Taylor-King tribute? Some kind of wonderful — See REVIEW, Pg. B1
Jane Bunting as Carole King
‘Dirty Dancing’ gala shimmies
Village People stoke the fires of disco era
— See STORY/PHOTOS, Pg. A9
— See REVIEW, Pg. B1
ILLE V E H AS ASHEVILLEʼS GREATEST NEWSPAPER
September 2015
Vol. 11, No. 10
An Independent Newspaper Serving Greater Asheville www.ashevilledailyplanet.com FREE
Funk band shakes downtown
By JOHN NORTH
john@AshevilleDailyPlanet.com
Special photos by KARL HINTERKOPF
Bootsy Collins and his funk band (above) were the featured musical act Aug. 1 during Asheville’s first LEAF Downtown Festival. The band’s Saturday night performance packed Pack Square Park with fans. An estimated 15,000 people attended the twoday event, ending Aug. 2. At left, festival attendees walk through kiosks and tents set up with arts, crafts, refreshments and other items. The organizers termed the gala, which is intended to replace the long-running Bele Chere, a big success. The Asheville Police Department noted that no incidents were reported at the festival on either day.
Backing skyrockets for petition to thwart chain store ‘invasion’
From Staff Reports
More than 3,500 people have signed an online petition — as of midday Aug. 25 — at www. change.org that calls for limits on the number of national chain and formula stores seeking to locate in downtown Asheville. In addition, the city is continuing to devise a plan that might keep the chains to a minimum, in an effort to preserve downtown’s
Topless rally turnout falls, but organizer claims victory
eclectic, independent character. The petition signature total skyrocketed 75 percent over the roughly 2,000 people who had signed it about 30 days earlier. “I don’t think we can legally put in a moratorium, at this point,” petition organizer Rebecca Hecht told the Daily Planet in an Aug. 25 telephone interview. Hecht, who owns Adorn hair salon downtown and also is a member of the Asheville Down-
town Commission, noted that she and others have researched further and learned that “there are certain limitations in North Carolina (regarding the legality of outright bans), but there are opportunities to limit chains.” Therefore, Hecht stressed that she and her like-minded compatriots are now seeking limits, rather than a moratorium — or outright ban — on chains. See CHAIN STORES, Page A4
For the fifth consecutive year, a Go Topless rally was held Aug. 23 in downtown Asheville to raise awareness about the unfairness of laws and social stigmas against women baring their breasts in public. Going topless for women has long been legal in Asheville. The rally featured 10 to 12 women who went topless, live music by the Raleigh-based trio The Next Best Thing and brief speeches by rally organizer Jeff Johnson of Huntsville, Ala., and LaDonna Allison of Atlanta. Asheville’s rally was one of dozens of such events planned in cities across the United States and world on Go Topless Day, which is held annually on the Sunday closest to Aug. 26, which is Women’s Equality Day. The topless women — as usual — attracted a swarm of men, who scrambled to have their pictures shot with their arms around the shoulders of the compliant and smiling women. In a decline from last year’s turnout of “several hundred,” roughly 200 people dropped by the event in Pritchard Park, according to a Daily Planet estimate. However, Johnson told the newspaper that, by his own estimate, there were “500 people — coming and going” throughout the rally. Johnson pronounced the rally a success, telling the newspaper in an interview that “it’s like what we said five years ago” that the events would reduce the stigma of women going topless in downtown Asheville, “so we expect the attendance to go down” each year “as people get used to it.” The rally was scheduled for two hours, but a rainstorm about an hour into the event caused its organizers to end it then. Earlier, the rally organizers had discussed the possibility of having the topless women and sympathizers march to the nearby Asheville Police Department, but that idea was scuttled because of the rain. See TOPLESS, Page A7
The Advice Goddess
Amy Alkon
Q: My boyfriend will text if he’s running late, but says texting “isn’t real communication.” He says that if I need to talk, I should call him. I get that anything serious should be discussed via phone. However, we live separately, and sometimes I just want to reach out in a small way with a funny photo or a word or two and get a word or two back.
You Luddite my life
When he doesn’t respond or grudgingly responds a day later, I get more and more hurt and angry and want to break up with him. I know he cares about me. Am I being unreasonable?
— Upset
Want to know the answer?
See ADVICE GODDESS, Page A13