Three drinks later, here comes that existential crisis

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

I got love that ain’t gonna change, I got love that won’t fade away

It’s was right around the third drink of the evening when I had the sneaking suspicion an existential crisis was going to rear its head before the night was through.

Monday night at the “Open Jam” at One World Brewing in West Asheville. I was flying solo, as I do most of the time. Sitting at the bar counter alone, I sipped the locally made raspberry seltzer and tried to assimilate myself into normalcy, or into whatever that even means anymore in this time and space, in these unknown waters of people and protocol we navigate with an air of cautious optimism.

Sipping the bright red liquid, I stood out like a sore thumb amid the IPA and porter throngs of Asheville cool kids out on the town, always chasing that “moment,” for FOMO (fear of missing out) is a real and tangible feeling that lurks in the underbelly of this thriving mountain metropolis.

I sat there and wondered how different my life would be if I didn’t ignore that girl that really liked me several years ago or maybe tried a little harder to rope in the one that got away. Was she really that into me? Was I even aware of what was actually going on? How come it never seems to come together like two puzzle pieces in a lost sea of confusion and by chance romance?

Maybe I wouldn’t be alone on Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, two days after my 37th birthday, which is already in the rearview mirror of my thoughts and actions, all while I subconsciously prepare for the 38th goround that fiery ball of energy and light hovering high and mysteriously above us each time we, well, wake up and do it all over again.

Shit, Valentine’s day is exactly a week from today. The music ends so the band can take a quick smoke break. The inundation and undulation of sound and spectacle has ceased, at least for the time being, as now you’re just left with nothing to see and hear, which parlays itself into the usual company on a lonely Monday night: your own thoughts.

Taking a big pull of the red beverage, I think of the film I just exited at the Fine Arts Theatre in downtown Asheville — “Licorice Pizza,” the latest from famed director Paul Thomas Anderson.

Bolt down Interstate 40 from Waynesville to make the 4 p.m. screening on-time. Pull into the Biltmore Avenue parking garage and walk briskly uphill to the theatre, but not before dropping my last dollar bill in the hands of a homeless man.

“One ticket to ‘Licorice Pizza,’ please,” you tell the face behind the mask behind the glass of the box office. Slid the credit card

HOT PICKS

1Acclaimed lead singer/guitarist for jam-band legends Perpetual Groove, Brock Butler will be hosting a special solo weekend showcase from 8 to 11 p.m. Feb. 1112 at Nantahala Brewing in Sylva.

2Popular regional rock act Andrew Thelston Band will hold a special month-long residency every Saturday evening in The Gem downstairs taproom at Boojum Brewing in Waynesville.

3City Lights Bookstore will host a conversation with authors Heather Newton and Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 17, at the shop in downtown Sylva.

4Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will host an “Emo Night Dance Party” at 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12.

5Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host Isaac Corbin (soul/roots) at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12. through the small hole, get the ticket in return. Find a seat in the darkness of the upstairs screening room. Besides myself, three other scattered couples and some random dude way in the back row.

Set in California’s San Fernando Valley in 1973, the film is, in essence, a love letter by PTA to “The Valley” of his youth, a physical and emotional landscape rapidly changing in the 21st Century world of shifting culture and high-end real estate.

The main plot is about an ambitious teenage boy chasing relentlessly after an older woman. He’s trying to run away from being a kid, always aiming to prove to others his worth through haphazard business ventures and the like. She’s trying to run away from a boring life in suburbia that seems to be creeping around the corner. Cue a series of trials and tribulations, whether on their own or together.

Soaking in the cinematic beauty of the film, memories begin to flood my field-ofvision. Thoughts of my own early ambitions and aspirations, and how one didn’t care to be purposely naïve, especially in matters of the heart. You want that girl? Well, figure out a way to get her attention. You want to succeed? Prove it.

Now, at 37, the outer shell (of the heart, of the soul) is hard, and it sometimes weighs heavy, whether it be around the holidays or my birthday last week, or Valentine’s Day next week. Experiences of love lost and love found are like layers of sticky lacquer coating your shell with each passerby lover, each passing season.

I leave the theatre with a little bit of a kick in my step. I feel the urge to call a close friend and tell her about the film, to compare our differing, respective interpretations of the mesmerizing work. The conversation shifts to swapping stories about our own high school experiences and exploits, and how dusty those memories seem nowadays, like yearbooks full of signatures and photographs forgotten in the closet of our mind. I feel the urge to text an old friend, and do so.

There’s a lightness of being when in the presence of timeless cinema, more so when you exit the theatre to a blood-orange sunset overtaking Western North Carolina. I stood on the corner of Biltmore Avenue and Aston Street, just to take in the fading beauty of light for a moment or two. Button up my coat and slowly walk back to the truck.

It’s was right around the third drink of the evening when I had the sneaking suspicion an existential crisis was going to rear its head before the night was through. I sipped the locally made raspberry seltzer and tried to assimilate myself into normalcy, or into whatever that even means anymore in this time and space.

Shit, Valentine’s day is exactly a week from today. And that’s OK. All of it. Existential crisis, be damned. It’s all good, for right when that sneaking suspicion of personal evaluation amid the greater universe rears its head, you then start to see the clarity and splendor of your own path — the flaws, the faults, the passion, the purpose.

Life is beautiful, grasp for it, y’all.

The Whisnants.

Franklin welcomes The Whisnants

The Whisnants will hold a special performance at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 12, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

In 1970, around the old upright piano in John and Betty Whisnants’ house, a family began singing in the Appalachian foothills of Morganton. The voices of children blended with their parents as the sound of a gospel song filled the house. And, from that time forward, they were known as The John Whisnant Family.

Passing the leadership of the group onto Jeff (John & Betty’s son) and Susan in 1990, a new era of The Whisnants began. The current line-up of the trio is Jeff and Susan, Aaron Hise and their sons Austin and Ethan.

With over 40 years of traveling behind them, the group has celebrated 13 number one songs (spanning from 2001 to 2013), with the first single for 2014, “He Can Move That Stone,” being nominated as a Top 10 Favorite Song in the Singing News Fan awards (2014).

In 2003, the ballad “What You Took From Me” was ranked number one on the Singing News Top 40 Year End Chart as the most played song on radio, with “Even In The Valley” doing the same in 2004. As well, they have been nominated for “Trio of the Year” 10 times and received numerous other individual nominations.

Tickets are $18 per person. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to smokymountainarts.com or call 866.273.4615.

Interested in learning the dulcimer?

The Pic’ & Play Mountain Dulcimer Players will be resuming in-person jam sessions at the St. John’s Episcopal Church basement fellowship hall in Sylva.

The group welcomes all beginners and experienced dulcimer players, including mountain (lap) dulcimer and hammered dulcimer players. Songs played include traditional mountain tunes, hymns, and more modern music. The group meets at 1:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturday of every month in the basement of St. John’s.

For more information, call Kathy Jaqua at 828.349.3930 or Don Selzer at 828.293.0074.

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Acclaimed lead singer/guitarist for jamband legends Perpetual Groove, Brock Butler will be hosting a special solo weekend showcase from 8 to 11 p.m. Feb. 11-12 at Nantahala Brewing in Sylva.

Formed in Savannah, Georgia, in 1997, P-Groove has remained at the apex of live improvisation and layered sonic landscapes, this realm where traditional rock music intersects with the modern era of digital technology. It’s a dance of cat and mouse between the musicians onstage and those in the audience — an ebb and flow of energy and purpose from both sides of the microphone.

Admission is $5 per person, per night (at the door). Both shows will be all ages. 828.641.9797 or nantahalabrewing.com.

Thelston residency at Boojum

Popular regional rock act Andrew Thelston Band continues a special month-long residency every Saturday evening in The Gem downstairs taproom at Boojum Brewing in Waynesville.

Featuring an array of special guests and musical themes, the showcase will continue with Alma Russ (Feb. 12), a Beatles set with Walker Astin (Feb. 19) and a Fleetwood Mac set with Carrie Morrison (Feb. 26).

All shows begin at 9 p.m. Free and open to the public.

Andrew Thelston.

• Balsam Falls Brewing (Sylva) will host an open mic from 8 to 10 p.m. every Thursday.

Free and open to the public. 828.631.1987 or balsamfallsbrewing.com.

• Blue Ridge Beer Hub (Waynesville) will host a semi-regular acoustic jam with the Main

Street NoTones from 7 to 9 p.m. on

Thursdays. Free and open to the public. For more information, click on blueridgebeerhub.com.

• Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host karaoke at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, trivia at 7 p.m. on Thursdays, a special residency by The Andrew Thelston Band (rock/soul) at 9 p.m. every Saturday in February, and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.246.0350 or boojumbrewing.com.

• The Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will host Bob Zullo (guitar/vocals) Feb. 19. All shows begin at 7 p.m. Limited seating.

Reservations are highly recommended. 828.452.6000 or classicwineseller.com.

ALSO:

• Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.369.4080 or coweeschool.org.

• Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host Isaac

Corbin (soul/roots) 8 p.m. Feb. 12. Free and open to the public.. 828.634.0078 or curraheebrew.com.

• Elevated Mountain Distilling Company will host an Open Mic Night 7 to 9 p.m. on

Wednesdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.734.1084 or elevatedmountain.com.

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.454.5664 or froglevelbrewing.com.

• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. All events begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. innovation-brewing.com.

• Innovation Station (Dillsboro) will host

“Lovesick Karaoke w/Joel” at 7 p.m. Feb. 12 and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All events are free and begin at 2 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Innovationbrewing.com.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or lazyhikerbrewing.com. Time w/Brandon and Sunny 6:30 p.m. Feb. 9 and Kyle Travers of Travers Brothership (rock/soul) Feb. 18. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or lazyhikerbrewing.com.

• Mountain Layers Brewing (Bryson City) will host Aly Jordan (singer-songwriter) Feb. 11,

Scott James Stambaugh (singer-songwriter)

Feb. 12 and Twelfth Fret (Americana) Feb. 18. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 or mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.

• Nantahala Brewing (Sylva) will host “Jazz

Night” 7 p.m. on Thursdays, “Paint & Pour” w/Isaac Corbitt Feb. 10, an intimate solo performance by Brock Butler (lead singer of

Perpetual Groove) Feb. 11-12 ($5 at the door) and Shane Meade Trio (rock/soul) Feb. 18. All shows are free and begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 828.641.9797 or nantahalabrewing.com.

• Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public. rathskellerfranklin.com.

• Satulah Mountain Brewing (Highlands) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.482.9794 or satulahmountainbrewing.com.

• Southern Porch (Canton) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.492.8009 or southern-porch.com.

• The Ugly Dog Pub (Cashiers) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. 828.743.3000 or theuglydogpub.com.

• The Ugly Dog Pub (Highlands) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.526.8364 or theuglydogpub.com.

• Unplugged Pub (Bryson City) will host Rock

Holler Feb. 11, Genepool Feb. 12, “Live

Karaoke in the Smokies” Feb. 17, “Phatt

Phriday” Mardi Gras Celebration Feb. 18 and

Outlaw Whiskey Feb. 19. All shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.538.2488.

• Valley Tavern (Maggie Valley) will host the

“Hillbilly Jam” showcase weekend w/DJ

Jason Wyatt Feb. 24 and Mile High Band Feb. 25. Both events begin at 6 p.m. 828.926.7440 or valley-tavern.com.

• Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends and an “Emo Night Dance Party” at 9 p.m. Feb. 12. 828.456.4750 or facebook.com/waternhole.bar.

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“Cat Take Ye Breath” by Ann Miller Woodford.

African American art showcase at WCU

Artwork by artist and author Ann Miller Woodford are currently on display in “Ann Miller Woodford: The Artist as Storyteller” at the Mountain Heritage Center’s exhibit gallery in Hunter Library on the campus of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.

This first-ever retrospective exhibition of Woodford’s work spans 60 years, tracing an artistic development from childhood to the present day. The exhibit is on display through March 4.

The Mountain Heritage Center is free and is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and open Sundays in February from 2 to 5 p.m. Masks are required for entry.

Woodford uses her artistic talents to turn family stories, southern heritage and social justice concerns into conceptual works of art. Each illustration invites viewers to follow Woodford on her journey through life, connecting with her through the stories they tell. Viewers can expect to be inspired, challenged and motivated by the themes presented in her works.

Woodford’s most recent collection of paintings, “Black in Black on Black,” highlights the tremendous bond within the African American community with a focus on the empowerment that comes from being connected. Her works are supported by the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Woodford will be in the exhibit gallery at WCU to discuss her work from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 27, and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28. Both events are free and open to the public.For more information, visit her website at annstree.com. For more information, click on mhc.wcu.edu or call 828.227.7129.

• Haywood County Arts Council (Waynesville) is currently seeking one or more gallery interns with a passion for the arts and interest in learning about the administration of a small nonprofit. Send cover letters and resumes to HCAC Executive Director Morgan

Beryl at director@haywoodarts.org.

• “Thursday Painters” group will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursdays at The

Uptown Gallery in Franklin. Free and open to the public. All skill levels and mediums are welcome. Participants are responsible for their own project and a bag lunch. For more information, call The Uptown Gallery at 828.349.4607 or contact Pat Mennenger at pm14034@yahoo.com. franklinuptowngallery.com.

• A “Foreign Film Series” will be held at the

Jackson County Public Library in Sylva. Each month, on the second and fourth Friday, two movies from around the globe will be shown.

This program is in the Community Room and is free of charge. Masks are required in all

Jackson County buildings. To find out what movie will be shown and/or for more information, please call the library at 828.586.2016. This event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Jackson County Public

Library. The Jackson County Public Library is a member of Fontana Regional Library. fontanalib.org.

ALSO:

FREE

ESTIMATES

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Open call for vendors

Artisans, crafters and food vendors are invited to submit their application for the Greening Up the Mountains Festival, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 23, in Sylva.

Greening Up The Mountains Festival is the premiere spring festival for Western North Carolina, attracting thousands of visitors and locals alike. Sponsored by the Town of Sylva, the festivities will once again take place in historical downtown Sylva.

This year’s festival seeks artisans and crafters selling their own handmade products. Arts, crafts and food vendors from the expanded Southern Appalachian area are encouraged to apply.

Please visit greeningupthemountains.com to review the 2022 Vendor Policies and download your application. Applications will be accepted through March 15.

For more information, email greeningupthemountains@gmail.com.

On the stage

Ready to try theater?

The Haywood Arts Regional Theater in Waynesville is offering a wide variety of classes in the theater arts for all ages, young and old. Whether you are just starting out or want to hone your skills, HART has opportunities for you.

Learn more about acting with Acting Classes available for K-2, Grades 3-5, middle/high school, adults, and seniors. Musical Theatre Dance and Advanced Beginner Tap are available for teens and adults so you can learn about Musical Theatre Dance.

And classes are rounded off with Improvisation classes and Musical Theatre Group Voice for teens and adults. Spring courses have begun this week, with 12 weeks of courses through May 13, with a week off March 28-April 1 and spring break April 11-15. HART also offers payper-class with just a $15 drop-in fee.

HART is also offering free workshops in Stage Management April 2, 9 and 16. There will also be a Lighting Workshop on March 19.

You can learn more about these opportunities and sign up for classes and workshops by visiting harttheatre.org and viewing the Kids at HART classes and camps page. Masks will be required for all courses.

For more information, contact Artistic Director Candice Dickinson at 646.647.4546 or email candice@harttheatre.org.

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