupied.

The problem for most critics seems to lie in the tone of the movie. Seconds is dark and relentlessly downbeat. It also has style to burn especially in its cinematography.

Director Tarsem Singh, who in earlier movies like The Fall showed himself to be a major stylist, tells Self / less in a much more

It has been getting almost universally negative reviews and after reading many of them I know why. The movie that it resembles most closely on the surface is John Frankenheimer’s 1966 nightmare thriller Seconds with Rock Hudson. The basic plot lines are very similar. Older man is given the chance to start a new life by having his mind transferred into a young and healthy new body. In Seconds the protagonist is turned into Rock Hudson through surgery while

Movies continued on page 15

Liberty Valance

(1962) John Ford’s last great Western examines the mythologizing of the Old West as it recounts the recollections of a retiring senator (James Stewart) about his early days in a frontier town.

John Wayne, Vera Miles & Lee Marvin co-star.

Directed by John Ford.

August 9: Auntie Mame (1958) Rosalind Russell has a field day in this film adaptation of the Broadway show. A young man recalls growing up with his eccentric aunt and her oddball friends “Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death” says Mame and she follows her motto to the letter.

Directed by Morton DaCosta.

August 16: Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) Steven Spielberg produced this fanciful story of Holmes and Watson met in boarding school and how they first became involved in solving crimes. Nicholas Rowe and Alan Cox portray the young Holmes and Watson. Directed

by Barry Levinson.

August 23: IT! (1927) Silent film star Clara Bow had her greatest success with this wild romantic comedy about a department shop sales girl who tries to land the head of the store she works for.

The film has been newly restored by England’s Photoplay Productions. Directed by Clarence Badger.

August 30:

From Here To Eternity

(1953) This 1953 adaptation of the novel by James Jones is one of the best remembered films of the 1950s. It won eight Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actor & Actress for Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed.

Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, and Montgomery Clift are the principal players. Directed by Fred Zinnemann.

Carolina Cinemas, 1640 Hendersonville Rd. (828) 274-9500.

For more information go to www.facebook.com/ashevillefilmsociety

Chip Kaufmann’s Pick: “Young Sherlock Holmes”

August DVD Picks

Michelle Keenan’s Pick: “Far From the Madding Crowd”

Young Sherlock Holmes (1985)

This film was brought to mind by the recent release of the film Mr. Holmes (see my review this issue) about an elderly Sherlock Holmes. Thirty years ago producer Steven Spielberg and director Barry Levinson concocted this fanciful tale about how Holmes and Watson met in boarding school and first began to solve crimes.

The story borrows heavily from Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. After becoming friends Holmes and Watson set out to solve a recent series of murders and uncover a secret society that has roots in Ancient Egypt. The movie also explains Holmes’ attitude toward women and introduces him to a future nemesis.

As one would expect from Spielberg, the production values are lavish (perhaps too much so) and the technical aspects of the film are quite impressive. The music score by Bruce Broughton is in the full blown John Williams tradition.

The screenplay by Chris Columbus of Home Alone and Harry Potter fame is very much in the spirit of Conan Doyle.

The performances by a cast of relative unknowns are of the highest caliber.

Nicholas Rowe and Alan Cox are a perfect young Holmes and Watson while Sophie Ward (daughter of actor Simon Ward) is both lovely and intelligent in the mold of Hermione Granger (I’m sure a young J.K. Rowling was influenced by this film). Anthony Higgins as a sympathetic school instructor also scores high marks.

Young Sherlock Holmes isn’t a great film and it has no pretensions of being one. It is first and foremost high class entertainment, slickly done, that sets out to keep the viewer engaged and it succeeds admirably. Fans of Holmes and Harry Potter will have a field day and a good time is guaranteed for all.

Incidentally the movie Sherlock Holmes seen in Mr. Holmes is Nicholas Rowe 30 years later.

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Far From the Madding Crowd (2015)

Out this month on DVD is Thomas Vinterburg’s (The Hunt), an adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd. For a costume drama that received little promotion at the time of its release it had a surprisingly long run in WNC. If you didn’t happen to catch it but you enjoy a good costume dram, don’t tarry. Treat yourself to this little gem.

The photography is sumptuous, the acting pitch perfect and the narrative is streamlined with respect to the source material, and due respect to running time. It not only surpassed expectations, but will no doubt be on my top ten list at year end. This came a pleasant surprise to me as did not recall particularly liking the book in high school. In fact I was quite aggravated by the story’s central character. Adding to my general aggravation was the 1967 film adaptation starring Julie Christie.

What some considered epic, I considered bloated.

Vinterburg’s distillation is beautifully streamlined. Far From the Madding Crowd tells the story of Bathsheba Everdine (Carey Mulligan), a strong-willed, independent young woman in Victorian England, and her relationship with three suitors; the stoic yet quietly charismatic sheep farmer Gabriel Oak (Matthais Schoenaert, Bullhead), the mild-mannered gentleman Mr. Boldwood (Michael Sheen), and the dashing but rakish Sergeant Troy (Tom Sturridge).

Orphaned as a young girl and raised by an aunt, Bathsheba is educated but not of person of means. When an inheritance jettisons her position to a member of the landed

gentry, she becomes an oddity for the age – a single woman and business owner, running a productive farm.

Her new-found financial independence also gives her the ability to thwart marriage proposals. While she’s not eager to marry, she does not toy with the affections of her suitors. She is honest, candid and kind. However, her fierce independence does not mean she possesses emotional intelligence. This is an attribute that comes with time, and lessons learned via poor choices and bad judgment calls.

While romance may be at the heart of Far From the Madding Crowd, the story is made all the richer with layers of societal mores, prevailing attitudes, and personal growth.

I was unconvinced that Mulligan was the best choice for the role as Bathsheba, but she absolutely shines. It may be her best performance to date. Sheen gives a heartbreakingly delicate performance as the as the melancholy Mr. Boldwood.

Sturridge is solid as the sword wielding Sergeant Troy. But it is Matthais Schoenaert who damn near steals the show as Farmer Oak. The Belgian actor’s English accent has been criticized by some, but (for me) it matters not.

Schoenaert inhabits his character with a strength and grace that is positively arresting. You hang on his every word (spare though they may be). He and Mulligan have good chemistry, which serves the film’s narrative to great effect.

Far From the Madding Crowd’s target audience is obviously the Merchant Ivory costume drama type; a demographic that will no doubt be pleased with the results.

It may, however, interest younger filmgoers to know that Bathsheba Everdine was the inspiration for Suzanne Collins’ character, Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games trilogy. Perhaps they’ll be motivated to explore the story that helped influence a beloved heroine for their generation. I myself will be revisiting the film when it arrives on DVD August 4.

Rated PG-13 for some sexuality and violence.

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film reviews Movies continued from page 14

Damian Hale (Ryan Reynolds) is just beginning to adjust to being in his new body in Self / Less.

straightforward matter. It is also much more upbeat in its tone and in its ending although there is a wonderfully poignant moment near the end.

Wealthy capitalist Damien Hale (Ben Kingsley) is dying of cancer. His partner (Victor Garber) refers him to a secret organization that promises him a new body through a process known as “shedding”. His mind and personality will be the same only it will be housed in a healthy, young body (Ryan Reynolds) created in a laboratory.

The man behind this project is a Professor Albright (Matthew Goode) who fulfills his end of the bargain but with the proviso that Damian, now called Edward, must stay on special medication.

Without the medication Damien begins to have flashbacks and realizes that he was once another person whose personality is

being eliminated so that Damian can have his body. He has to piece his past together with the help of the wife (Natalie Martinez) of the original personality, a soldier named Mark. His soldierly skills come in handy as he must now take on Albright and his shadowy organization to keep Mark’s wife and young daughter from being killed.

Singh strikes a nice balance between the personal drama and the action scenes which makes Self / less ideal middle-ofthe-road / popcorn entertainment. Critics who wanted more are missing the point.

This isn’t a remake / reboot of Seconds and thank God for that. One of those is enough. The young audience I saw the film with left the theater having been royally entertained. For most movies (and some critics) that should be enough.

Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence, some sexuality, and language.

Review by Chip Kaufmann

Short Take: A rom-com about a dysfunctional woman, raised to believe monogamy is unrealistic, who finds a guy great enough to tempt to her to give up one-night stands and booze addled days.

REEL TAKE: Interestingly, both of the films I review this month actually mock their genres. But while Ant-Man mocks its own genre, it also contributes to the sphere of super hero, sci-fi action. I’m not quite so sure the same can be said of Trainwreck. Written by the ‘It’ girl of comedy right now, Amy Schumer (Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer), and directed by Judd Apatow

August 6: The Cat O’ Nine Tails (1971) A newspaper reporter and a retired, blind journalist try to solve a series of killings connected to a pharmaceutical company’s experimental, top-secret research projects and in so doing, both become targets of the killer. Directed by Dario Argento.

August 13:

he needs the blood of a virgin to continue his experiments. He sends out his dwarf assistant to pick out the right girl. Directed

by Rex Ingram.

August 20:

The Ninth Gate (1999) A rare book dealer, seeking out the last two copies of a demon text, gets drawn into a conspiracy with supernatural overtones. Directed

by Roman Polanski.

The Magician

August 27: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

(1926) Based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham, a magician/alchemist, seeking to create life, finds that

(1932) Dr. Jekyll faces horrible consequences when he lets his dark side run wild with a potion that changes him into the animalistic Mr. Hyde. Directed by Rouben Mamoulian.

ASHEVILLE FILM SOCIETY The Asheville Film Society will show the following films on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. in Theatre 6 at the Carolina Cinemas on Hendersonville Road. Tuesday night screenings are free, but membership dues for the Society are only $10. Membership gets you into any special Members Only events and screenings.

August 4:

The Palm Beach Story (1942) An inventor needs cash to develop his big idea.

His wife, who loves him, decides to raise it for him by divorcing him and marrying a millionaire. Stars Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrae, Mary Astor and Rudy Vallee. Directed by Preston Sturges.

August 11:

Breakfast On Pluto

Trainwreck 

THURSDAY HORROR PICTURE SHOW Join Mountain Xpress film critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther every Thursday night at 8 p.m. at the Carolina Cinemas on Hendersonville Road for free horror movies.

(40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up), the story rakes the rom-com genre through the one-night stand gutter and hangover hell, and then does a total 180, becoming a contrived example of the genre it’s actually insulting.

Trainwreck centers around an exaggerated version of Schumer’s stage persona. Amy is a young singleton in New York City named Amy. She’s wasting her talents writing for a sexist men’s magazine. She has a penchant for f#$@ing, drinking and getting stoned. I don’t think of myself as a prude, but after a few minutes of getting to know her character I thought, “She needs a sponsor, daily meetings and a few rounds of penicillin.” But hey, who needs that when love blooms with promises of redemption and happily ever after with a sweet doctor, played by Bill Hader.

Bill Hader is solid as a rock to Amy Schumer’s trainwreck.

The funniest scene in the movie is the first scene, a flashback to young Amy’s childhood on the day her parents split and her father (played by Colin Quinn) tries to explain the break up by rationalizing his infidelities.

This scene sets the stage for why Amy is the way she is. Then, flash forward to modern day; her father is suffering from MS, living in a nursing home, and he’s simply a horrible person (hilarious but horrid). It’s hard to understand why this woman wouldn’t break away from his ways.

There are some genuinely laugh-out-loud funny moments in the film, some of which (very surprisingly) include NBA great, LeBron James, and wrestling pro, John Cena.

But for me, Amy’s prolonged troubles derail everything good that’s happening in the movie. Her road to redemption is a little too much, a little too late.

I may be off on this, but I also just didn’t sense any chemistry between Schumer and Hader, and without that it was really hard to see what this guy would have ever seen in her. With the exception of a couple of scenes (which he didn’t share with Schumer), Hader was sadly under-utilized.

Ultimately Schumer undermines her own brand of humor with the type of contrived, formulaic rom-com ending she seemed so hell bent on mocking. Millenials, fans of Inside Amy Schumer and This is 40 may weigh in more favorably on Trainwreck. For the rest of us, it’s hit or miss.

Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity, language and some drug use.

Review by Michelle Keenan

(2005) In the 1970s, a young trans woman, Patrick “Kitten” Braden, comes of age by leaving her Irish town for London, in part to look for her mother and in part because her gender identity is beyond the town’s understanding Stars Cillian Murphy, Morgan Jones and Eva Birthistle.

Directed by Neil Jordan.

August 18: It’s In The Bag! (1945) The ringmaster of a flea circus inherits a fortune... if he can find which chair it’s hidden in. Stars Fred Allen, Jack Benny and Don Ameche. Directed by Fred Allen.

August 25: The Kid From Spain (1932) A mild-as-milk toast fellow gets the adventure of a lifetime when he is mistaken for a bank robber and celebrated matador. This musical comedy features Eddie Cantor routines and Busby Berkley choreography. Stars Eddie Cantor, Robert Young and Lyda Roberti. Directed by Leo McCarey.

BUDGET BIG SCREEN FEATURE Tickets: $6 for AFS members, $8 general August 26:

Harold And Maude (1971) A wealthy, self destructive young man’s life is forever changed when he meets a vibrant septuagenarian at a funeral. Stars Bud Cort and Ruth Gordon.

Directed by Hal Ashby.

Carolina Cinemas, 1640 Hendersonville Rd. (828) 274-9500.

For more information go to www.facebook.com/ashevillefilmsociety

Vol. 18, No. 12 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — August 2015 15

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Haywood Community College A VIEW INTO HCC’S CREATIVE ARTS PROGRAM, PART II

In July’s issue, we started a conversation with Kari Rinn, Director of Creative Arts at Haywood Community College.

HCC’s Mission is to “provide accessible, affordable, and high-quality education, workforce training, and lifelong learning.”

This month, we continue with more of her answers about art and craft in our region, and at her institution.

Greg Vineyard: Why is art and craft important in Western North Carolina?

Kari Rinn: Craft is an amazing economic driver … artists have been instrumental in developing the character of this region. I have been told this is the largest establishment of artists in the US outside of New York City, and that WNC is the largest establishment of craft artists in the US, often referred to as the ‘Cradle of Craft.’

From Mary Cornwell here in Haywood County to Lucy Morgan at Penland, other schools like John C Campbell and Arrowmont, we are part of a rich history of craft education that was derived from the inherent knowledge of the people in this region.

Craft artists are a big part of the entrepreneurial heartbeat in Haywood County and

beyond. Artists work for themselves, often employ other artists, and support the local supply industry. They are also a big reason so many people visit WNC: such a huge part of the region’s economy is reliant upon tourism.

GV: Craft Courses are listed under “Business

and Industry” – can you expand on how craft is regarded at HCC?

KR: If students want to create an income from what they make, we work to equip them with the tools and skills needed to be successful.

The Professional Crafts Program is housed in the Business & Entrepreneurship department for very important reasons. Students in the 2-year program receive technical and design skills in their chosen medium, but everyone in the program is also provided with a strong business foundation. Students learn how to write a business plan, photograph their work, create marketing materials, and write a press release – a wide variety of practical business skills that will assist them to make a living doing what they love.

We also offer these types of classes for the community. Working in conjunction with our Small Business Center, HCC offers all sorts of practical skills for artists like How to Price Your Product or Service, How to Write a Business Plan and How to Perfect Your Pitch.

Students as well as the community have access to the Small Business Center’s free, confidential counseling services for new and existing businesses. Call (828) 627-4512 for an appointment. The college is here to support craft entrepreneurs no matter their needs.

GV: What do you feel are the most vital aspects

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of the Creative Arts program today?

KR: We have something for everyone: all levels of skill from the hobbyist to the professional crafts student. HCC offers two years of intensive study, culminating in a degree or diploma in one of four chosen mediums: Wood, Clay, Metals or Fiber.

We also offer continuing education courses and workshops for individuals looking to try something for the first time, students looking for in-depth focus on a particular method, all the way to the professional looking for advanced skills.

GV: I have been a Non-Traditional Age Student in the past, and it turned out to be an amazing experience because a wide variety of people learned so much from each other.

What are the classes like in the HCC Creative Arts programs?

KR: All classes at HCC host a mix of background, skill and age. We have a wide range of students in most classes here on campus – something for everyone.

“Something for everyone.” One of the things I appreciate about community college opportunities is that one can find and intensively pursue an area of interest, whether the goal is to complete a certification or program, move-on to an additional higher-learning institution, or pursue an area of interest for fun. It is all possible due to the dedicated programming, administration, teaching and commitment by people like Kari Rinn and the

HCC Creative Arts Building Montage Two, 2015, Photos, Greg Vineyard

staff in the Creative Arts building, as well as at HCC overall.

For more pictures of the Creative Arts programs at HCC, as well as full list of classes, go to www.CreativeArts.Haywood.edu, and for more information about HCC, go to www. haywood.edu.

Greg Vineyard is a marketing professional, and an artist and writer living in Asheville, NC. ZaPOW Gallery carries his illustrations, prints and cards, www.zapow.com. www.gregvineyardillustration.com

exCHANGE: Building Community Through Creative Collaboration

Youth art exhibit features collaborative pieces made by Arts For Life’s patients and Roots + Wings School of Art and Design’s students.

“It’s the perfect partnership,” explains Arts For Life’s Executive Director Rachel Zink, “as both programs’ teaching philosophies focus on art as a tool for growth, learning, and personal connection.” She adds, “We both believe in the power of art to change and transform lives and to bring people together in community; what better way to accomplish those goals than with a joint art show!”

The show will feature individual and group-created 2D and 3D works. Its three main projects will contain a collaborative element created by students in both programs over the course of spring and summer. Because hospital restrictions to protect the health and privacy of Arts For Life students can’t

16 August 2015 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — Vol. 18, No. 12

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RACHEL ZINK

allow the two groups of young artists to meet in person, they’re interacting through Farm Friends, the art they

by Brooklin, age 8 make together.

For example, earlier this spring, they began a photography collage exchange. Each group took photos of themselves, then sent these photos to the other program for the addition of whimsical backgrounds with inspirational messages. The final results will be revealed when the show is hung.

“The students who have been involved so far are intrigued and excited about the collaboration,” says Annie Rogers, Arts For Life’s Asheville program director at Mission Children’s Hospital. “There is something very

sweet and poignant in the words the kids have used in their photo collages for friends they’ve never met. They have taken great care to make the work match what they think their new friends would want, and I can’t wait to see what else these two groups are able to make together.”

Arts For Life and Roots + Wings School of Art and Design open the collaborative, community-themed art exhibition on Sunday, August 23. The show and opening-night celebration are free, and all ages are welcome.

IF YOU Arts For Life and Roots + Wings GO School of Art and Design opening

reception, Sunday, August 23 from 3:30-5:30 p.m. at the new Roots + Wings Creative Campus, 573 Fairview Road in Oakley. exCHANGE will remain on display through Friday, August 28, 2015. More information can be found at artsforlifenc.org.

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RICHARD C. BAKER Fine Ar t and Por traiture

The Artwork of Stephanie Grimes

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Stephanie is a fine artist, working in a variety of mediums, creating animal portraits.

She has always had a keen interest in nature and the outdoors. With a background in Zoology, it is not surprising that her artwork would focus on the animal kingdom. Whether she is depicting wildlife or a family pet, she looks for the uniqueness of her subjects that makes each animal stand out as an individual. While Stephanie continues to work in several other mediums, at present, the bulk of her work is in scratchboard.

What is scratchboard?

Scratchboard is a process in which the artist incises into the surface of a board with a sharp instrument to reveal a different color surface below.

Blondie, by Stephanie Grimes

cont’d on pg. 18

French Broad Artists

SAHAR FAKHOURY SANDRA BRUGH MOORE VIRGINIA PENDERGRASS

NEW STUDIO IN THE RIVER ARTS DISTRICT

344 Depot St., Suite 102 • 828-234-1616 RL

in the River Arts District, Asheville, NC

CHERYL KEEFER PLEIN AIR ~ LANDSCAPES ~ CITYSCAPES

Pack Square Angel, 20 x 24 in. watercolor by Sandra Brugh Moore ncsandram@gmail.com

Sandra Brugh Moore is September's featured artist at the Asheville Gallery of Art. Her reception, open to the public, will be held Friday, September 4 from 5-8 p.m. at 16 College St. in downtown Asheville.

RV

Riverview Station #216 • South Entrance Open Thurs. - Sat. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

191 Lyman St. • River Arts District • Asheville, NC

ANIMAL ART BY STEPHANIE GRIMES

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Works Available at: Rg

pg. 21

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RJ RT

RN Northlight Studios, 357 Depot Street, Asheville, NC

RB RL

Realistic Wildlife Art + Pet Portraits 344 Depot St., #103 • River Arts District

RL

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RN RD

Asheville Gallery of Art, 16 College Street, Asheville, NC

ARTISTF.COM • 813 4641414

More information on the River Arts District is available by calling (828) 280-7709, or visit www.riverartsdistrict.com.

pg. 19

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Seve Sisters Gallery, Seven 117 Cherry Street, Black Mountain, NC Mahogany House Gallery, 240 Depot St., Waynesville, NC Up Against the Wall Gallery 316 E. Market St., Kingsport, TN

828-450-1104

•

www.Cher ylKeefer.com

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Fundraiser for Historic Saluda Depot Museum

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Asheville artist Richard Baker’s landscapes to be featured.

ROBERTO VENGOECHEA Designer/Goldsmith

100 Cherry Street Black Mountain pg. 19

828.669.0065 www.VisionsofCreation.com MV

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An opening reception for an exhibit of Richard Baker’s fine art landscapes of the southern Appalachian Mountains will be held Saturday, August 8 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Saluda’s historic depot.

The exhibit, to run through August, will be among upcoming events to raise money for a museum celebrating the town’s historical significance as the crest of the steepest mainline railroad grade in the United States. A preview museum of historical items in the depot will be open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. throughout the summer.

Baker, formerly of Saluda, is a painter of fine art landscapes and portraits, and has a studio in Asheville’s River Arts District. He will exhibit 15 of his landscapes in Saluda, Richard Baker’s studio is located in Pink Dog Creative, 344 Depot St. in Asheville’s River Arts District.

Visit www.RichardBakersStudio.com.

gINA MALONE

with half of the proceeds from sales being donated to townspeople’s efforts to purchase the historic depot building and establish a lasting museum to present the history of Saluda from its beginnings to the present.

“Richard Baker has been a catalyst for bringing Saluda artists together,” said Cathy Jackson, Saluda Historic Depot board member, “and has always supported the arts in Saluda. We are excited and proud that he is supporting our fundraising efforts by exhibiting his original works and donating up to 50 percent of the sales to Saluda Historic Depot.”

Additional art exhibits are planned throughout the year, along with a Holiday Gallery in November and December.

The preview museum contains - among other historic artifacts - lanterns, a mail catcher from a mail car and an original waiting room bench as well as old photographs and a model train display. A retail shop has also been opened in the depot where t-shirts, wood carved trains, prints, books, DVDs and other items are available.

Saluda Yard, oil painting by Richard Baker.

For more information about fundraising efforts and calls for donations and volunteers, visit www.historicsaluda.org.

IF YOU Richard Baker Opening reception, GO Saturday, August 8 from 6 to 8 p.m.

at Saluda’s historic depot. For more information visit www.historicsaluda.org.

‘Stephanie Grimes’ cont’d from pg. 17

Tulip Magnolia (detail) • 4” x 11” • $120

Trees No. 5 (detail) • 4” x 8.5” • $80

April 1 (detail) • 10” x 6.5” • $80

Trees No. 28 (detail) • 10” x 13.5” • $95

original woodblock prints on handmade paper

Inset: Homage No. 1 • 2.5” x 10” • $60 (framing additional) pg. 36

MB 365 Merrimon Ave • Asheville 828.225.3117 • blackbirdframe.com

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Scratchboard is made up of three layers. The bottom layer is a board to add structure. The middle layer is usually white and often made of clay. The top is then covered in black, usually India ink.

Scratchboard was originally invented in the late 1800’s to use in the print industry. Once photography replaced etchings in the printing, scratchboard was no longer needed. Today there is a resurgence of this old technique, but instead of making prints the artist uses the scratchboard as a one of a kind original. The scratchboard artist uses a sharp instrument to incise into the black surface of the board to reveal the white surface below. The finished piece of art can be left in black and white or the artist may choose to color it.

Stephanie chose scratchboard for a number of reasons. She likes the dramatic effect from the high contrast of black and white. She also likes the versatility of the board and the ability to add color if she chooses. The medium lends itself to the fine details of fur and feathers.

Using a fine blade, the artist can achieve great detail, including every hair of an animal.

With the collector in mind, scratchboard is a great choice. Both the board and the inks that Stephanie uses are made of archival materials to insure that the artwork will last for many generations. For added protection, she also seals each board with several coats of a UV protecting clear coat and often frames the artwork behind UV protecting glass.

To see more of Stephanie Grimes’ work,

Emu II, by Stephanie Grimes

stop by her studio at Pink Dog Creative in the River Arts District, and visit www.artist-f.com.

Stephanie Grimes Pink Dog Creative 344 Depot St., Suite #103, Asheville (813) 464-1414, www.artist-f.com

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Downtown Black Mountain

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Sourwood Festival August 8 & 9 Saturday 9-8 Sunday 9-5

Sourwood Festival

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The Sourwood Festival fills downtown Black Mountain with wholesome entertainment for both adults and children in August each year.

More than 30,000 people from all over America will be in attendance at the 38th Annual Sourwood Festival which grows in popularity each year. Music, dancing, arts & crafts, super food, kid’s rides and games, face painting and more in a no alcohol environment make it the perfect event for you and your entire family.

With about 200 vendors you will discover lots of local and unique arts and crafts and there will be something to please every palate with BBQ and vegetarian faire, custom-crafted ice cream and funnel cakes and jellies. Summertime favorites include the sausages and corn on the cob.

Add to that the honey and bee demos as well as the gourmet sourwood honey, you don’t want to miss this event!

Swannanoa Valley Fine Arts League Events

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A new outdoor art event brings artists and visitors together in beautiful Black Mountain.

Dust off those paint brushes and gather up all those beautiful paintings you have been working on and come join us for Art on The Lawn. continued on page 37

FREE ADMISSION About 200 vendors • No Alcohol

Sourwood Idol Contest Friday, August 7 ★ 7-10PM Sourwood5K.com Saturday, August 8 ★ 8AM

800-669-2301 www.sourwoodfestival.com Presented by the Black Mountain Swannanoa Chamber of Commerce

✿ Arts & Crafts ✿ Children’s Area ✿ Specialty Items ✿ Great Food ✿ Carnival Rides ✿ Wonderful Music ✿ Dancing ✿ Honey Bee Demonstrations

BLACK MOUNTAIN - 28711

MA MV MS MG MC MR

IF YOU Sourwood Idol Contest, August 7 from GO 7-10 p.m. Sourwood 5K.com, Saturday,

August 8 at 8 a.m. Sourwood Festival, Saturday & Sunday, August 8 & 9 in downtown Black Mountain. Festival hours: Saturday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Blue Ridge Biscuit Company Biscuit Cuisine • Pastries • Bread Cinnamon & Pecan Rolls Baked Fresh In-House

Breakfast in the Mountains

601 W. State Street in Black Mountain

MB

Tues-Fri 7am-2pm • Sat-Sun 8am-3pm

MR

MB

A Destination in Black Mountain Since 1981

FAISON O’NEIL Arts, Crafts, Fine Gifts

Painting by David King

craft gallery

128 Cherry Street

117 Cherry St., Black Mtn. Mon-Sat 10-6 & Sun 12-5

Black Mountain, NC

info@faisononeilgallery.com

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Mon-Sat. 10:30-5; Sun. 12-4

Jewelry by Dan Reiser

SevenSistersGallery.com • 828-669-5107

828.357.5350

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www.faisononeil.com

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Fabulous Downtown Asheville

The Best Shops, Galleries & Restaurants

More of What Makes Asheville Special

Heroes & Villains

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New visions of heroes and villains created

by ZaPow member artists.

The 9th Annual Laugh Your Asheville Off Comedy Festival – August 12-15

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The four-day multi-venue festival spotlights more than 50 of the nation’s funniest and freshest comics in the industry today.

From rock gods to parodied comic book heroes, from the Goblin King to Legend. Meet the artists. DJ Kutsu will be spinning music apropo to the theme. Free Gateway Kolsh from local brewery, French Broad Brewing. Lemonade will be served. Free to attend.

IF YOU Heros & Villains opening reception Saturday, GO August 1 from 7-9 p.m. On display through October

11, 2015. ZaPow! 21 Battery Park Ave., downtown Asheville. Details at www.zapow.com

The Asheville Art Museum The building housing the museum in Pack Place was also home to the First National Bank, and the old Pack Memorial Library, named after George Willis Pack.

Asheville Gallery of Art

JANE DESONIER

...oil painter

Since submissions began this year, several hundred comedians from all over the country submitted stand-up clips hoping to secure one of the performer slots.

The comics have hopes of turning the heads of the major TV network executives, casting agents, talent bookers, and comedy club owners who have traveled to the festival to discover stand-up comedy’s next crop of rising talent.

Charlie Gerencer, who is the festival’s Executive Producer/Director and production company executive, says, “The LYAO Festival has been such an amazing journey with the community as our co-pilots. Our mission has always been to provide above and beyond in both talent and production quality to our fans. With the response we get back from our audiences and the national comedy community, we’re truly humbled to be able to continue to produce this great experience every year.”

Tickets went live following an article in Paste Magazine naming the festival as one of the top five must-see comedy festivals of the summer. “This was a bit mind blowing to me. Being in Paste and ranked two spots away from one of

Featuring a wide range of talents, subjects, mediums, and styles as broad as the Blue Ridge.

ELINOR BOWMAN ASHEVILLE, NC

WORKS ON DISPLAY AT:

Green Valley, oil on linen pg. 21

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Works on display at: Asheville Gallery of Art, Downtown Carlton Gallery, Banner Elk, NC

www.janedesonier.com

janedesonier@aol.com 828-281-3577

Asheville Gallery of Art Downtown Asheville Red House Gallery Black Mountain The Wedge River Arts District

pg. 21

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pg. 19

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828-255-7894 www.elinorbowman.com ebowman6@charter.net

16 College Street • Downtown Asheville • 828.251.5796 • www.ashevillegallery-of-art.com

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KELLY DENSON

the biggest and most prestigious comedy festivals in the world really pushes our team to continue to provide the best comedy experience possible,” said Ryan Folks, Festival Producer and Talent Director.

The Laugh Your Asheville Off Festival kicks off Wednesday, August 12, with a Festival Launch Party at The Highland Brewing Company.

IF YOU Laugh Your Asheville Off Festival, performances GO take place August 12-15 at the Diana Wortham

Theatre in Asheville. Individual show pricing: $20/ ticket. Cosmo Festival Passes: $80 – a savings of $20 – get access to every show on the schedule. Tickets available at LaughYourAshevilleOff.com

A

Messages to the Heart Salon

A celebration of creativity and a guide to help us get out of our own way.

Local artist Elise Okrend and her partner, Phil, a writer and professional life coach, came together to produce the inspiring coffee table book, Messages to the Heart, Reflections of Beauty and Truth.

Pairing Elise’s soothing pastel landscapes with Phil’s mindful, poetic passages, the book is divided into specific chapters. The salon will use Messages to the Heart with discussion to remind participants of the ah-ha moments of truth and beauty in their own lives and to help them open a door where peace, clarity, joy, and purpose can come in.

Each week discussion will come from the following topics, Reflections on Following Your Heart, Unity, Love, Optimism, Transformation, Awareness, and Empowerment. This is an ongoing series and attendees are welcome to join for one salon or all.

IF YOU Messages to the Heart Salon held Wednesday, GO August 5 & 19 at 5 p.m. at Malaprop’s Bookstore &

Café, 55 Haywood St., Asheville. Details at (828) 254-6734, www.malaprops.com.

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Mountain Dance and Folk Festival

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The 88th Annual Mountain Dance and Folk Festival takes place August 6-8.

IF The Mountain Dance and Folk YOU GO Festival, August 6, 7 and 8 at the

The festival formally showcases an amazing repertoire of mountain performers – old-timers The New Broad as well as the newest genRiver Band. eration of bluegrass and Photo: Wendy Olson mountain string bands, ballad singers, big circle mountain dancers and cloggers. Each evening features at least four dance teams from the very young to the young at heart. Enjoy both wellknown musicians and new talent, representative of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and its continuing traditions.

a weekly artist vending area

Diana Wortham Theatre. (828) 257-4530, www.dwtheatre.com. For more details, call (828) 258-6101 x345 or visit www.folkheritage.org.

THIS SATURDAY and every Saturday this August & September Downtown Asheville at the corner of N. Spruce St. & College St. behind Renaissance Asheville Hotel next to the City-County Plaza

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11am - 5pm

for more information please visit

Illustration and Pop Culture Art

21 Battery Park • zapow.com That Fun Gallery in Downtown Asheville

First Friday Art Walks – April through December – 5 to 8 p.m.

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August Birthstone: Peridot

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10 - Blue Spiral 1 11 - Castell Photography 12 - Benchspace Gallery & Workshop 13 - The Haen Gallery 14 - Horse and Hero 15 - Jewels that Dance 16 - Lexington Glassworks 17 - Mora 18 - Mountain Made 19 - The Satellite Gallery 20 - Susan Marie Designs 21 - Van Dyke Jewelry & Fine Crafts 22 - Woolworth Walk 23 - ZaPow

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1 - American Folk Art & Framing 2 - Appalachian Craft Center 3 - Ariel Gallery 4 - ArtEtude Gallery 5 - Asheville Area Arts Council 6 - Asheville Art Museum 7 - Asheville Gallery of Art 8 - Bender Gallery 9 - Black Mountain College Museum & Art Center

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FINE JEWELRY & DESIGN STUDIO

Parking access from S. Lexington Ave. Look for signs to your left at back of building.

(828) 281-4044 Hilliard Ave.

Oxidized sterling and18k gold with peridot and diamonds

v Local Arts & Crafts

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www.vandykejewelry.com

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www.jewelsthatdance.com

63 Haywood Street • Downtown Asheville 828-254-5088 • Hours: Mon - Sat 10:30 - 6

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Fabulous Downtown Asheville

The Best Shops, Galleries & Restaurants

More of What Makes Asheville Special

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On the Road Again

I am on the road, again!

Pleased to announce the opening of my expanded studio in the Northlight Studios Building in the River Arts District. Brimming with professional fine art, Northlight artists include Wendy Whitson, Pamela Winkler, Kathryn Phillips, and Cason Rankin. We are located just down the road at 357 Depot.

Speaking of roads, a friend recently asked why I include roads in so many of my paintings. I thought, why did Rembrandt paint his reflection, why did VanGogh paint sunflowers? The answer seemed obvious: I paint roads because they are there.

Roads and highways are everywhere, we see them everyday, and roads are much easier to locate than cherries in winter, let alone a figure model in a studio full of artists! A road can sometimes form that perfect swath of light or dark across the composition. Besides, I find beauty in a wet road, a road filled with dappled sunlight, a road lined with people, a road lined with flowers, a road with yellow lines, a road with no lines.

But, at my easel I am listening. I am reminded to be still and know that God is with me. With paint I seek light in darkness and am reminded of how often those words parallel scripture. I am Cheryl Keefer painting on reminded to pray, to location, en plein air.

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CHERYL KEEFER

praise, to give thanks and often to confess.

I think about how my light shines, should shine, or how dim it can become. Someone said every painting is a self-portrait.

So here I am... car lights shining small on a slick, dark Painting by Cheryl Keefer road, while a massive sunset is illuminating the sky overhead… a woman walking her dog, carefree, but dependent on the power poles lighting her way… rainwater reflecting traffic lights, turning dismal grey pavement into bright rainbows for those willing to see.

Keefer’s impressionistic oil and watercolor paintings have won awards throughout the country. Her work en plein air includes weddings and events, cityscapes and landscapes from the Appalachian Mountains to the lowlands and beyond.

Works by Cheryl Keefer can be found at: • Asheville Gallery of Art, 16 College St., Asheville • Seven Sisters Gallery, Cherry St., Black Mountain

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• Northlight Studios, 357 Depot Street, Asheville • Mahogany House Gallery, 240 Depot St., Waynesville • Up Against the Wall Gallery, Kingsport, TN • By appointment (828) 450-1104 Visit www.cherylkeefer.com IF YOU Cheryl Keefer August Events: Opening at GO Northlight Studios, Asheville. Members Juried

Show, Swannanoa Valley Fine Art League, Black Mountain. Solo Exhibit, Recent Works, Seven Sisters Gallery, Black Mountain. Judge, Bring Us Your Best, Art League of Henderson County Art Show.

Elinor Bowman NEW PAINTINGS

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Asheville Gallery of Art will feature the work of Elinor Bowman during August.

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Lights on Broadway, by Cheryl Keefer

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SANDI ANTON

Her show, “New Paintings,” will reflect her exploration of the nature of watercolors. “I’m currently enjoying working with varied subject matter, as well as seeing how watercolor behaves (or doesn’t),” Bowman says. Some paintings using acrylic will also be included in the show.

For the past several years, Bowman has focused on painting or drawing live models in watercolor and ink. As she works, she says she can see something of the persona of the subject emerge on the page. “Right now, for me, watercolor is the most interesting medium. I like the process, not always being able to predict how the painting will turn out.”

After a career in business, she began painting in 1996, first in art-process sessions, then taking lessons in oil painting.

Bowman says of her art, “Growing up, I never imagined I would become an artist. I’m fascinated by how you can portray three dimensions in two.” When she moved to Asheville in 2002, she studied at the Fine Arts League of Asheville, where the emphasis was on classical methods of portraiture and figure drawing. Bowman has also studied with several teachers, and participated in numerous workshops.

22 August 2015 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — Vol. 18, No. 12

Fishin’ at the Falls

by Elinor Bowman

Still Life

by Elinor Bowman

IF YOU New Paintings by Elinor Bowman will run August GO 1 through 31. The public is invited to the opening

reception on Friday, August 7 from 5 to 8 p.m., where they can view Bowman’s work as well as the works of the 27 other gallery artists.

Asheville Gallery of Art, 16 College Street in downtown Asheville. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Sunday 1 to 4 p.m.

Contact the gallery at (828) 251-5796, or visit www. ashevillegallery-of-art.com.

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Art After Dark – Friday, August 7

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People often wonder at the amount of creativity found in such a small community, and Art After Dark in downtown Waynesville gives us the chance to showcase local artists.

BY JEANNIE

SHUCKSTES

Burr Studio will host a reception for photographer Paul Malcolm. As a musician and photographer, his work features unique scenes that represent the The Waynesville Gallery Stained glass by beauty and diversity Association is excited to Gayle Haynie of our state. Join us present the August Edition from 6 to 9 p.m. on of Art After Dark, happening Friday, August 7 to meet Friday, August 7. Art After Paul and enjoy refreshDark transforms Downtown ments. The show will run Waynesville into an exquisite through September. Burr visual, culinary and performStudio, 136 N. Main St., ing arts center, making it Waynesville, For more a perfect night to explore details, call (828) 456downtown’s galleries, res7400, and visit facebook. taurants and gift-shops. com/burrstudionc.

Festive Art After Dark Cedar Hill Studios flags designate participating Squiggy, photograph by will be featuring the galleries, such as Haywood Jeff Stoner, on display at stained glass work of County Arts Council’s GalTwigs & Leaves Gallery.

Gayle Haynie, from lery 86, Burr Studios, EarthWaynesville. Gayle will works Gallery, The Jeweler’s be demonstrating stained glass during the Workbench, Twigs and Leaves Gallery, evening. Steve Whiddon will be playing the TPennington Art Gallery, Cedar Hill piano outside along with Lynn Hendrick Studios, The Mahogany House, the playing the keyboard inside. Come join us Village Framer, and Moose Crossing for lots of fun and food.

Burl Wood Gallery.

The Village Framer shares an exhibit of This month Twigs and Leaves photography by Joe Dan Dry. Dan captures Gallery is featuring photographer Jeff the essence of nature in his photography, Stoner, who will be unveiling the and will discuss the possibilities that new newest goat in his Roan Mountain technologies provide to enable the novice to Baatany Project series Friday from 6-9 capture beautiful and unique shots. Dan’s p.m. Enjoy his exhibit of “Appalachian photographs render the beauty and power Trail Discoveries” and receive yarn of nature, allowing the soul to heal and made from the goats’ wool with your regenerate. purchase.

The Haywood County Arts Council Friday evening, as you stroll would like to formally recognize new exthrough the gallery’s 145+ primarecutive director, Ms. Lindsey Solomon. Ms. ily regional artists, enjoy piano music Solomon hails from Tennessee, and comes

by Amy Shahparast and delight in the equipped with wonderful talents in comsavory hors d’eurves. Twigs and Leaves munity development and communications.

Gallery, 98 N. Main Street, WaynesThe Haywood County Arts Council ville. Open Monday through Saturday strives to bring cultural enrichment to our 10-5:30; Sundays, 1-4. (828) 456-1940, Haywood County area through its commuwww.twigsandleaves.com. nity outreach programs, and with Lindsey’s hard work and involvement, these efforts will improve exponentially.

Along with the arrival of Lindsey Solomon, has come the arrival of a new gallery ‘desk’. Mr. John Gernandt of Waynesville, has graciously donated a hand crafted piece of furniture to the Haywood County Arts Council. The Arts Council is thrilled at this gracious Photograph by Joe Dan Dry gift and will enjoy it’s beauty and value for years to come.

Appalachian Trail Discoveries Glory Clouds, photograph by Paul Malcolm, on display at Burr Studio.

e Photography of Jeffrey Stoner Reception from 6-9PM during

We would like to invite everyone to come out to the Haywood County Arts Council for Art After Dark, Friday, August 7 from 6 to 9 p.m., and greet Lindsay, as well as view this lovely new addition to our gallery space.

IF YOU For more details call Twigs and GO Leaves at (828) 456-1940, or visit www.

waynesvillegalleryassociation.com.

Art After Dark, Friday, August 7

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98 N. Main St., Waynesville

828.456.1940 www.twigsandleaves.com

D O W N T O W N WAY N E S V I L L E A S S O C I AT I O N

Main Street DowntownWaynesville.com 828.456.3517

August 1 – Downtown Dog Walk 8:30am. Walk starts at 10am.

SARGEandFriends.com Fundraiser August 7 – Friday Night Street Augus Dance, 6:30-9pm. Final one of the summer! Mountain Music & Clogging held in front of the Historic Courthouse.

August 15 – Waynesville Craft Beer Faire, 12-5pm. American Legion Field, waynesvillebeer.com August 21 – Main Street Mile, Augus 6:30pm. Fastest, attest mile race in WNC. WaynesvilleMainStreetMile.com

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THIS MONTH AT HART

HART returns with a classic favorite, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” followed by Elvis Tribute Artist David Morin.

HART is pairing Oklahoma! with a Barbecue on the Lawn before each show to make the production more of an immersive experience. For an additional $15, audience members can buy a ticket for the dinner, which includes Beef Brisket (barbecue Oklahoma style) roasted corn, baked beans, lemonade, and a chocolate chip cookie.

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FROG LEVEL

Young Artist Series

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Andrew Tyson, Pianist Award-Winning Virtuoso

Friday, August 14 7:30 p.m. Tickets $22

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Doors Open at 6:30 p.m.

First United Methodist Church 566 S. Haywood St., Waynesville

Meet Featured Artist PAUL MALCOLM During Art After Dark Friday, August 7 from 6-9 • On display thru August & September

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Burr Studio GALLERY OF AMERICAN ART & CRAFT

136 N. Main Street • Waynesville • 828-456-7400

Presented by the Haywood County Arts Council

WB Live Webcam www.downtownwaynesville.com

For more information call 828.452.0593 or visit www.haywoodarts.org

MOOSE CROSSING’S

BURL WOOD GALLERY ELEGANT ~ ORGANIC ~ FURNISHINGS

Carryout + Catering

Fresh Southern Homemade Meals & Desserts

Award Winning Designs In American Burl Wood

184 N. Main St.

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Downtown Waynesville

828-452-2550 www.burlgallery.com

828-550-2265

70 Main Street • Clyde, NC 28721

1092 N. Main Street • Waynesville, NC Mon-Sat 6am-2:30pm

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Sun 7am - 2:30pm

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THE KING RIDES IN – ELVIS IN CONCERT Get ready to rock and roll as HART brings in celebrated Elvis Tribute artist David Morin for three performances August 7 & 8 at 7:30 and August 9 at 3 p.m., with barbecue dinner included!

Not only does Morin do Elvis in all his various stages of life, he also does a set featuring the music of other rock and roll legends of the era.

Last year HART presented Mark Jones as Buddy Holly and sold out the weekend. The group hopes to duplicate that event with its Elvis weekend. In addition to the barbecue dinner offered before each show and included in the ticket price there will be wine and beer available and on tap. Doors to the lobby will be kept open to encourage audience members to dance in the aisles.

Morin was born on the French island of Martinique and became an Elvis fan as a child. When his family moved to the US in 1980 he was only nine but quickly became obsessed with the King of Rock ‘n Roll. In 2007 he began his career as a tribute artist and is now booked regularly to perform not only as Elvis but also other iconic musical artists of the era.

IF YOU HART presents Oklahoma!

GO August 1 at 7:30 p.m., and

August 2 at 2 p.m. Tickets: $26; Seniors $22; Students $13.

Barbeque Dinner $15 extra.

The King Rides In – Elvis in Concert, August 7, 8 at 7:30 and August 9 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $35 and include a barbecue dinner served one hour before showtime.

HART Theatre, 250 Pigeon St. in Waynesville. Box Office hours Tuesday-Saturday 1-5 p.m. (828) 4566322 or visit www.harttheatre.org.

Advertise with Rapid River Magazine Free Web Links ~ Free Ad Design Call (828) 646-0071

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1993 saw the birth of craft beer in Waynesville. The Smoky Mountain Brewery opened in Waynesville one year prior to the Highland Brewery opening in Asheville.

The small craft brewery remained open for just four years. Since then, Western North Carolina has exploded with thriving craft breweries, including four in Waynesville: BearWaters Brewing Company, Boojum Brewing Company, Frog Level Brewing Company, and Tipping Point Brewing.

The American Legion Post 47 hosts the annual event on their ball field.

The first year was a great success with more than 30 craft beers, numerous homebrewers, and a near sell-out crowd. Visitors can enjoy the beautiful Smoky Mountains while sampling fine craft beer. The Faire is located in close proximity to all the amenities Downtown Waynesville has to offer.

Reflexology ~ Reiki Reiki Drumming Bowen Training Instructor Reiki Master / Teacher

Waynesville Craft Beer Faire

Come celebrate the rapid growth of beer culture in Waynesville and all of WNC.

Elvis Tribute artist David Morin.

&

The Faire also features great local music, fine foods, homebrew and educational displays. Informative classes are presented by area craft and home brew experts.

Within walking distance to Historic Downtown Waynesville, attendees to the Waynesville Craft Beer Faire can enjoy first-class restaurants, cafes, shops and creations by the area’s talented chefs and Appalachian artisans. Come on out and grab a pint of Smoky Mountain goodness!

The Waynesville Craft Beer Faire is a 21 and over only event. Absolutely no one under 21 will be allowed on the American Legion property.

Linda Neff

NCBTMB #582633-09 One Hour Session: $40.

FREE Session the First Thursday of the month.

513-675-2819 828-565-0061

Health & Healing are Just Two Feet Away Mountain Spirit Wellness 254 Depot Street • Waynesville

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IF YOU Waynesville Craft Beer Faire, GO Saturday August 15 from 1-5 p.m.

on the grounds of the American Legion Post 47, 171 Legion Drive in Waynesville. Event takes place rain or shine. General admission is $35. VIP tickets are $45. For more details, call (828) 356-4094, visit www.waynesvillebeer.com, and follow us on Facebook.

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Buy Haywood Farmers Market at the Canton Labor Day Festival

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Canton, North Carolina, has a long history of making things.

BY

TINA MASCIARELLI

Papertown Kids Village, handmade crafts, local food trucks, festive heriFrom manufacturing tage events, hometown to entrepreneurship to a parade, and a farmers diverse number of farm market with demonstraproducts, Canton sits at the epicenter of produc- Local, in-season farm products tions and tastings.

Join the Buy Haytion in western North will be available during the Labor Day Festival. wood team on Sunday, Carolina.

September 6 from 1-5 To date, the town p.m. for the Buy Haywood Farmers hosts the longest running Labor Day fesMarket. We will be offering free samples tival in the south as a celebration of the of a specialty dish made from local farm western North Carolina worker whose products—including a free recipe card grit and fierce determination survived for in season dishes from our Cooking the Great Depression, epic floods and Local Project. www.CantonLaborDay. multiple industrial revolutions. com This year marks Canton’s 109th Labor Day Festival celebrating all things made in western North Carolina. The three-day event stretches from the SorBuy Haywood Market Development rells Creek Park downtown across to Project c/o Haywood County Economic the recreation park on Penland Street.

Development Commission, 144 Events include free live music from Industrial Park Drive, Waynesville. twenty bands including rock, funk, and (828) 456-3737, www.buyhaywood.com WNC roots jam all the way to gospel, a

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Yet again there’s no shortage of new music this month, with an amazing variety of stuff out there. Enjoy the comments and be sure to support our local independent record stores.

More of my reviews can be found at rapidrivermagazine.com

by James Cassara

Richard Thompson Still

FANTASY/CONCORD MUSIC

Forty two albums into his career and Richard Thompson has mastered the art of record making, the subtleties of pace, sequencing, nuance, and the myriad aspects that go into putting on disc the sounds you perceive in your heart and mind.

The subjects of his songs rarely budge; Thompson’s sense of romance is, to say the least, odd and – based on the trio of songs which form the album’s center (“She Never Could Resist a Winding Road,” “Where’s Your Heart,” and “All Buttoned Up”) – his ire towards the feminine mind is as strong as ever. Fortunately he expands his thematic palette to include love songs to the city of Amsterdam (the bouncing “Beatnik Walking”) and “Guitar Heroes,” the album’s sole six string showcase, in which Thompson effortlessly emulates the style of the masters (specifically James Burton and Django Reinhart) from which he’s learned.

Produced by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and recorded in a mere nine days – with Thompson’s current touring band serving as principal backups – Still has an informal tone that is part of its undeniable charm: But it also feels imprecise, more like a sketch of ideas than fully fashioned actions.

There’s a notable absence of balls out rockers (although both “Long John Silver” and “No Peace No End” come close) and at times you’ll find yourself wishing Thompson would put down the acoustic and remind us how his wizardry with the electric guitar is nothing short of astounding. Now well into his mid 60s Richard Thompson has long since accepted his stature as cult hero, and he tends to play to his devoted audience. There’s certainly no shame in that but I often wish he’d step back, reassess, and come out with both guns blazing, making the sort of records that dominated the first third of his career.

Still is a fine album by a brilliant talent who’s once pronounced restless nature has seemingly given way to a peculiar status quo.

And that seems a bit of a shame. ****

Dave Desmelik Old News

Advertise with Rapid River Magazine Free Web Links ~ Free Ad Design Call (828) 646-0071

There is urgency to the songs of Dave Desmelik that can best be demonstrated in the quick take nature of Old News, a newly recorded collection of material from his extensive catalog. Spanning a decade (1999-2009) Old News allows Desmelik and company – in this case longtime collabora-

26 August 2015 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — Vol. 18, No. 12

tors Josh Gibbs on lap steel and Andy Gibbon on bass – to reconsider, rethink, and rework songs they’ve played countless times. Some are stretched out and given room to breathe (“Old Dog”) while others are tightened and made more compact (the marvelous “It’s True”).

Whether they improve upon the originals would be a matter of taste but the dozen tracks that comprise Old News demonstrate again Desmelik’s lyrical acumen and innate storytelling gifts. He rarely relates a narrative in mere descriptive fashion but rather via the way his characters relate to the often difficult circumstances they find themselves in.

Even a relatively straightforward love song such as “Feels Like Standing Up” is rendered multifaceted by the causal offhandedness Desmelik revels in. As his fans know, Dave and Claire’s son, young Holmes, is dealing with serious health issues, even while they face the high costs of his care. In support of them, Team Holmes has been created to help with those costs. The proceeds from this album and Dave’s shows – many of which are pay as you wish – go towards that cause.

If you want to join in the fight please go to their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ groups/holmesteam. Buy the album for the music but be sure to kick in a few extra bucks to help out the family of one of this area’s most talented musicians and genuine nicest guys. *****

Jon Pousette-Dart Talk

LITTLE BIG DEAL MUSIC

Jon PousetteDart has a long and respected resume that began with the earliest years of the Pousette-Dart band (commonly known as PDB) who repeatedly charted radio hits during the 1970s and on into a long and successful solo career.

Ever hear of Frampton Comes Alive (of course you have!): PDB opened for that entire tour. His songs have been prominently featured in the television series Lost, have been covered by a host of more recognizable names, and yet, despite making consistently fine music, he remains comparatively unknown.

Talk is his tenth solo album and ranks among his best, a unified collection of eleven songs based on direct themes of love, family, gratitude, and the challenges of growing older while keeping open the lines of communication. Nothing earth shattering there but Pousette-Dart is a savvy enough writer to work them to their advantage. He wrote or co-wrote most of the songs, inviting in such collaborators as John Oates, Rhonda Vincent, and Bekka Bramlett (daughter of Delany and Bonnie). His longtime backing band includes such stellar musicians as Reggie Young, Glenn

Worf, David Hungate, and Clayton Ivey.

There’s a fine early seventies Jackson Browne groove to the music, nicely heard in “Can We Just Talk” (propelled by superb pedal steel work by Dan Dugmore) and “Remember How To Fall”, a classic bit of country rock that could have – “back in the day” – been an FM hit. The album’s centerpiece is “The Story Of My Life”, a bittersweet ballad in which Pousette-Dart laments his “swingin’ low across that County Line” while reflecting upon those many paths not taken.

Recorded in Pousette-Darts’ adopted home of Nashville, Talk certainly sounds like a country rock album of a bygone era, with Nixon still in office and The Eagles riding high in the charts; but if that’s the case so be it. I for one miss those days (okay, not the Nixon part) and Talk is clearly a record made for baby boomers. But it’s a nostalgia improved by the enormous talents of a forty year veteran of music who seems to only get better with age. ****

Pete Kennedy

Heart of Gotham KENNEDY’S MUSIC

While he was born in our nation’s capitol, Pete Kennedy long ago embraced its largest city as his physical, spiritual, and artistic center. For 25 years NYC has informed his creative process and his music, and while Kennedy’s career takes him away for weeks and months on end, it is to where he and wife/musical partner Maura always return.

Heart of Gotham is a love letter to his beloved home, a (in his own words) “song cycle about NYC, the kind of street story you might hear in an East Village diner.” Performed entirely

by Pete, it’s likely his most deeply personal album to date.

The album opens and closes with “Union Square”, a lovely observational piece in which Kennedy interprets what might happen “If these streets could talk” and moves geographically from street corner to street corner. Most of the songs are told first person, and there’s an almost journalistic approach that, while allowing Kennedy to record his impressions of the city and its inhabitants with great lucidity, sometimes feels a bit like an AAA roadmap set to song. When Kennedy makes it more introspective, such as in the celebratory “Never Stopped Believing,” it is there that Heart of Gotham is at its best.

The album’s major shortfall is its lack of diversity: Twelve songs written on a single subject may be challenging enough but by recording the album solo, Kennedy limits the sounds and textures found herein. It’s largely bass and guitar (both of which he plays brilliantly) augmented by the occasional keyboard or drum kit. That restricted instrucontinued on page 27

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mentation is fine for some projects but Heart of Gotham is an album about one of the most diverse places on earth, one that literally screams for a wider range of musical ethnicity.

I can imagine these songs as basic tracks, with horns, violins, balalaika, pipes, and any matter of world beats added to them. As it is, Heart of Gotham is a bit of a missed opportunity, an album that could have been Kennedy’s signature statement but comes across as something less. ***

Various Artists

MOUNTAIN SPIRIT COFFEEHOUSE

For a decade Don and Louise Baker have been mainstays of the local live music scene, not so much as performers (although Louise is indeed a musician) but as promoters of and advocates for their Mountain Spirit Coffeehouse series of intimate and largely acoustic evenings showcasing local, national, and international talents. In celebration of its tenth year they’ve released this excellent sampling of music from artists who’ve performed over that span.

Picking a favorite among its 17 tracks is darn near impossible but I lean towards those acts I was least familiar with: the intricate guitar work of Beppe Gambetta on “Fandango per la bionda” is stunning while Louise Mosrie’s poignant “Baker Hotel 1929” immediately makes me want to seek out more work by her. But there’s not a weak link in the batch, emphasizing again the thought and selectivity the Baker’s put into booking shows.

For those not familiar with the Mountain Spirit Coffeehouse this is an ideal introduction. For the rest of us it’s a reminder of what a treasure that series has become. *****

The Wilhelm Brothers CD Release Party Thursday, August 20 at 6 p.m.

The Asheville-area based celloinfused folk rock duo are celebrating the release of their 11-song CD, The Sea of the Unwritten, with a party and show on the new stage at The Paintbox in the River Arts District’s Pink Dog Creative.

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A Pair of Must See Shows at The Altamont

JONATHAN EDWARDS

BY JAMES

Many musicians spend a career hoping for that “signature song,” a crossover hit with which they will be forever associated.

When that elusive moment does arrive some artists react in ways that might seem baffling – after “Heart of Gold” topped the charts Neil Young famously didn’t play it on his subsequent tour – while others are grateful for their success. It is, after all, part of what every musician hopes for. Jonathan Edwards didn’t have to wait long.

Shortly after leaving the Boston based band Sugar Creek, who had attained some modest regional success, Edwards began working on his solo debut. Finding himself short a song (one of the finished tracks was mistakenly erased) Edwards, in an act of both desperation and illumination, dusted off an existing fragment and quickly composed the genial “Sunshine.” When released the following year as a single the song struck a chord with the masses; its sharp opening line (“Sunshine go away today, I don’t feel much like dancing.”), rollicking arrangement, and unforgettable chorus is likely one you’ve sung to a hundred times.

Edwards was born July 28, 1946, in Aitkin, Minnesota, and grew up in Virginia. While attending military school, he became enamored with the burgeoning folk scene and the AM radio hits of The Byrds, Dylan, Phil Ochs, and others. Like many of his day Edwards began playing guitar and composing his own songs.

After moving to Ohio – initially to study art – he became a fixture at local clubs and coffeehouses, playing with a variety of rock, folk, and blues outfits, often in tandem with fellow students Malcolm McKinney and Joe Dolce. In 1967, the three relocated to Boston, where they permanently changed their name to Sugar Creek and became a full-time blues act, issuing the 1969 LP Please Tell a Friend.

Wanting to return to acoustic performing, Edwards left the group to record a solo album.

It was from those sessions that “Sunshine” emerged, quickly becoming a Top Five pop hit and cementing his reputation.

With the release of Honky-Tonk Stardust Cowboy (1972) Edwards’ music began gravitating toward straight-ahead country; while the album sold well, largely based on his previous achievements, his label was at a loss as to how to market it. Over the course of two more albums, 1973’s Have a Good Time for Me and the following year’s live Lucky Day, his sales and star power sharply declined. But by then Edwards had already tired of the business side of music (he’d signed a very unfavorable contract) and the label expectation that each new record replicate the last.

In a move he has never come to regret Edwards largely dropped out of music, bought a farm in Nova Scotia, and embraced a new and more relaxed routine of farming, composing, and occasionally playing a gig with friends.

CASSARA

SETH WALKER On August 9, two days later, North Carolina native Seth Walker, who has recently relocated to New Orleans, will also give a concert at Altamont Theatre.

Jonathan Edwards

Walker considers his move to the Crescent City as the completion of his “rounds of the Holy Trinity of southern American music cities” one that began in Austin, shifted to Nashville, and eventually landed him in his new home. It’s that influence, with its “funky melting-pot swagger of gospelsoaked fervor and gritty guitar” that forms the essence of Sky Still Blue, his recently released latest album.

Produced by Oliver Wood of The Wood Brothers the eleven-song album (look for a review in next month’s Rapid River Magazine) is the culmination of his recent travels, and Walker is thrilled with the end product. “All the moves I’ve made have been so that I can be around new influences centered on music,” Walker says. “I’ve always loved New Orleans, and it definitely brought back a bit of the rough edge that got a little spit-shined on the albums that I made in Nashville. This one’s got some gristle on it, some push and pull, some funky stuff, and some of that Caribbean influence that New Orleans has.”

The seeds for the album were planted with five songs co-written with Oliver Wood while Walker was on tour with the Wood Brothers.

The two hit it off on both a musical and personal level. Sky Still Blue was recorded at the Wood Brothers’ home base in Nashville, and fellow Brothers Chris Wood (also of Medeski Martin & Wood) and Jano Rix, made crucial contributions. Also on hand were Walker’s longtime band-mates, bassist Steve Mackey and drummer Derrek Phillips. “It was essentially the six of us musically roping this thing,” Walker says. “We all worked real well together, and the next thing you knew, we had a record.”

Walker didn’t have much opportunity to be lonesome as a child, growing up on a two-family commune in rural North Carolina. His parents were both classical musicians, and his first instrument was the cello, not the guitar. The tastes of the commune’s other residents ran more to Texas country music, so his youth was filled with the sounds of Mozart and Beethoven coexisting with Jerry Jeff Walker and Willie Nelson. He discovered the guitar in college and never looked back. “I was eaten up with it” he says, his enthusiasm still evident. “Just crazy for it, immediately gravitating to the blues, but as

Seth Walker

One of those friends was Emmylou Harris. In 1976, she enlisted him to sing backup on her sophomore record, Elite Hotel; that cameo reignited the record labels interest in Edwards and his music. It resulted in a new record deal – one more profitable to Edwards – and the LP Rockin’ Chair, recorded with Harris’ Hot Band. Sail Boat, cut with most of the same personnel, appeared a year later but Edwards was unwilling to commit to lengthy tours and industry demands. He was always a reluctant star and, after all, had a farm and family to take care of. He again disappeared, resurfacing in 1982 with a live record on his own label. In fact Edwards was among the first successful musicians to take his career into his own hands. Still, the creative urge could not be completely disregarded.

After touring the nation with a production of the musical Pumping Boys and Dinettes, Edwards joined the bluegrass group the Seldom Scene for the 1983 LP Blue Ridge. After a 1987 solo children’s record, Edwards moved to Nashville; his 1989 album The Natural Thing generated his biggest country hit, “We Need to Be Locked Away.” Since then he’s maintained a more manageable pace, recording four studio albums, including the recently released Tomorrow’s Child, and a pair of live recordings.

Tomorrow’s Child (Rising Records) may be his best since the mid 1970’s. It’s a strong mix of original songs, traditional covers, and material written by others (including Asheville songwriter Malcolm Holcombe). Among its featured guests are Joe Walsh, Shawn Colvin, Vince Gill, John Cowan, Jerry Douglas, and Alison Krauss. Clearly when one’s standing in the music world is as exceptional as is that of Jonathan Edwards you get to play with such talents!

Last year’s sold out solo performance at The Altamont aptly demonstrated that Edwards’ hasn’t lost a bit of the gift, voice, and mastery of stage that made him a star. He’s built a career on doing things his way, preferring artistry to huge commercial success, and is all the better for it. For those who remember Jonathan Edwards, or have sung along to “Sunshine” or any of his other hits, August 7 at The Altamont Theatre will be the place to be.

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COPYEDITING &

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Rapid River Magazine Web Exclusive

Rapid River Magazine is looking for writers to contribute to the online edition’s short story section. We’re accepting submissions of a variety of works including flash fiction, articles, travel journals and short stories in more than 20 genres.

Writers are encouraged to submit works that have been properly edited.

All submissions will be reviewed for appropriateness and quality. If editing is required, the writer has the option of working with the section editor.

Submission guidelines and special editing rates are available at www.rapidrivermagazine.com.

Rapid River Magazine’s copy editor, Kathleen Colburn, is editor and curator of the section. Please contact her with questions and submissions by email to rrshortstories@gmail.com Kathleen is a freelance copy editor available for a variety of literary projects. She can be reached by email to rrshortstories@gmail.com

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The Poet’s Voice

Every one of us is called upon, probably many times, to start a new life.

828-581-9031

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by Jane Hirshfield Take the used-up heart like a pebble and throw it far out.

Soon there is nothing left.

“There are thresholds on our Soon the last ripple exhausts itself paths: doorways, gates, bridges, and in the weeds. borders. They have names like: marriage, divorce, journey, birth, death, Returning home, slice carrots, onions, celery. relocation, twilight, dawn, the space Glaze them in oil before adding between the blow and the pain, the the lentils, water and herbs. ringing phone and the answered phone, the misstep and fall. It’s difThen the roasted chestnuts, a little pepper, the salt. ficult to be grateful for change, yet Finish with goat cheese and parsley. Eat. Change = growth.”

You may do this, I tell you, it is permitted.

Smart words by Barbara Kingsolver Begin again the story of your life. from Hide Tide in Tucson.

A frightening diagnosis, a marriage, a move, loss of a job or a limb or a loved one, a graduation, bringing a new pour. Emily “dwells in Possibility,” Kunitz baby home. . . In my own worst seasons I’ve “lives in the layers,” T. S. admonishes, “the come back from the colorless world of despair end is where we start from,” and Bill Holm by forcing myself to look hard for a long wrote, “Let everything sing together inside time, at a single glorious thing: a flame of red you, lose nothing.” geranium outside my bedroom window. And Liminality is a great lively marsh. Sea otters then another: my daughter in a yellow dress. dive and emerge, crabs scamper, clams disapAnd another: the perfect outline of a full, dark pear, sea gulls feast on the day’s deliciousness. sphere behind the crescent moon. Until I To Esther de Waal, who lives in Herefordlearned to be in love with my life again. Like a shire, close to the border between England stroke victim retraining new parts of the brain and Wales, place has been important. She has to grasp lost skills, I have taught myself joy, returned to her home after world travels. She over and over again. writes, “A threshold is a sacred thing. All our Jane Hirshfield examines the “liminal” life lives are inevitably made of a succession of in her book, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind borders and thresholds, which open into the of Poetry. Other poets, Bill Holm, Elizabeth new promise of excitement – or fear. If I were Bishop, Mary Oliver, Emily Dickinson, T. S. to find one word that catches the sense of Eliot, Whitman, Lorde, Kunitz, Kooser, and threshold, it would be transformation – always others revel in the “betwixt and between,” bita little scary. It means letting go of control, tersweet times from which poems and stories giving risk a chance.”

Jane Hirshfield refers to the liminal state as permeable, and an awakening.

She writes, “To speak and to write is to assert who we are, what we think. To stand

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Flash Fiction Contest

Writers! Paint a picture, tell a story, with 500 words or less. This is a family friendly contest and modest prizes will be awarded. Finalists, semi-finalists and honorable mentions will be announced in the December print edition, and will appear on RapidRiverMagazine.com.

Deadline for submissions is November 1, 2015.

Hardcopy submissions should include your email address and phone number. Submissions not in strict compliance with the guidelines will not be read or considered. Detailed guidelines on RapidRiverMagazine.com.

Send hardcopy only, by mail, with a $5 reading fee to: Rapid River Arts & Culture Magazine, Attention: Flash Fiction Contest, 85 N. Main St., Canton, NC 28716.

Contest is curated by Rapid River Magazine copy editor and Short Story editor, Kathleen Colburn.

28 August 2015 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — Vol. 18, No. 12

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DA CAPO

Announcing the first ever Rapid River Magazine Flash Fiction contest!

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Daybreak

by Galway Kinnell On the tidal mud, just before sunset, dozens of starfishes were creeping. It was as though the mud were a sky and enormous, imperfect stars moved across it slowly as the actual stars cross heaven.

All at once they stopped, and as if they had simply increased their receptivity to gravity they sank down into the mud; they faded down into it and lay still; and by the time pink of sunset broke across them they were as invisible as the true stars at daybreak.

humbled and stunned and silent before the wild and inexplicable beauties and mysteries of being.”

It is the task of the writer to become, in the words of Henry James, “a person on whom nothing is lost.”

Before Thoreau went to Walden, he wrote, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately. . . . and to see if I could learn what it had to teach. I do not want to come to die and discover I had not lived.”

Enjoy these liminal moments.

The Real Work

by Wendell Berry It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

“The Real Work” by Wendell Berry, from Standing by Words (c) 1983

“Bless those who challenge us to grow, to stretch, to move beyond the knowable, to come back home to our elemental and essential nature. Bless those who challenge us for they remind us of doors we have closed and doors we have yet to open. They are big medicine teachers for us.” ~ Navajo saying Liminaly yours, Carol Resources: Esther de Waal, To Pause at the Threshold: Reflections of Living on the Border, Harrisburg, Morehouse Publishing, 2001.

I want to meet you all, writers, dreamers, readers and listeners. We need each other.

Contact Carol at bjorlie.carol@yahoo.com

POETRIO Sunday, August 2 at 3 p.m.

Readings by three poets: Bart White (The Faces We Had as Children), Kimberlyn Blum-Hyclak (In the Garden of Life and Death), and Tony Reevy (Passage).

IF YOU GO: Malaprop’s Bookstore, 55

Haywood Street, Asheville. Call (828) 2546734, or visit www.malaprops.com.

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Red is the Color of My Night

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POEMS AND PROSE BY PASCKIE PASCUA

A new book reflects the often ragged but mostly warm wisdom of a journeyman who witnessed and experienced a life that defies his reserved demeanor and soft-spoken tact.

Published by Loved by the Buffalo Publications, Red is the Color of My Night is written in blood and delivered with a language that crosses creed and culture, without hesitation or reserve. Pasckie Pascua traverses the rough terrains of his past with piercing honesty and visionary glare. His work bothers and comforts at the same time; it also provokes while it reassures.

Pascua is a veteran journalist and poet who survived a dictatorial regime in his homecountry of the Philippines. He went to the University of the Philippines’ Institute of Mass Communication, and attended undergrad Film programs at Tisch School of Arts, New York University.

He was a journeyman writer even before he reached the age of 30—having worked for print, radio, and TV in various capacities, as well as a community organizer/media specialist in coastal villages and farming barrios in the countrysides since he was 15 years old.

He served as a member of the media liaison staff for the late president Corazon Aquino’s “good government” commission in the early 90s, and the consulting team for Philippine presidential candidate (deceased) Senator Raul Roco in the 1990s.

In the US, Pasckie edited the NY-based

Headline Philippines from 1998 to 2001; and headed the Southern California/Los Angeles bureau of Philippine News, the oldest nationally-distributed Filipino/ Asian-American newspaper in the US and Canada.

In Asheville, Pasckie published (and edited) the community paper, The Indie, from 2001 to 2011. He is also the founding executive director of the Traveling Bonfires, a non-profit “people’s culture” organization that advocates family wisdom and community connectedness. The Traveling Bonfires organizes the summertime downtown music convergence, “Bonfires for Peace at Pritchard Park.”

The Asheville-based poet Pasckie Pascua will read from his new book of poems and prose, Red is the Color of My Night, at The Crow and Quill in downtown Asheville on Sunday, August 9 at 7 p.m. Special guests are poet Caleb Beissert, singer-songwriter Darien Crossley, and jazz singer Katie Kasben.

Poet and musician Caleb Beissert spearheads a number of local Asheville poetry events, including producer of the monthly Altamont Poetry Series at North Carolina Stage Company, and host of the weekly Poetry Open Mic at Noble Kava. He is also the long-

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Katie Kasben has been in numerous community theatre productions and was the director and producer of Hair. She was the VIP coordinator for the HATCH mentoring festival, and helped bring the “48 Hour Film Project” to Asheville. Darien Crossley is a promising young singer-songwriter who’s been building a solid following in Asheville’s cafe and club scene.

Pascua will also be featured in Sylva, NC at City Lights Bookstore’s “Coffee with the Poet” gathering on Thursday, August 20. pasckiepascuawords.blogspot.com Find Pasckie Pascua on Facebook.

IF YOU Pasckie Pascua, Sunday, August 9 at GO 7 p.m. The Crow and Quill, 106 N.

Lexington Avenue, downtown Asheville.

The event is a free but donations are very much appreciated. Call (828) 505-2866, and visit www.thecrowandquill.com.

Pascua will also talk about his journey August 20 at 11 a.m. at City Lights Bookstore, 3 East Jackson Street in Sylva, NC. (828) 586-9499, www.citylightsnc.com

The Handkerchief Has Been Thrown!

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Something Old & Something New for Same-Sex Couples – Musings on Love, Weddings & Handkerchiefs.

The voice of conscious weddings for almost thirty years, wedding folklorist and costume historian Cornelia Powell now creates an anthology for gay and lesbian couples. Here is The Handkerchief Has Been Thrown!

Something Old & Something New for SameSex Couples ~ Musings on Love, Weddings & Handkerchiefs. First released in 2013 as a Kindle e-Book, the book has been revised and is now available on Amazon in a print version.

Historically, the handkerchief has long “represented the bond between lovers.” So using it as her muse for this book, Cornelia wraps her stories with bits of wedding folklore, fashion fancy and ritual wisdom then moves us beyond romance and ceremony into ways that open hearts.

In the author’s unique way of storytelling, the book is full of tales like the seductive language of flowers and the princely charm of pocket squares, but it also shares the underlying magic of the wedding rite-of-passage.

The Handkerchief Has Been Thrown!

entices with stories of sensuous prewedding rituals of fragrant, healing baths in ancient Greece, and what love-tokens you really ought to be tossing at your wedding reception.

It tells how romantics throughout history flirted with a well-placed hanky, and offers endearing ways to use handkerchiefs at a wedding.

The Handkerchief Has Been Thrown! explains why we have kings and troubadours to thank for our modern notion of “amour” as well as why surrendering to love is a sign of strength.

The book discloses how not to fall into the cookie-cutter, commercial-formula trap of mainstream weddings, but instead become a trailblazer in bringing intimacy back to wedding celebrations.

It reveals tips from “don’t go down the aisle without a serviceable hanky” to the secrets of how to keep your heart open in a less than agreeable world.

Now that marriage is more available for same-sex couples, The Handkerchief Has Been Thrown! encourages devoted couples to be leaders in creating a new archetype of

marriage—one of “spiritual partnership.”

In compiling this anthology, Cornelia shares conversations about our currently changing social culture. She asks: “If marriage is said to add strength for the social good—yet is a social structure that’s been deteriorating of late—why not include all couples and re-build the viability of this institution?”

Cornelia is also the author of Amazon bestseller The Bride’s Ritual Guide: Look Inside to Find Yourself and the recently released The End of the Fairy-Tale Bride {Volume One} For Better or Worse, How Princess Diana Rescued the Great White Wedding. (She’s at work on Volume Two!) Cornelia contributes articles to various magazines and with the appeal of the popular British period drama Downton Abbey, the wedding and fashion historian is in demand to speak at venues around the country.

AUGUST

PARTIAL LISTING

We host numerous Readings & Bookclubs, as well as Salons!

Visit www.malaprops.com

READINGS & BOOKSIGNINGS Monday, August 3 at 7 p.m. ACE ATKINS, The Redeemers, new in the Quinn Colson series.

Tuesday, August 4 at 7 p.m. BILLY COFFEY, The Curse of Crow Hollow, folklore.

Thursday, August 6 at 7 p.m. ADAM CARESS, The Day Alternative Music Died: the Struggle Between Art and Money for the Soul of Rock.

Saturday, August 8 at 3 p.m. CHRIS KINSLEY, Exploring Biltmore Estate from A to Z. Sunday, August 9 at 3 p.m. GARY REID, The Music of the Stanley Brothers, and The Bluegrass Hall of Fame.

Sunday, August 9 at 5 p.m. MIRANDA RICHMOND MOUILLOT, A Fifty-Year Silence: Love, War, and a Ruined House in France.

Wednesday, August 12 at 7 p.m.

DAVID PAYNE, Barefoot to Avalon, loss and relationships.

Thursday, August 13 at 7 p.m. DR. NEIL SPECTOR, Gone in a Heartbeat, memoir.

Saturday, August 15 at 3 p.m. JEFF ALT, The Adventures of Bubba Jones: Time Traveling Through the Great Smoky Mountains.

Tuesday, August 18 at 7 p.m. MICHAEL SWANWICK, Chasing the Phoenix, artfully humorous SF writer.

Sunday, August 23 at 3 p.m.

JOHN SHEFFIELD, Roseland’s Secret, an ornithological mystery set on an island in the South Atlantic.

Monday, August 24 at 7 p.m. PAM DURBAN, Soon, short stories. “One of America’s finest writers.” ~ John Updike Monday, August 31 at 7 p.m. ELIOT COWAN, Plant Spirit Medicine, celebrating ten years of natural healing.

55 Haywood St.

(828) 254-6734 • 800-441-9829 Monday-Saturday 9AM to 9PM Sunday 9AM to 7PM

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Visit www.CorneliaPowell.com

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Saturday, August 8

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LOCAL FOOD & DINING GUIDE

One Show ~ 7PM

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Tickets: $15 Call 828.452.6000

vocals, banjo guitar, violin

❖

Waynesville

www.classicwineseller.com

Thai Seafood Eggplant, a house favorite.

Paid in part by Haywood County Tourism www.visitncsmokies.com

Everyone is Talking About Our

SEAFOOD!

Indian ~ Nepali ~ Tibetan Himalayan Cuisine

Fresh, Hand Breaded & Deep Fried Handcut Fries & Homemade Slaw Maine Lobster Stew, Maine Lobster Roll & Whole Maine Fried Clams Our Hotdogs are made from Premium Cuts of Meat • Natural Casing • Grilled pg. 11

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828-697-2266

Like Us On Facebook pg. 21

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Eat, Drink, Explore

Champa is located in the middle of all of this on North Main Street. We walked in at 8 on a Wednesday evening and slid into a booth near the sushi bar. The atmosphere is elegant with low lighting and red and

20 Church Street

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Your Guide to Excellent Local Food

The revitalization of Hendersonville’s downtown reminds me of the downtowns in the Bay Area in California—bright, wide streets, with an assortment of shops, ice cream stores, and restaurants—only without the traffic.

Dinner Menu Available

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folk-rock, bluegrass, blues

pg. 24

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M-Sat 10-8 • Sun 11-3 T.Cote@morrisbb.net

www.greatamericandog.net

30 August 2015 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — Vol. 18, No. 12

BY

MICHELLE ROgERS

black decor.

The dining areas are spacious yet cozy.

Further back is a banquet room for 10-40 people. There is also patio seating out front and ample indoor seating.

We could hear a group of women laughing and enjoyChampa, located on North Main Street in Hendersonville, offered ing themselves both Japanese and Thai selections. Photo: Amber Combs and later learned that this was part of their weekly dining club. They This dish won us over and was the hugged the server before leaving, smilyang to the yin of our other entrée – the ing and joking all the while.

Pineapple Thai Curry with shrimp. Half of I placed my attention on the extena scooped-out pineapple served as a platter sive menu, which offered both Japanese for the entrée. Whereas the eggplant dish and Thai selections. We ordered was dark and uniform in color, the curry appetizers—larb chicken and Tom burst with reds of tomatoes, bright greens Kha soup—buying time to figure out of snow peas, yellows of pineapple, and what to order next. These both arrived showed off elegant cuts of zucchini and quickly. The larb chicken consisted celery. The sauce was delicate and mildly of delicate, minced chicken with Thai spicy. These two entrees could not have herbs, habaneros, and lemon juice, all been a better pair for one another. They cradled in a large lettuce leaf. The dipwere both accompanied with a small salad, ping sauce was brothy and dark with a and the wooden rice bowls lent sophisticahint of molasses. tion to the meal.

I found this appetizer to be both satChampa is a family-owned business, isfying and quenching. It knocked the they get their fish in fresh every other day, edge off of my hunger. The Tom Kha and they have outdoor seating to watch soup was a healthy portion, probably a passersby. You can also tune into Downcup and a half, of creamy coconut milk, town Hendersonville’s Facebook page to chicken (you can also order tofu or see other events that take place nearby. veggies instead), red and green peppers, mushrooms, and cilantro. This was definitely a good start to the meal.

Next we ordered our drinks – a pinot Champa noir for myself and the gingertini for 437 N. Main Street, Hendersonville my partner, served in a martini glass (828) 696-9800 with thinly sliced ginger speared with Monday-Friday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. a plastic pirate sword. This zingy, yet Saturday-Sunday 12 noon to 10 p.m. well-balanced cocktail proved to be my favorite of the two and paired very nicely with the Thai Seafood Eggplant, a house favorite. This dish exploded Michelle Rogers works with with flavor and texture. The thickly cut independently-owned, small food businesses at Blue Ridge eggplant medallions are stuffed with Food Ventures. She has worked shrimp, scallops, crab, and water chestin the culinary industry since nuts and then fried. The caramelized 1997. She enjoys freelance exterior of the eggplant along with the writing and exploring the sweet, rich, bright sauce revealed hints outdoors. Contact her at milyro@gmail.com. of citrus, tamarind, and garlic.

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Eat, Drink, Explore Your Guide to Excellent Local Food

Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar

Blues, Folk-Rock, Gypsy Jazz, and Pop LIVE at the Classic Wineseller

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Best Sushi in WNC Since 2005

The Classic Wineseller,

BY KAY STEgALL MILLER Waynesville’s premier wine and craft beer shop, small plate restaurant, and intimate live music venue, presents live music on Friday and Saturday evenings.

New York City transplant, Joe Cruz entertains with songs of the Beatles, Elton John, Simon and Garfunkel, and James Taylor on Saturday, August 1, 15 and 29 beginning at 7 p.m.

‘Round the Fire, a regular on the music scene in Waynesville performing folksy American rock, blues, reggae, swing, and original music, plays Friday, August 10 at 7 p.m. at the Wineseller.

Catch singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist “Mean Mary” James on Saturday, August 8 at 7 p.m. Known internationally for lightning-fast fingers, haunting vocals, and intricate story songs, Mean Mary travels the genres of folk-rock, bluegrass, and blues with banjo, fiddle, and guitar. Tickets are $15 per person. Call (828) 452-6000 for tickets and dinner reservations.

One man band, Jay Brown (guitar, harmonica, piano, percussion, vocals) plays Friday, August 14 at 7 p.m. Enjoy an evening of Gypsy jazz and swing music with Michael Pilgrim on mandolin and Don Mercz on guitar on Friday, August 21 at 7 p.m.

Singer-songwriter Angela Easterling (guitar, vocals) performs on Saturday, August 22 at 7 p.m. Her debut album, “Earning Her Wings” was chosen as Americana Pick of the Year

by Smart Choice Music.

Waynesville-based singer and piano player, Sheila Gordon, and multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Chris Minick will perform a musical tribute to Bonnie Raitt beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday, August 28.

Classic Wineseller, 20 Church St., Waynesville. Live music Friday and Saturday nights 7-10 p.m. Restaurant open Wednesday - Saturday, 4-9 p.m., serving small plates, charcuterie, tapas, and desserts. Retail: Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more details, call (828) 452-6000, or visit www.classicwineseller.com.

Jay Brown

Brought to you by the owners of Ichiban Steakhouse Wasabi :: 19 Broadway :: 828-225-2551 Ichiban :: 2 Hendersonville Rd. :: 252-7885 pg. 21

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Angela Easterling

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Mon - Fri 11:30am - 2am Sat & Sun 10:30am - 2am Kitchen open until 1am Daily

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Eat, Drink

Advertise in Our Local Food Guide

Your Local Food Guide

~ Free Web Links ~ Free Ad Design

Mountain Brew Fest

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Call now for a great deal!

(828) 646-0071

MountainTrue will present the inaugural Mountain Brew Fest in downtown Hendersonville on Saturday, August 22.

The festival will highlight more than 20 craft brewers and everyone is invited to come out and enjoy fellowship, craft beer, live music, and offerings from local food trucks. This outdoor event will take place from 3 to 7 p.m. adjacent to the Southern Appalachian Brewery on Locust Street and Bearcat Boulevard.

Tickets to the festival can be purchased at www.mountainbrewfest.com. Proceeds from Mountain Brew Fest will help MountainTrue advance its mission of championing resilient forests, clean waters, and healthy communities across Western North Carolina.

Craft beer and festivals are a great match for MountainTrue, since brewers and beer lovers alike value and need clean water. Mountain Brew Fest provides a great opportunity to connect quality of life with a healthy environment.

This is the first festival of its kind to be located in Hendersonville, and MountainTrue would like to thank the City of Hendersonville for making it possible.

IF YOU Mountain Brew Fest, Saturday, August 22 GO from 3 to 7 p.m., adjacent to the Southern

Appalachian Brewery on Locust Street and Bearcat Boulevard in Hendersonville. For more information, visit www.mountainbrewfest.com. pg. 24

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128 N. Main Street Waynesville, NC 28786

Open Daily Lunch: 11:30 to 3:00 • Dinner: 4:30 to 9:00

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828-454-5400 www.BlossomOnMain.com

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32 August 2015 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — Vol. 18, No. 12

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Great Compassion “For those of you who want to attain enlightenment, do not study many teachings. Only study one. What is it? It is great compassion. Whoever has great compassion has all Buddha’s qualities in his hand.” ~ Lord Buddha

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This is a truly remarkable teaching, but what is it the Buddha meant by “great compassion”?

The conventional definition of compassion as sympathy for the suffering of others certainly applies, but this is not enough. While sympathy for others’ suffering is an essential and necessary element of great compassion, it is really only a place of beginning; a beginning that we must cultivate and expand upon.

First, please understand that” feeling sorry for” is not great compassion. This is compassion in its smallest sense. This is understanding compassion in an egoic sense – I feel sorry for, have concern and care, for you. This is very good, but it is essentially dualistic and speaks to separateness and judgments; and it tends to be exclusionary, speaking only to those with whom “I” find identification. It can even speak of a sense of superiority to the one it is directed toward.

Great compassion, in order to be “great,” has to have the sense of encompassing everyone and everything at the heartfelt level of empathy and identification. It has to arise from our fundamental non-dualistic realm of Beingness.

“I” am not really capable of having unlimited compassion, for the very concept of “I” is creating a separate reference point to experience. It arises from the realm of ego, of thought and emotion. “I” am defined by what “I” think and feel, and great compassion is not a thought or emotion; it is the realized state of Being arising from the silent mind that

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connects us to all that exists.

This intuitive connection then rises in resonance, transforming into thoughts and emotions that can be expressed, and then, “I” express my concern – but until great compassion is realized, this concern is usually only for those within my circle of ego identification and worthy of my ethical approval.

Great compassion must be beyond any judgments of worthy and unworthy. It arises from intuitive discernment of our infinite connectedness, first as human beings, then as sentient beings, then as sentience itself. We must quiet and open the mind into realization that we are the infinite consciousness through which the Universe manifests into a limited form and consciousness constructed around the idea of “I.” Great compassion is the capacity of silent awareness to see the dilemma and the suffering caused by this misidentification as a separate entity experiencing the world as “out there” and our fellow beings as “other.” Great compassion feels the sorrow of a Being-inform, subject to conditioning by form, searching for its place within form and knows this to be the dilemma faced by all humans.

“Where is my place?” is the great question that obsesses and confounds us and leads to

Deep water ocean fish – oily fish – are higher in omega-3 fatty acids which lower LDL cholesterol – the bad cholesterol.

Eating deep water ocean fish will lower cancer risk, especially for breast and colo-rectal cancer, and maybe for liver cancer.

Eating fish instead of red meat decreases the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Eating fish, especially deep water ocean fish, increases the risk of poisoning with heavy metals and carcinogens.

Actually, all the above are true. The facts are there, but the details are missing.

The truth is: eating fish, especially deep ocean, oily fish, is probably good for your health – if you are eating a typical red meat, fried food, high fructose corn syrup diet. The evidence for adding fish to an already healthy

high fruit and vegetable, whole grain diet is less certain.

The truth is: for omega-3 fatty acids to do their anti-inflammatory work, they must be eaten in sufficient quantity and in equal amounts as omega-6 fatty acids to decrease inflammation and quiet an over-active immune system.

Two problems: 1) animals and humans cannot produce omega-3 fatty acids; they must get them from plants, and 2) the typical western diet has 4 times as much omega-6 as omega-3 fatty acids – encouraging inflammation (heart disease, stroke, autoimmune dysfunction, cancer).

The truth is: adding omega-3 supplements to the diet doesn’t have the beneficial effects that adding fish does. Therefore, supplements don’t seem to help.

The truth is: the evidence may be accumulating that it’s not adding the fish that

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BILL WALZ

disastrous identification with social/cultural group egos that tell us our place is in following social/cultural dictates and judgments. Society teaches us who to include as significant and who to exclude.

Society teaches us that we are nothing until society deems us worthy and acceptable into its circle. So first of all, great compassion must manifest compassion for ourselves and the foolishness we have fallen into through egoic insecurity that has us locked into the prison of judgmental and exclusionary thinking.

As Albert Einstein once said: “Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

We are Beings sharing Beingness with all that exists, and all Beings are interconnected and interdependent in the consciousness/ matter/energy field that is the Universe. This is truth. Ego, however, cannot grasp this as anything other than an intellectual abstraction.

Only in the stillness and silence of unadulterated awareness and its intuitive intelligence can we know the Universe as energy that is alive and intelligent, a single Great Being manifesting within itself infinite limited beings.

Much like a single human body is comprised of countless cells coming into and going out of existence to make the body whole and alive, each being’s existence is a dance of manifesting and dissolving into the great

The Truth About Fish in Your Diet

True or False:

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whole that is Life – that is the Universe.

We are and we are not, yet we infinitely are, through the whole that is Life – that is the Universe. Our place is and always only can be, right where we are, as the Universe manifests us for the purpose of Life realizing itself. As John Lennon once sang: “There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be.

It’s easy.” Yet we do not experience this. We experience being born, aging, striving, struggling, having a few triumphs and however many failures we imagine, and anticipating and fearing our death.

We struggle for our place. We struggle for significance. We are capable of loving, doing wonderful things, and we are capable of doing terrible things – knowingly and unknowingly – violations of the sacredness of all Life. And we all experience violations to our sacredness while unaware of our sacredness and unaware of the sacredness of all.

To feel at the core of our Being this great tragedy is great compassion. To act on this knowing, to the best of our ability, is to grow toward the great compassion that is Buddha’s teaching.

Only in the felt experience of oneness with the Universe can this journey be accomplished. Do not think about it. You must feel it. You must feel it when you look deeply into another human being and see essentially a reflection of yourself, of your own egoic fears and desires, and of your own Being – no matter how different from you this person’s beliefs and behaviors may be.

You must also feel it when you open to your connectedness with the existence and inherent sacredness of animals and of Nature, remembering that we too are Nature – what else could we be?

You must feel compassion for yourself when you experience your own doubts and insecurities, your foolish and hurtful behaviors, and realize you did not choose them, but rather they were conditioned into you by society – and that society is a great sociopath, an egomaniac with no concern for anything but itself. continued on page 36

makes the difference so much as eliminating the red meat and processed meats from the diet. Therefore, adding fish to a bad diet doesn’t help.

The truth is: fish can’t make omega-3 fatty acids either. They are not the most concentrated source of omega-3 fatty acids; plants are – about 5 to 10 times as much as fish. But plant omega-3 fatty acids are only 1/5 to 1/10 as easily absorbed as fish.

Therefore, for someone eating a plantbased diet, the amount of omega-3’s available from plants is equal to the omega-3’s available from fish. And the vegetarian doesn’t have to contend with the possibility (usually small) of consuming heavy metals or carcinogenic compounds that tend to concentrate in deep ocean, oily fish.

The truth is: get the facts and make informed choices based on your circumstances.

Vol. 18, No. 12 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — August 2015 33

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High quality craft fair takes place on the grounds of the Cathedral of All Souls in Historic Biltmore Village. Saturday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Free. Concessions available. For more information call (828) 274-2831.

ballad singers. 7 p.m. nightly at Diana Wortham Theatre in downtown Asheville. Details: www.folkheritage.org.

Tickets: Adults $22 or $54 for 3-night package; Children 12 and under $12, or $24 for 3-night package. (828) 2574530 or www.dwtheatre.com.

Saturday & Sunday, August 1 & 2

Saturday, August 1

New Paintings by Elinor Bowman

LEAF Downtown AVL

Pack Square Park. The LEAF Art Dash 5K and Family Relay, Saturday, August 1 at 9 a.m. Full schedule and details at www.theLEAF.org

Every Thursday

Pink Dog Creative After Hours

The studios and shops will stay open until 8 p.m. on Thursdays throughout the summer. Live music, food, fine arts and crafts. Pink Dog Creative, 342-348 Depot Street in Asheville’s River Arts District. Visit pinkdog-creative.com.

Saturday, August 1

Two Photography Exhibits

“Story and Images

by Rimas Zailskas” sixty large, black and white photographs of dreams within dreams. “Soul to Sole: Gospel Portraits by Steve

Jojo Wallace, by Steve Mann

How to place an event/ classified listing with Rapid River Art Magazine Any “free” event open to the public can be listed at no charge up to 30 words.

For all other events there is a $14.95 charge up to 35 words and 12 cents for each additional word. 65 word limit per event. Sponsored listings (shown in boxes) can be purchased for $18 per column inch.

Deadline is the 19th of each month.

Payment must be made prior to printing. Send to: 85 N. Main St, Canton, NC 28716; call (828) 646-0071; or email ads@rapidrivermagazine.com to place your ad.

– Disclaimer – Due to the overwhelming number of local event submissions we get for our “What to Do Guide” each month, we can not accept entries that do not specifically follow our publication’s format. Non-paid event listings must be 30 words or less, and both paid and non-paid listings must provide information in the following format: date of event, title, description and time, cost, location, and your contact info. Please do not type in all caps. Any entries not following this format will not be considered for publication.

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Mann” spotlights African-American gospel singers. Opening reception from 5-7:30 p.m. Walk and talk with Zailskas and Mann at 4 p.m. On display through September 11, 2015. The Upstairs Artspace, 49 South Trade Street, Tryon. Details: (828) 859-2828, upstairsartspace.org.

Village Art and Craft Fair

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Molly Dingledine Trunk Show

An extensive collection of natureinspired and locally-crafted jewelry.

Trunk show, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Meet the jeweler from 2-5 p.m. MORA Contemporary Jewelry, 9 W. Walnut St., downtown Asheville. (828) 5752294, www.moracollection.com

Friday, August 7 Opening reception from 5 to 8 p.m.

On display August 1 through 31. Asheville Gallery of Art, 16 College Street in downtown Asheville. Call (828) 251-5796, or visit www.ashevillegallery-of-art.com.

Friday, August 7

Paul Malcolm Exhibit

Sunday, August 2

The Spirit of Hiroshima 1945

Exhibit documents the Hiroshima bombings.

Opening reception at 11:30 a.m. On display Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., as well as after the 10:30 a.m. worship services on Sundays, through August 30, 2015. First Congregational United Church of Christ, 20 Oak Street, Asheville. Presented by North Carolina Peace Action.

Monday, August 3

Take Two Jazz

An evening of improvised music with pianist Bill Bares and singer/drummer Russ Wilson. $12 show begins at 7:30 p.m. White Horse, 105c Montreat Road, Black Mountain. (828) 669-0816, www.whitehorseblackmountain.com

Tuesday, August 4

ArtShare Exhibit

Fine works of art, both original and prints, which have been donated, or consigned with the Haywood County Arts Council. Available through August 31, 2015. Gallery & Gifts, 86 N. Main Street, Waynesville.

Wednesday, August 5

Meet the Author

Nancy Pafford, author of Cherokee Rose and White Feather, will discuss her work at Sugarlands Visitor Center near Gatlinburg, NC in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Details at 1-888-898-9102, ext. 226, or visit www.

SmokiesInformation.org.

August 6-8

Mountain Dance and Folk Festival

Old-time and bluegrass musicians, mountain dance groups, cloggers, and

Opening reception for photography artist Paul Malcolm from 6 to 9 p.m.

On display through September. Burr Studio, 136 N. Main St., Waynesville.

More details at (828) 456-7400, or visit facebook.com/burrstudionc.

Friday, August 7

Magnetic Midnight

The Magnetic Theatre’s Open Mic Showcase. Participants and audience members pay $5 admission at the door for the cheapest and wildest fun you can have legally in Asheville. Show up at 9:30 p.m. to participate. Open Mic starts at 10:30 p.m. At Magnetic 375, 375 Depot Street, in the River Arts District. Box office (828) 239-9250, or visit www.themagnetictheatre.org.

Friday, August 7

To The Harbormaster

Exhibit of contemporary, surrealistic paintings by Amanda Lee Seckington.

Opening reception, 5:30-8:30 p.m. The Asheville Loft, 52 Broadway St., 3rd floor, Asheville. (828) 275-9834, www. theashevilleloft.com.

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Sunday, August 16

Grits & Soul

Mountain Jewish Festival

Anna Kline and John Looney fuse mountain bluegrass and classic country with Mississippi soul and blues. $5. Doors 5 p.m.; show 7 p.m. Isis Music Hall, 743 Haywood Rd., Asheville. (828) 575-2737, www. isisasheville.com.

August 12-15

Laugh Your Asheville Off

At the Diana Wortham Theatre in Asheville. $20/ticket. Cosmo Festival Pass: $80 – get access to every show on the schedule. Tickets available at LaughYourAshevilleOff.com

August 12-16

A Life of Sorrow

The Life and Times of Carter Stanley. OneGary Reid Photo: man play starring Gary Reid pays tribute Susan Saandholland to the Appalachian mountain music legend who popularized the music that came to be known as bluegrass.

Wednesday thru Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets: $10, $16, and $20. North Carolina Stage Company, 15 Stage Lane, Asheville. (828) 239-0263, www.ncstage.org.

Thursday, August 13

Benefit Concert for Kenny Capps

Kenny is fighting bone marrow cancer.

Music by the BJ Leiderman Band, David LaMotte, Karl Werne. Poetry

by Barbie Angell. 7:30 p.m. $25. White Horse, 105c Montreat Rd., Black Mountain. (828) 669-0816, whitehorseblackmountain.com.

Serving and selling traditional Jewish food; family arts & crafts; live music; Jewish book sale; Judaica boutique; meet our new Rabbi; and more. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Agudas Israel Congregation, 505 Glasgow Lane, Hendersonville, (828) 693-9838.

August 16-22

Nourished Kitchen Workshop

Join traditional foods expert, and bestselling author, Jenny McGruther, for an interactive, week-long workshop.

Hands-on cooking classes, demonstrations, and lectures on the healthenhancing powers of traditional foods.

Hosted by Ashevillage. Registration and details at www.ashevillage.org.

Now through August 19

Artetude on the Move

Artetude Gallery is moving! Work ranges from figurative to abstract, from analytical to introspective. In preparation for the move, discounts are available on most artwork. Join us for our final Art Walk on Friday, August 7 from 5-8 p.m. Artetude Gallery, 89 Patton Ave., downtown Asheville. (828) 252-1466, www.artetudegallery.com

Thursday, August 20

Elixir Mixology Competition

A signature event of the three-day Asheville Wine & Food Festival. Mixology competition of craft spirits featuring regional and national distilleries.

Morris Hellenic Cultural Center, 227 Cumberland Avenue, Asheville. Visit ashevillewineandfood.com/elixir for more details and to purchase tickets.

Saturday & Sunday, August 22 & 23

Bring Us Your Best XII

Documentary Film Workshop

Open Auditions

Saturday, August 15

Sunday, August 9 from 3 to 6 p.m.

Tuesday, August 11 from 6 to 9 p.m.

Seeking four female and two male actors for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, by Christopher Durang.

Bring a headshot, resume, and a sense of humor. Monologues provided.

35below, 35 E. Walnut St. in Asheville.

Directed by Jeff Catanese. Runs November 6-22. Details: (828) 254-1320 or visit ashevilletheatre.org.

Workshop led by Karen Ackerson. Grab the reader’s interest by eliminating unnecessary details, building tension, and fine-tuning dialogue and descriptions. Class meets at 387 Beaucatcher Rd., Asheville, from 10-4 p.m. The fee is $75, or $70 for Writer’s Workshop members. For more details call (828) 254-8111 or email writersw@gmail. com. Register at www.twwoa.org.

Editing & Revising Your Own Work

From Home Videos to National Geographic: Tools and Trade Secrets of Documentary Filmmaking with Kevin Peer. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Marshall High Studios, Rm. 107, 115 Blannahassett Island Rd., Marshall. www. madisoncountyarts.com

Sunday, August 23

WNC Battle of the Burger

2-5 p.m. at The Salvage Station, 468 Riverside Dr. in the River Arts District.

Burger samples, great local music. www.wncburgerbattle.com

Deadline: August 30

Literary Fiction Contest

Open to any writer. Entry fee is $25 per story. Word limit is 5,000. Sponsored

by The Writers’ Workshop, 387 Beaucatcher Road, Asheville. For details, call (828) 254-8111, email writersw@gmail. com, or visit www.twwoa.org.

AUGUST EVENTS ~ ANNOUNCEMENTS ~ OPENINGS ~ SALES 34 August 2015 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — Vol. 18, No. 12

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Friday, August 14

Loretta’s Café will donate 10% of net sales to Aurora Studio & Gallery from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 114 N. Lexington Avenue. Visit www.lorettascafe.com

Big Hug Super Saturday

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Opening reception and awards Morning in Patterson ceremony from NY, pastel by 5-7 p.m. On Christine Mariotti display through Friday, August 28 in the Blue Ridge Conference Hall of the TEDC building at Blue Ridge Community College in Flat Rock. Free. Details: (828) 6938504, www.acofhc.org.

Saturday, August 8

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Spruce Street Market

Weekly artist market takes place every Saturday in August and September from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the intersection of College and Spruce Streets in downtown Asheville. Details at www.

SpruceStreetMarket.com

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Best in Show

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North Main Music Saturdays in Hendersonville from 4:30-7 p.m. at the Green Room Cafe, outside on the patio. Bring your lawn chairs and dancing shoes. Extended merchant hours.

Presented by North Main Merchants.

August 1 – Shades of Time, oldies August 8 – Steve Whiteside & Carrie Morrison, Americana

LIVE MUSIC Callie & Cats

by Amy Downs

Thursday, August 13 – Jon Shain with special guest Lorraine Conard, 7:45 p.m., $12 adv., $18 at door

August 15 – Letters to Abigail, Bluegrass/ Americana August 22 – Evalina Everidge & Marty Balash, Jazz/Blues

Saturday, August 29 – Mandy Barnett (Patsy Cline at the Opry), 8 p.m.

August 29 – Lake & Moore, Americana, Folk

MOVIES

Carrie Morrison & Steve Whiteside

The Green Room Café & Coffeehouse 536 N. Main Street, Hendersonville 828 692-6335 www.TheGreenRoomCafe.biz

August 1-12 – Woman in Gold, 1 hr. 50 min. Sixty years after fleeing Vienna, Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren), an elderly Jewish woman, attempts to reclaim family possessions that were seized by the Nazis.

Showtimes: Tuesday through Friday, 7 p.m.; Saturday 4 & 7 p.m.; Sunday 2 p.m.

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The Strand Theater Sunday, August 9 – Nora Jane Struthers and The Party Line 8 p.m., $15 adv., $25 at door

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Corgi Tales

by Phil Hawkins

The Strand Theater 38 N. Main St., Waynesville, NC 28786 www.38main.com

Altamont Theatre LIVE MUSIC Saturday, August 1 – Tom DiMenna & guests. 8 p.m.

September 11-12 & October 16-17

Friday, August 7 – Jonathan Edwards. 8 p.m.

Art On The Lawn

Artists: Get Discovered! Register now for Art On The Lawn, a fine art event in Black Mountain.

For more information and to reserve your space, call The Red House Gallery (828) 669-0351, Johnnie Stanfield (828) 333-8113, or email Johnniestanfield@gmail.com. This event is hosted by the Swannanoa Valley Fine Arts League.

Sunday, August 9 – Seth Walker. 7 p.m.

Friday, August 14 – A Jew and A Black Guy, comedy show. 9 p.m.

Dragin

by Michael Cole

Sunday, August 16 – “Early Elvis” a Tribute to The King. 7 p.m.

Wednesday, August 19 – Easter, Wolf, Wright. 7:30 p.m. Presented by Asheville Bass Hang.

Call for Artists

Saturday, August 22 – Brave Baby. 7:30 p.m. Presented by The Grey Eagle.

Hickory’s Oktoberfest 2015 is accepting applications for Arts and Crafts vendors. Celebrating its 30th year, this annual festival will be held October 9, 10, & 11 in downtown Hickory. For more information, visit www.hickoryoktoberfest.com or email info@downtownhickory.com.

Wednesday, September 2 – Breakfast Boogie, 7 a.m. Presented by Harmonia.

Altamont, 18 Church Street, Asheville www.thealtamont.com

310 Art Classes

Painting, pastels, watercolors, drawing, encaustic, and more. 310 ART, River’s Edge Studio, 191 Lyman St., Asheville. www.310art.com.

Ratchet and Spin

by Jessica and Russ Woods

Arrowhead Gallery Workshops & Classes Oils, pastels, watercolor, acrylics, drawing, pen and ink and scratchboard led by Lorelle Bacon.

Clay workshops and children’s classes available.

Call (828) 668-1100. Arrowhead Gallery, 78 Catawba Blvd., Old Fort, NC.

Retail: Tuesday-Saturday 11-6 p.m. Restaurant: Wednesday-Saturday 4-9 p.m. serving small plates, charcuterie, tapas, desserts. Live music Friday and Saturday nights from 7-10 p.m. Classic Wineseller, 20 Church St., Waynesville. (828) 452-6000, www.classicwineseller.com.

Sell your structured settlement or annuity payments for CASH NOW.

Advertise with Rapid River Magazine

Free web links. Free ad design. Easy Monthly billing. Call (828) 646-0071.

Classic Wineseller

You don’t have to wait for your future payments any longer! Call 1-800-301-2258. www.jackiewoods.org • Copyright 2015 Adawehi Press

CLASSES ~ AUDITIONS ~ ARTS & CRAFTS ~ READINGS Vol. 18, No. 12 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — August 2015 35

Find It Here

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Interactive Maps are on our website! www.RapidRiverMagazine.com/maps Al Junek (828) 890-5777 www.ashevillegallery-of-art.com All Nations Trading www.SpiritFeather.com Amber Combs Photography (940) 783-2027 Asheville Community Theatre www.ashevilletheatre.org Asheville Gallery of Art www.ashevillegallery-of-art.com Asheville Locksmith Now www.AshevilleLocksmithNow.com BlackBird Frame & Art www.blackbirdframe.com Black Mountain Swannanoa Chamber of Commerce www.exploreblackmountain.com Blossom on Main www.BlossomOnMain.com Blue Ridge Biscuit Company www.facebook.com/ BlueRidgeBiscuitCompany Bogart’s Restaurant www.bogartswaynesville.com Burl Wood Gallery www.burlgallery.com Burr Studio facebook.com/burrstudionc Cafe 64 www.cafe-64.com Case Garden Designs (828) 697-1300 Champa www.champanc.com The Chocolate Fetish www.chocolatefetish.com Cheryl Keefer www.CherylKeefer.com Classic Wineseller www.classicwineseller.com Diana Wortham Theatre www.dwtheatre.com Double Exposure Giclee www.doubleexposureart.com Downtown Waynesville Association www.downtownwaynesville.com Elinor Bowman www.elinorbowman.com Faison O’Neil Gallery www.faisononeilgallery.com Free Planet Radio www.Freeplanetradio.com French Broad Artists www.virginiapendergrass.com

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Hearn’s Bicycle, (828) 253-4800 Ichiban (828) 252-7885 Jane Desonier www.janedesonier.com Jewels That Dance www.jewelsthatdance.com K-9 Curriculum, Inc. www.k9curriculum.com Kathmandu www.CafeKathmanduAsheville.com Kirk’s Collectibles (770) 757-6814 Kornerstone Kafe (828) 550-2265 Laugh Your Asheville Off www.laughyourashevilleoff.com Leicester Studio Tour www.ComeToLeicester.org Linda Neff, NCBTMB lneff68@yahoo.com

You must learn to forgive and be tender with yourself and with all that your life entwines with while you take complete responsibility for your actions, realizing this entwinement is as vast and great as all the Cosmos. Then, your thoughts and actions will grow in compassion. Then you will grow in intuitive knowing of how to behave and how to formulate thoughts and emotions reflective of the great truths of existence.

This knowing is reflected in Einstein’s statement – and is the core of the teachings of Buddha, Jesus and the mystics of all cultural traditions.

In finding the core of your Beingness connected with all Beings, your circle of compassion naturally grows – eventually toward the enlightened state the Buddha called great compassion, lived simply and humbly every day, widening gradually “to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”

Bill Walz has taught meditation and mindfulness in university and public forums, and is a privatepractice meditation teacher and guide for individuals in mindfulness, personal growth and consciousness. Information on personal growth and healing instruction, or phone consultations, at (828) 258-3241, e-mail at healing@billwalz.com.

Mellow Mushroom (828) 236-9800 Mountain Area Information Network main.nc.us Mountain Dance & Folk Festival www.folkheritage.com Mountain Top Appliance www.mountainviewappliance.com

Healthy Good Thoughts

‘Great Compassion’ cont’d from pg. 33

Malaprops Bookstore/Cafe www.malaprops.com

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I’ve been thinking about happiness and happy thoughts.

PATTON AVE.

Points of Light www.pointsoflight.net Richard C. Baker (828) 234-1616

Kathleen is a whole foods personal chef with over 30 years of experience. She is Rapid River Magazine’s copy editor and a freelance editor available for a variety of literary projects.

NORTH ASHEVILLE

She can be reached by email: rrshortstories@gmail.com

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WNC OVERVIEW

Seven Sisters Gallery sevensistersgallery.com Smoky Mountain Foot Clinic, PA www.smokymountainfootclinic.com Southern Highland Craft Guild www.craftguild.org

HENDERSONVILLE RD.

Twigs and Leaves Gallery www.twigsandleaves.com

HART Theater www.harttheatre.com

Van Dyke Jewelry www.vandykejewelry.com

Haywood County Arts Council www.haywoodarts.org

Village Art & Craft Fair www.newmorninggallerync.com

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WEST ASHEVILLE MERRIMON AVE.

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You need to know if your advertising is paying off.

Waynesville Craft Beer www.waynesvillebeer.com

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Think good thoughts!

And be okay with the rest!

Learn more, see past columns, video and audio programs, and schedule of coming events at www.billwalz.com

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That’s a lot of thoughts!

Over the six months that I’ve been writing this column you might say I’ve been encouraging good thoughts.

True. But there’s an unnecessary and unhealthy weight on our culture around happiness. Certainly we want happiness in our lives.

Happy thoughts can carry us through stressful days. I’m suggesting being relaxed about being happy.

In mindfulness practice we are taught to allow and observe all of our thoughts without attaching ourselves to them. This means even the non-happy thoughts. Seems to take the pressure off the quest to be happy. Less pressure might even cultivate more happiness! How nice.

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ART ON THE LAWN The Red House Studios & Gallery will host an outdoor, fine art show and sale event on Friday & Saturday, September 11 & 12.

“Art on the Lawn” will give the public an opportunity to see up to 50 talented artists from around the region, all exhibiting in one great location!

The event will feature artists working in various formats, including 2d, photography, 3 dimensional design, as well as one-of-a-kind jewelry design. The work will be on display Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Art on the Lawn is open to members; nonmember’s (fine artists) and artists from the surrounding areas are invited to participate.

For more information on space rentals for this event contact: Red House Studio and Gallery at (828) 669-0351, visit www.svfalarts.org, or call Johnnie Stanfield (828) 333-8113. Deadline for the September show is August 31st.

THE RED HOUSE STUDIOS AND GALLERY 48TH ANNUAL MEMBERS JURIED EXHIBITION See this year’s best artwork exhibited by our diverse and talented members. The shows curator, Susan Lueck took much pride in hanging and arranging the beautiful works of art submitted by this year’s members. We have watched our artist membership grow, and the quality of works by our exhibiting artists continues to amaze us year after year.

The exhibit was judged this year by Karen Chambers. Known for her beautiful paintings and the helpful workshops she has taught over

‘Altamont Shows’ cont’d from page 27

I played I started to lean towards the uptown side, the jazzier side, and I think that probably has something to do with my classical training.”

His uncle, Landon Walker, was a jazz bassist and blues DJ on Jacksonville, Florida radio station WJCT, and would mail tapes to his nephew on a regular basis.

“It covered the whole gamut of blues,” Walker recalls, “from the Piedmont stuff – Reverend Gary Davis, Blind Willie McTell and Blind Blake – to the Chicago stuff – Muddy Waters and Robert Nighthawk – and a lot of Texas stuff – Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, T-Bone Walker, Lightnin’ Hopkins.”

“But the guys in my dorm room were listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, so that blues-rock sound definitely got my attention. It seemed a lot more interesting than going to school, so there went my education” he says with a laugh.

Walker set out for Jacksonville with dreams of stardom (“I ended up playing in a Grateful Dead cover band,” he says ruefully), but before long realized that he needed to relocate to a more music-rich hub. It was then he landed

2014 Annual Members Juried Exhibition.

the last 30 years, Karen also provided the artists with critiques of their entries – furthering the League’s commitment to provide artists with insight on what judges look for when choosing winning entries, as well as making suggestions for the growth and development of the artist and their craft.

Artists interested in joining the Swannanoa Valley Fine Arts League should visit SVFALarts.org or stop into the gallery and pick up an application.

IF YOU Art on the Lawn, Friday & Saturday, GO September 11 & 12 in front of The Red

House and the Monte Vista Hotel on Hwy. 70 (310 West State Street). Another show is scheduled for October 16 & 17.

48th Annual Members Juried Exhibition, on display thru September 28, 2015. Studio hours are Mon-Sat 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sundays 12-4 p.m. Parking and admission are free. The Red House Studios and Gallery, 310 West State Street, Black Mountain. SVFALarts.org

in Austin and the rest, if not history, is at least history in the making.

The albums he’s made since then have consistently vaulted him into the Top 20 of the Americana charts and gleaned praise from NPR, American Songwriter, No Depression and Blues Revue, among others. He’s toured the world as a headliner as well as opening for The Mavericks, The Wood Brothers, Raul Malo, Paul Thorn and Ruthie Foster, among others. But Walker is quick to note that while he’s made it a point to absorb all those influences he’s still very much his own voice. And it’s that voice he brings to The Altamont, one well worth listening to.

IF YOU Jonathan Edwards, Friday, August 7.

GO Doors open at 7 p.m. for this 8 p.m., all

ages, general admission show. Tickets are $25 and are certain to sell out.

Seth Walker and band, August 9. Doors open at 6 p.m., music starts at 7 p.m., tickets are $12.

The Altamont Theatre, 18 Church St., Asheville.

For tickets and show times call (828) 270-7747 or visit www.myAltamont.com.

Vol. 18, No. 12 — RAPID RIVER ARTS & CULTURE MAGAZINE — August 2015 37

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Duke Energy, on Sunday, August 30.

The only cycling ride that starts and ends downtown and includes timed sections.

Cyclists will take in the natural beauty of Western North Carolina as they cruise along a well-marked course, with the option to push themselves for brief timed periods, competing to win.

The ride begins in funky art deco downtown Pack Square and quickly transitions to winding roads in pastoral countryside and up to mountain ridge vistas.

Beginners and avid cyclists alike will find challenging rides to meet their individual goals. Gran Fondo Asheville is a part of the Gran Fondo National Championship Series (GFNCS) and benefits Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The Gran Fondo Asheville benefits Friends of Great The ride is designed for cyclists at Smoky Mountains National Park. varying skill levels with courses covering 30, 60 and 100 mile journeys. “Cycling in from the event benefit Friends of the Smokthese mountains is challenging but rewarding. ies, a nonprofit organization which raises In true Gran Fondo style, we have created a funds to support Great Smoky Mountains festive atmosphere along the route and at the National Park. finish,” said Reuben Kline GFNCS President.

Gran Fondo Asheville features four timed At the end of the ride cyclists will descend sections, mechanic support, fully-stocked aid into the heart of Asheville where they will stations along the route, food and beverage at be afforded a spectacular cityscape view and the finish, a cash purse, and prizes for overall greeted by Organicfest. Riders and families and age-group winners. There is a 500-person can enjoy the festivities of Organicfest: music, field limit to ensure safe riding conditions for vendors, massage therapists, kids zone, and of all participants. Register at www.gfncs.com. course organic food and beer.

“Last year’s ride was exhilarating with beautiful views throughout the whole course.

IF I enjoyed riding down into the city and being YOU Gran Fondo Asheville, Sunday, August welcomed by friends and family at the finGO 30 in downtown Asheville. For more ish line. The best part is supporting a great information, or to register, please visit www.gfncs.com. organization like Friends of the Smokies,” said board director Meridith Powell. Proceeds

WNC Battle of the Burger 2015

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Restaurants will set up grills and griddles and cook up thousands of burger samples on August 23.

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Sierra Nevada Brewing Company will be pouring ice cold beer to keep folks cool, and great local music will keep the crowd groovin’ while the competition heats up!

WNC Battle of the Burger, a benefit for Manna Food Bank, takes place Sunday, August 23 at 2 p.m. (1 p.m. for VIPs and judges).

Admission is free. Local restaurants can be nominated via social media on Asheville Food Fight’s Facebook page, or at publicity@wncburgerbattle.com A very limited number of “You Be the Judge” tickets will be available for $30. These tickets will include unlimited samples of burgers from the vendors, complimentary beer in the VIP tent, and a ballot to vote for WNC’s

BY

KELLY DENSON

top burger. Judge’s and VIPs will also be allowed entrance one hour early at 1 p.m. These tickets are sure to sell out quickly.

Tickets can be purchased at www.WNCBurgerBattle.com This event will lead up to a much larger event: The World Food Championships in Kissimmee, FL in November 2015. As an official qualifying round of the World Food Championships, the winner will move on to compete in the World Burger Championship.

IF YOU The 2nd Annual WNC Battle of GO the Burger, Sunday, August 23, from

2-5 p.m., at the Salvage Station, 468 Riverside Dr., in Asheville’s River Arts District. Visit wncburgerbattle.com.

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pETRAS BARCAS

Campfest is a three-day music celebration that recreates the magic of childhood summer camp. Held from September 18 to 20 at Camp Blue Ridge, nestled within 250 acres of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Campfest creates a memorable Non-stop camp activities all weekend. and exhilarating experience by providing outdoor recreation Mouse, Nikki Talley, as well as a and competitions alongside incredible carefully crafted array of more namusical performances. tional, regional and local acts. In addiCamp Blue Ridge is a fully tion to the main stage area, there will equipped summer camp that allows also be a beach stage that attendees for all the same activities attendees can enjoy while lounging by a heated enjoyed as children as well as fresh pool, as well as pop up and late night and creative ones. performances throughout the camp Campers can win points all weekall weekend long. end for doing absolutely anything and A representative from Camp be crowned king and queen of CampBlue Ridge said, “After seeing the fest by rock climbing, doing their best overwhelming success of hosting zip line scream, running a 5K, having mud adventure races on site with the best kickball costume, competing just local bands, we know the awein relays and obstacles, playing tennis, some potential we have with a stellar running in a not-so-5k, challenging a lineup and non-stop camp activities low ropes course, hiking, high diving, all weekend. We’re excited to be a and hitting the blob bounce. part of a festival that is the first of its kind in the Southeast – with the mountains as a backdrop to the music and activities, who wouldn’t want to be at Campfest?”

By embracing the summer camp attitude of making new friends, connecting with nature and being exposed to arts and recreation, guests have the opportunity to escape from their daily lives and reconnect with the joy and possibilities of childhood.

Reconnect with the joy and Campers will be able to relax, compossibilities of childhood. pete, interact, and leave re-energized basking in the glow of new friends Campfest has numerous accomand memories. modation options including shared All campers will have the option and private cabins and general admisto buy into a camp meal plan that will sion camping in three beautiful locaprovide four meals throughout the tions throughout the camp – beach, weekend. mountain and field of dreams. There will also be weekend passes available for guests to attend the event, stay off IF site and take advantage of the many YOU Campfest takes place in GO Mountain City, Georgia, hotels and other accommodations in September 18-20. Three-day, the surrounding area. advance tickets are on sale now for Cold War Kids and Hey Rosetta! $89 for a limited time only. will headline on a lineup including Three-day VIP passes are available for Langhorne Slim, The Whigs, Margo $250. All guests that wish to stay onand the Pricetags, Alanna Royale, site must purchase a $75 camping pass Roadkill Ghost Choir, Brushfire or a cabin starting at $150 per person.

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