Mountain Xpress 11.17.21

OUR 28TH YEAR OF WEEKLY INDEPENDENT NEWS, ARTS & EVENTS FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA VOL. 28 NO. 16 NOV. 17-23, 2021

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C ONTENT S

NEWS

NEWS

FEATURES 6 OLD AND NEW Repurposing vacant commercial property could help combat sprawl, create affordable housing

8 TALK OF THE TOWNS Off-year elections shake up local municipalities

PAGE 22 ROLLER-PIN READY Though the ingredients for pie crust are simple — flour, butter and salt — “making it all come together is complicated and takes a lot of skill,” says local baker Kelsianne Bebout. To help lower anxiety levels during Thanksgiving, Bebout and other baking experts share their secrets for making a stressfree, homemade pie.

FEATURE

COVER PHOTO Barbara Swell 16 Q&A WITH RAY RUSSELL The founder of Ray’s Weather Center talks forecasts, weather wisdom

COVER DESIGN Ele Annand

4 LETTERS

WELLNESS

4 CARTOON: MOLTON 20 LESSONS FOR LIFE Anti-domestic violence org teaches healthy relationships to teens

5 CARTOON: BRENT BROWN 6 NEWS 11 BUNCOMBE BEAT

A&C

18 COMMUNITY CALENDAR 26 CONCERT CORNUCOPIA The Grey Eagle and Isis Music Hall resume Thanksgiving traditions

20 WELLNESS 22 ARTS & CULTURE 34 CLUBLAND

A&C

38 FREEWILL ASTROLOGY 28 FLICKERS OF LIGHT A look back at the Asheville Film Festival’s brief, exciting run

38 CLASSIFIEDS 39 NY TIMES CROSSWORD

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STA F F PUBLISHER & EDITOR: Jeff Fobes ASSISTANT TO THE PUBLISHER: Susan Hutchinson EDITOR: Thomas Calder ASSISTANT EDITOR: Daniel Walton ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR: Thomas Calder OPINION EDITOR: Tracy Rose STAFF REPORTERS: Able Allen, Edwin Arnaudin, Thomas Calder, Justin McGuire, Brooke Randle, Jessica Wakeman, Daniel Walton COMMUNITY CALENDAR & CLUBLAND: Justin McGuire, Andy Hall CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Peter Gregutt, Rob Mikulak REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Mark Barrett, Bill Kopp, Cindy Kunst, Linda Ray, Kay West ADVERTISING, ART & DESIGN MANAGER: Susan Hutchinson LEAD DESIGNER: Scott Southwick GRAPHIC DESIGNERS: Olivia Urban, Eleanor Annand MARKETING ASSOCIATES: Sara Brecht, David Furr, Tiffany Wagner OPERATIONS MANAGER: Able Allen INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES & WEB: Able Allen BOOKKEEPER: Amie Fowler-Tanner ADMINISTRATION, BILLING, HR: Able Allen, Jennifer Castillo DISTRIBUTION: Susan Hutchinson, Cindy Kunst DISTRIBUTION DRIVERS: Desiree Davis, Henry Mitchell, Tiffany Narron, Kelley Quigley, Angelo Santa Maria, Carl & Debbie Schweiger

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NOV. 17-23, 2021

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OPINION

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

Stop underestimating the people [Regarding “Buncombe to Preserve Branch Libraries,” Nov. 10, Xpress:] On matters of local government, I suggest that, for the love of God, local Powers-That-Be, stop underestimating us. Stop insulting our resourcefulness, our intellect, vision, talent and the ability to get things done.

Stop dishing money out to consultants living anywhere other than in North Carolina and preferably Western North Carolina. Make it easier for residents who aren’t able to attend your meetings to have input.

Why is the concept of utilizing our own expertise so incomprehensible to local government? They seem unable to restrain themselves when it comes to shipping our money out the door when we have plenty of resources right here.

— Holly Simms Asheville

Let’s get rid of this virus First off, thank you for all the information your paper provides the

C A RT O O N B Y R AN DY M O L T O N community. COVID seems to have affected your paper and all the best to survive it.

Regarding Anne Lancaster’s letter [“Don’t Perpetuate Vaccine Dogma,” Nov. 3, Xpress], if you are vaccinated and get a cold, flu, delta variant and sneeze or cough, your droplets are covered with antibodies from the vaccine [avl.mx/at9]. Nothing is 100% with the virus, even my last statement.

This virus is at war with us. It doesn’t care if you are liberal or conservative. COVID-19 has killed more Americans than all the wars for the last 120 years. Don’t be AWOL; please get vaccinated.

Someone’s opinion who has a degree in this field weighs more than someone’s opinion who doesn’t (a politician, for instance). Let’s get rid of this virus and return to a better life.

— Steve Sloan Asheville

Infill development presents problems for urban place zoning ideas As an admirer of New Urbanism, I have been following the city of Asheville’s Urban Place Form Code developments with great interest, starting with my review of this summer’s Citizen Times article “Transforming Asheville: Initiative Would Change Parts of City; Some Property Owners Object.” I kindly offer a brief critique of the city’s efforts.

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To preface, I do applaud the city for embracing New Urbanism; however, to be applied in a viable manner that is equitable to landowners, it cannot be done via a scheme or pattern that is arbitrarily forced — as if using a figurative Procrustean Bed.* The article references Biltmore Park Town Square. Biltmore Farms has done an exemplary job with the Town Square. However, we must look at the realities behind its success before considering it as a potential visionary template. For example, with all due respect to its developers and business tenants, I seriously doubt the Town Square truly embodies live-work space, a common hallmark of many walkable, gathering place communities, since it is unlikely that most, if any, employees of the Town Square businesses actually live in its interior or perimeter housing. Furthermore, I reasonably assume that grocery, pharmacy and core item vendors are not primarily supported by Town Square residents, but rather by the greater Biltmore Park and surrounding neighborhoods.

Frankly, New Urbanism is not viable for many areas of Asheville that would involve an infill development process versus beginning with a virtual tabula rasa — a clean slate on all key levels: land planning, transportation infrastructure, environmental engineering, etc. The latter fosters great application of New Urbanistic design principles; however, it normally also requires large, strategically located areas of undeveloped or partially developed land.

Ultimately, for it to benefit the community and also be equitable to landowners and business occupiers,

the ethos of New Urbanism must dovetail with socioeconomic practicalities. In that vein, New Urbanism is a challenge to implement when you have a blank slate, but it becomes tremendously difficult if it involves infill development.

To illustrate, let’s look at the typical regional grocery store model. The relevant data tend to show that the business model requires a fairly large target market population surrounding or adjacent to a store’s location.

Consequently, most grocery stores are not within truly walkable communities or gathering places embodied by New Urbanism, even when starting with a blank slate development. And it is hard to use public transportation while transporting significant amounts of groceries.

As for grocery stores in urban infill areas, they tend to rely on highly dense populations, for example, Atlantic Station in Atlanta, which does not compare to downtown Asheville in scale or geography.

Ultimately, I seriously doubt that a regional grocery store chain, such as Ingles or Publix, could reduce its footprint and access infrastructure and also remain economically viable, absent a significant population within true walking distance to each store.

As the city moves forward with its goal to implement the Urban Place Form Code, I hope it first studies the lessons learned from other towns and cities that have struggled to implement New Urbanism via infill redevelopment. I would recommend that Charleston, S.C., be studied to glean the good, the bad and the ugly of the process and the unintended consequences. * In Greek mythology, Procrustes, a son of Poseidon, had an iron bed at his inn on which he compelled his victimized guests to lie. If a guest were shorter than the bed, he stretched him by hammering or racking their body to fit. And if the guest was longer than the bed, he would cut off their legs to make the body fit.

— Jay Kerr Arden Editor’s note: A longer version of this letter will appear at mountainx. com.

The critical race theory bugaboo I grew up in Montgomery Ala., and still remember my fourth-grade Alabama history book, circa 1955 — and I challenge anyone to show me that the history depicted on the current critical race theory controversy

CARTOON BY BRENT BROWN is anywhere as distorted and basically nonfactual as that book was.

According to my lessons, the war was “stolen” from the brave Southerners; “carpetbaggers and scalawags” destroyed what was left after the Yankee depredations; and only a few “brave” ex-Confederates saved the South from complete ruin (read KKK).

All this was my education as a 10-year-old during the time of Rosa Parks and Emmett Till.

And now there are people who actually would want us to continue this “big lie” and raise it to the level of all the other lies circulating now. If critical race theory cannot be allowed a place in our educational system, locally and elsewhere, I despair for our country.

— Bill McClain Weaverville

Inspired by many achievers On Nov. 19, I turn 43 years old.

Being in my 40s is wonderful. When he became 43 years old, John F. Kennedy was elected U.S. president.

And George W. Bush was elected governor of Texas in his 40s. Right in your 40s, you could have many good things done and accomplished in life in America; first of all, of course,

after hard work and using savings in advance.

As a child of the 1980s and ’90s, my eyes were always glued to the television on the success stories of Presidents Reagan and Bush and how they made America a better place. I was also intrigued about Bill and Hillary Clinton during the ’90s and the story of U.S. Sens. Robert Dole and John McCain. I also was thrilled coming up in the 2000s about the presidency of George W. Bush, and U.S. Secretaries of State Powell and Rice’s vision for America.

People who have served the state of North Carolina well while I was growing up include Jim Hunt, James Martin, Congresswoman Sue Myrick, Mark Meadows and U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms.

Growing up in the 1980s and ’90s was a wonderful experience indeed.

My great generation has seen a lot of things happen, and I’m glad I’m still around here to talk about them.

People such as Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, Whitney Houston and Madonna were music superstars during the ’80s and ’90s, and sports stars such as Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods and Larry Bird were all over the airways and news. ...

Youth and prime of life are vanity and a striving after the wind if you haven’t accomplished anything and

achieved any success in life. But to live in the greatest country on Earth, America, where you could have a lot of money first after you work hard, play by the rules and do what you’re told, is a blast.

And in America, you should always strive to be a good person, because good things always come to those who wait. And being 43 years old

and middle age is phenomenal. And I have been blessed to achieve this age, and I look forward to more things to achieve that are around the corner for me.

— Steven Hawkins Greenville, S.C. Editor’s note: A longer version of this letter will appear at mountainx. com

Editor’s note Due to changing health recommendations related to COVID-19, readers are encouraged to check with individual businesses for the latest updates concerning upcoming events.

MOUNTAINX.COM

NOV. 17-23, 2021

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NEWS

Old and new

Repurposing vacant commercial property could help combat sprawl, create affordable housing

BY LINDA RAY

says Burk. “But people love converted property.”

lindarayaccess@gmail.com When Beach Hensley was looking for an office for his homebuilding business in the summer of 2018, he found a former dental office on Merrimon Avenue that had sat empty for years.

“It had good bones, so renovation didn’t require major work,” Hensley recalls. “To get the location we wanted and make it financially feasible, we needed to have extra space to lease.”

To that end, he rents an office to a local architect and created two upstairs units he rents through Airbnb. The owner of Beach Hensley Homes says he’s grateful he was grandfathered in when the city created short-term rental restrictions. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to afford this location,” he explains.

Hensley understands that some business owners don’t want to be on a busy thoroughfare but laments the overabundance of empty properties along Merrimon and other crucial corridors. Right next door to his office sits a vacant firehouse, built in 1927, that’s still owned by the city. Hensley says he regularly sees squatters there.

Countless existing structures of every shape and size remain vacant throughout the city, many in decrepit condition after years with no occupants. Although Asheville ranks among the top 11 commercial real estate markets in the country according to the National Association of Realtors’ Q3 2021 Commercial Real Estate Metro Market Report, 26% of currently available commercial space is vacant, including industrial, multifamily, retail and office properties.

PICKING UP THE PACE

The 392-page Living Asheville plan, a long-term development guide that City Council adopted in 2018, cites both “the need to balance preservation of the natural and built environment while accommodating population growth and the need to provide new and diverse housing that is priced affordably for the city’s residents.” The city spent two years developing the plan and an equivalent amount of time defining four opportunity zones for future mixed-use development.

In the meantime, however, Asheville and environs have continued to experience significant development pressures and a lack of affordable housing — yet some of the city’s busiest corridors are lined with vacant properties sporting “for lease” or “for sale” signs. Consider, 6

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MAKING IT WORK: Local homebuilder Beach Hensley added rental units to make his Merrimon Avenue office financially feasible. Photo by Linda Ray for example, the blocklong parcel of land at the corner of Merrimon and W.T. Weaver Boulevard. While the 1.1acre site has its challenges, including its narrow shape and adjacent creek, commercial real estate broker Karl Nelson of NAI Beverly-Hanks says it’s a prime location for privately owned student housing or a mix of multifamily units and retail.

“Sure, it’s going to take creativity and some easing of codes from the city,” Nelson concedes. “But some of the buildings could even be repurposed now while the rest is developed.”

For this to work, the new construction would need to be taller than what the current code allows, he says.

Even as controversy continues a few blocks away over proposals to tear down houses and eliminate trees along Charlotte Street, the Merrimon location sits ready for action. And farther down the avenue, another block of aging, vacant buildings sits on 1.3 acres at the corner of Sandon Drive. Jason Burk of Whitney Commercial Real Estate Services says the owner of the former dental office (now vacant more than 15 years) and Subway shop (empty for nearly two years) is open to either leasing the existing structures or razing them and redeveloping the site for a new buyer or tenant.

“It’s really about what’s more financially feasible for the investor,”

“The best use is always to repurpose.”

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— James Wilson, Pulliam Properties

MINDING THE BOTTOM LINE

When workable, it’s almost always cheaper to repurpose than to build from scratch, says Michael Hoffman of Tessier Property Brokerage & Management. He represents the GBX Group, which bought an old church at 16 S. French Broad Ave. about three years ago. Built in 1929, the downtown structure has been vacant for close to two years but has considerable potential, Hoffman maintains. “It’s perfect to convert for an entertainment venue,” he says. “There’s a big stage in the former sanctuary. It would also be great for office space, an art gallery or charter school.”

And to ensure that the building doesn’t get torn down, GBX, which specializes in redeveloping urban structures, placed it under a historic preservation easement. “We’ve been approached by a number of hotels,” notes Hoffman. “They come out of the woodwork when a property like that becomes available.”

Many churches and banks have faced economic hardships and consolidations in recent years, leaving Buncombe County’s landscape rife with empty buildings. In East Asheville’s Gashes Creek area, new hillside office building development continues across U.S. Highway 74A from a bank that’s been vacant for about 2 1/2 years.

“The best use is always to repurpose,” counsels commercial real estate broker James Wilson of Pulliam Properties, who represents the former bank site. He says he’s had some calls about the property, noting that “New development helps draw interest to existing space. But it’s the financial bottom line that’s always the driving force for investors and developers.”

THINKING INSIDE THE BIG BOX Biltmore Church’s leadership believes that seeking out feasible sites for adaptive reuse is the best way to manage their resources. “Why would we go out and build something brandnew when we can be a steward of the land and of our community finances?” asks Carl Setterlind, the pastor of creative ministries. “It’s just a win-win.”

Until 2012, the church had a single location in Arden. But rather than continuing to expand that site, its leaders decided to establish outposts in var-

READY FOR A CHANGE: The Summit Church property in downtown Asheville is one of many potential sites for adaptive reuse. Photo by Linda Ray ious neighborhoods. They now have a half-dozen campuses and say they haven’t had trouble finding suitable empty buildings.

“We always keep our eyes open for places to retrofit,” says Setterlind.

The church’s most recent renovations involved a former Bi-Lo grocery store on the Smokey Park Highway in West Asheville. “We kept the form of the storefront, and we fit in well with the look of Gold’s Gym and other stores there.”

The same kind of seamless transition is evident in the former Kids R Us store on Fairview Road in East Asheville, which now houses a smooth, modern-looking Biltmore Church. The Hendersonville branch occupies a former NASCAR garage that was used by Andy Petree’s No. 33 racing team. The church even kept the roll-up doors.

FILLING IN THE BLANKS

As undeveloped land becomes scarcer in high-density urban areas, repurposing existing structures may

turn out to be the best approach for multifamily units, retail stores, offices, storage and even industrial applications. Retrofitting enables developers to add features to the property such as smart technology and energy-efficient upgrades that can drive higher lease rates. At the same time, small, empty parcels of land and viable empty buildings may provide answers for a city where housing prices are soaring.

“Affordable housing is dense housing,” says Nelson of NAI BeverlyHanks. “We just need someone with the vision to take advantage of these valuable spots and a willingness by the city to be flexible.”

And as city leaders seek ways to accommodate growth while preserving key aspects of its current natural and built environments, Beach Hensley maintains, they could loosen some of the building code restrictions and zoning regulations that can hinder adaptive reuse. Citing the costly changes he had to make to add an outside fire escape to the back of his building, he says, “They can make retrofitting prohibitive.” X

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NEWS

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NOV. 17-23, 2021

For Asheville residents, 2021 was a relatively quiet year in politics. While a handful of candidates announced their runs for City Council — and one resident, Democratic Buncombe County Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, declared a run for the U.S. House — no voting took place. (A 2018 provision passed by the General Assembly at the behest of Mayor Esther Manheimer moved the city’s elections to even years.)

But beyond the city’s borders, Western North Carolina bustled with electoral intrigue. From Woodfin, Asheville’s neighbor to the north, to the Jackson County seat of Sylva in the west, challengers bested incumbents in many nonpartisan town council and commission races.

The results of these elections will help shape development, policing, tax and other issues for tens of thousands of people across WNC. Xpress, with help from Smoky Mountain News, looked at the numbers and reached out to winning candidates to understand what happened Nov. 2.

Vote totals for all races can be viewed on the N.C. State Board of Elections website at er.ncsbe.gov. All results remain unofficial until certification by the state board Tuesday, Nov. 23.

Fletcher In the town’s mayoral race, 27-year-old Preston Blakely became Fletcher’s youngest-ever leader with 55% of the vote. The current Town Council member and registered Democrat beat Phillip Luther, a registered Republican and pastor of Boiling Springs Baptist Church.

Blakely, an Asheville High School grad and the grandson of longtime WNC civil rights leader Oralene Simmons, will also become Fletcher’s second consecutive Black mayor following the retirement of Mayor Rod Whiteside. “Fletcher residents can expect a mayor who is very open, listening and empathetic,” Blakely tells Xpress. “I will strive to serve every resident to the best of my abilities and take my role as a public servant incredibly seriously.”

But Blakely’s popularity did not translate to success for fellow Democrats Brandon Olsen and Erik Weber, who lost their races for Council District 1 and District 4 to three-term Council incumbent Sheila Franklin

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NEXT UP: At 27, Preston Blakely will become Fletcher’s youngest mayor, as well as its second Black leader, following a Nov. 2 election victory over Phillip Luther. Photo courtesy of Blakely and Skyland Fire Department Chief Trevor Lance, respectively. Both registered Republicans won by margins of less than 6 percentage points.

“I think my reelection represents a continued faith and satisfaction with how Fletcher has progressed in the last several years,” Franklin says. She lists growth and development, low tax rates and the need for a new emergency medical station and public library as top issues for residents.

And Lance says his first priority will be to connect with residents more. “I want the residents of Fletcher to have more input regarding how their tax dollars are spent and the decisions that are made for their town,” he explains.

— Brooke Randle

Hendersonville Mayor Barbara Volk was easily reelected to a fourth term with roughly 64% of the vote over D.J. Harrington.

Incumbent Hendersonville City Council member Jerry Smith also earned another term with a first-place finish in a three-way race for two seats.

The remaining place on Council, replacing retiring member Jeff Smith, went to community activist and Democratic Party precinct chair Debbie Roundtree. Earning 1,300 votes in the nonpartisan race, she

bested Chelsea Walsh, a former chair of the Henderson County Republican Party who took 1,041 votes. (Raphael Morales also appeared on the ballot but had dropped out of the race in October to endorse Jerry Smith and Roundtree.)

“I want to see the council, with a new member, work together on the challenges facing us,” Volk told Xpress.

She named the need for housing development at all price points, as well as pedestrian infrastructure and diversity in city hiring, as key focus areas.

Roundtree, who made unsuccessful bids for Council in 2017 and 2019, said her priorities include the environment, affordable housing, infrastructure and a living wage and diversity in government.

“I work two jobs to support my family, giving me a direct perspective on issues of low-income wage earners,” she said. “We are still in a pandemic, with small businesses closing doors and workers losing jobs. The city needs to work with local banks and investment firms to build the capacity of the people until this nightmare is over.”

— Justin McGuire

Maggie Valley

Municipal elections in Maggie Valley drew a record number of voters

in a contest that boiled down to growth and investment in the small mountain town.

John Hinton and Jim Owens secured seats on the Board of Aldermen, beating out incumbent member Twinkle Patel and former Planning Board Chair Jeff Lee. Residents cast a total of 943 votes for the board, compared with 598 in 2019 and 312 in 2017. Hinton was the top vote-getter with 326 votes, 34.57% of the ballots cast.

“It was about the issues. The people of Maggie Valley have spoken,” said Hinton following his win. “And the things that we ran on — the RV parks outside, the campgrounds outside the city limits, the Ghost Town issue, the zoning issues — that’s what it was about.”

The development of Ghost Town in the Sky, a former theme park in Maggie Valley, and other projects by developer Frankie Wood have divided the current board. While there is general enthusiasm about the possibility of revitalizing Ghost Town, Mayor Mike Eveland has not voted to approve any zoning requests

by Wood and has openly criticized Wood’s plans.

Hinton has also expressed skepticism at some of Wood’s development prospects. And Owens has stressed the importance of Maggie Valley completing its first Unified Development Ordinance as the town balances the needs of new development and current residents.

— Hannah McLeod, Smoky Mountain News

Mills River

The Mills River Town Council races were small but fierce, with a majority of voters signaling that they were ready for change after political newcomers defeated established representatives.

District 2 candidate James Cantrell narrowly unseated incumbent Brian Kimball by a mere seven votes, garnering 425 votes to Kimball’s 418.

Cantrell has a degree in horticulture from N.C. State University and has worked as a range manager at a greenhouse and nursery for the last 12 years. In an Oct. 24 story in the Hendersonville Times-News, Cantrell said that agricultural representation was among his top priorities. “[Agriculture is] what this town was founded on, why I have a passion for

farming and why many of the residents can enjoy a sense of small-town life,” Cantrell said.

In District 1, Sandra Goode bested incumbent and Mayor Pro Tempore Brian Caskey with over 53% of 895 votes cast. Caskey, the board’s only registered Democrat, has been serving as mayor pro tem since 2019 and mounted an unsuccessful campaign for state Senate in 2020. Goode says her priorities are keeping taxes low, maintaining public parks, supporting local businesses and agriculture and keeping public school standards high.

And Shanon Gonce will represent District 3 after running unopposed for the seat; Mayor Chae Davis didn’t seek reelection. The Council will elect its mayor and mayor pro tempore from its members after Cantrell, Goode and Gonce are sworn in Thursday, Dec. 9.

— Brooke Randle

Sylva Beating two incumbent board members, Natalie Newman took the top spot with 141 votes in the Sylva Board of Commissioners election, with incumbent Mary Kelley

Gelbaugh coming in second. Mayor Lynda Sossamon ran unopposed and will also remain on the board.

Newman will become the first woman of color to hold elected office in Sylva. At 29, she is also one of the youngest — if not the youngest — people to win the position.

Gelbaugh secured 125 votes, edging fellow incumbent Barbara Hamilton by just five votes, according to unofficial results. Carrie McBane and Luther Jones, who withdrew from the race after the deadline to remove his name from the ballot, finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

While narrow, the results are infinitely more decisive than those of Sylva’s 2015 and 2019 elections: In both years, a coin toss was required to decide between two tied candidates.

The next four years could well prove pivotal for the small town, not least due to the N.C. 107 road project. The new commissioners will see Sylva through a hugely disruptive right-of-way process and the first year and a half of a construction process estimated to last three to four years.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 10

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N EWS The new board will also inherit the deep divisions left behind following last year’s debates about the proper framing of Confederate history and an ongoing conversation about law enforcement’s role.

makes decisions privately and quietly, and they are angry about it,” McAllister said. “I met so many young voters who asked me, ‘How can I get involved?’ So we’re going to put them to work on committees and boards to bring fresh ideas and energy to Town Hall.”

Mayor Jerry Vehaun, who hasn’t faced a challenger since first winning office in 2003, did not respond to a request for comment about how he would work with the new board members. But McAllister said he was “100% confident” that the board would “work in lockstep to make Woodfin a better place to live.”

— Holly Kays, Smoky Mountain News

Woodfin A hotly contested election for the Woodfin Board of Commissioners ended with a striking rebuke of the town’s current officials. Newcomers Eric Edgerton, Jim McAllister and Hazel Thornton all earned at least 615 votes — more than quadruple the total ballots cast for any of incumbents Jackie Bryson, Debra Giezentanner and Don Hensley.

Turnout in the town of roughly 8,000 exceeded that for any previous Woodfin municipal election.

McAllister attributed that result to an aggressive get-out-the-vote effort by the three winning candidates and their supporters, who together knocked on nearly 800 doors and reached thousands of residents by phone. Interest in town politics had already been high due to a proposed

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— Daniel Walton THIRD TIME CHARMED: Debbie Roundtree, a community activist and Democratic Party precinct chair, earned a seat on Hendersonville City Council after two unsuccessful bids in 2017 and 2019. Photo courtesy of Roundtree 1,400-unit residential project, The Bluffs at River Bend, which many residents strongly oppose.

“I learned during the campaign that residents feel like the town is not listening to them and that it

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Weaverville Al Root, a longtime fixture of Weaverville civic leadership, announced this summer that he would not seek reelection as the town’s mayor. In August, he resigned, and Council members promoted one of their own — Patrick Fitzsimmons, a registered Democrat who has served on Council since 2017 and had been the only person to register for the mayoral race — to fill Root’s shoes.

On Election Day, voters cast 898 votes for their sitting mayor, electing him decisively. But the race also saw 350 write-in votes, most likely for Randy Cox, a photographer and videographer who waged an off-ballot campaign to unseat Fitzsimmons. A registered Republican, Cox told Tribune Papers he had been inspired by Franklin Graham’s challenge for conservative Christians to seek public office.

Meanwhile, Thomas P. Veasey, another Republican, also fell short on his bid for a Council seat. His 430 votes were less than half the total received by each of three moderate left candidates: Vice Mayor Doug Jackson (D) and newcomers Catherine Cordell (I) and Michele Wood (D). The unaffiliated Cordell was the top vote-getter with 934 votes.

Fitzsimmons called his new board “a sound governing body of balanced thinkers that will enable us to manage the significant growth and development issues facing us,” including a proposed $13 million water plant expansion. “Our aim,” the mayor underscored, “is to preserve what we love about our hometown while preparing for the future and growth as well.”

— Able Allen X

BUNCOMBE BEAT

Temporary Asheville space-sharing may become long term The pandemic brought with it many makeshift measures designed to keep people safe while maintaining some sense of normalcy. But one of those temporary solutions, aimed at boosting outdoor dining and merchant space, may be here to stay in Asheville.

During their meeting of Nov. 9, members of Asheville City Council heard an update on the city’s AVL Shares Space program, which permits local business owners to use public and private property to increase their outdoor space for dining, merchandise or programming.

Dana Frankel, Asheville’s downtown development specialist, said that the program, started in June 2020, was originally set to expire Jan. 3.

The deadline has since been extended three times, with the latest extension good until Jan. 3.

City officials, Frankel continued, are now considering leaving aspects of the program in place indefinitely.

“We’re going to be working closely with businesses beginning this week to transition to permanency where that’s possible,” she said. “Although I will note that there’s not going to be an immediate path to permanency in all cases.”

According to a presentation shared at the meeting, business owners who applied to AVL Shares Space could expand operations onto public sidewalks and parking spaces, primarily in Asheville’s downtown. The program also loosened minimum parking requirements so that businesses could use their own parking lots for expansion, as well as created temporary curbside pickup zones in downtown and West Asheville to accommodate increases in takeout sales.

Frankel said that 94 businesses are currently authorized for temporary outdoor expansion; 48 of those are using private property, while 27 are using public sidewalks and 19 on-street parking spaces. Almost all of those spaces, she said, are dedicated to outdoor dining.

The program has been popular among both business owners and members of the public, according to the city’s research. Frankel cited a September survey of participating entrepreneurs finding that 92% said the initiative has had a “very positive” impact on their bottom line. A separate survey of more than 600 people found that 75% reported a “very positive” experience with AVL Shares Space.

We’re

Back Baby SHARING IS CARING: The AVL Shares Space program permits business owners to expand operations onto public sidewalks and parking spaces, loosens minimum parking requirements so that businesses could use their own parking lots for expansion, as well as creates temporary curbside pickup zones in downtown and West Asheville to accommodate increases in takeout sales.

Photo by Kay West Council member Sage Turner asked whether any public space could be dedicated as additional busking space, while Kim Roney suggested that the city revisit an idea to close Wall Street to vehicular traffic altogether.

“This is kind of a slow, methodical, look at the data, do analysis [process] before we move to some level of permanency,” said City Manager Debra Campbell. “This will go maybe sixnine months, and then we’ll relook to figure out if we have enough information, informed data, in order to direct potentially some policy changes.”

Council sends off Assistant City Manager Cathy Ball Mayor Esther Manheimer and other Council members gave tearful goodbyes and words of appreciation to outgoing Assistant City Manager Cathy Ball at the end of the Nov. 9 meeting. The city had announced in an Oct. 8 press release that Ball had accepted a position as city manager in Johnson City, Tenn. Her last day on the job is Nov. 10.

“Cathy, you lead with your heart.

You care about this community. …

I’m going to be sad to see you go,” Manheimer said.

Ball worked for Asheville for 24 years in several roles, including transportation director, public works director and assistant city manager. She also served as interim city manager after then-City Manager Gary Jackson was abruptly fired in March 2018 until Campbell’s hiring in December 2018.

The city’s release noted that Ball was “instrumental” in many city initiatives, such as development of workforce housing at 51 Biltmore Ave., negotiating a public-private greenway partnership with New Belgium Brewery and utilizing federal funds to provide noncongregate housing for Asheville’s homeless population during the pandemic.

“I’ve learned so much here and would not be the person I am today if it wasn’t for this city and the people that care about it,” Ball said during the meeting. “I absolutely love the employees of the city, and I appreciate the commitment that you show to them.”

Johnson City Mayor Joe Wise said in a Sept. 30 story published in the Johnson City Press that the city is hiring Ball because its leaders want to avoid mistakes Asheville has made regarding growth and gentrification.

“I think one could argue that we hired her because she learned all the things not to do in Asheville, and we’re going to benefit from some of that,” Wise said.

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BUNCOMBE BEAT

County holds webinar on COVID-19 vaccines for children 5-11 Buncombe County health officials and local health care providers held a Zoom webinar Nov. 9 to share information about COVID-19 vaccinations for children.

On Oct. 29, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, in a lower dosage than that taken by adults, for children ages 5-11 years. On Nov. 2, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that children in this age group receive the vaccine.

Buncombe County Public Health Director Stacie Saunders; Dr. Lorena Wade of Vaya Health; Dr. Brian O’Donnell, a pediatrician with Mountain Area Pediatrics; and April Baur, Mountain Area Health Education Center school health program manager, participated in the webinar. Megan Williams, a Buncombe County parent, led the discussion.

The vaccine for children uses the same active ingredients as those used in shots for people age 12 and older, Saunders explained, at about one-third of the original dosage.

Parental consent is required for anyone under 16 to receive the vaccine while it remains under an emergen-

VAX TALK: Health care providers in Buncombe County, including Dr. Brian O’Donnell, top right, and April Baur, bottom right, participated in a webinar about COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5 to 11. Megan Williams, a Buncombe County parent, led the discussion and Crystal Bradley provided American Sign Language interpretation. Screengrab by Jessica Wakeman cy use authorization; like other age groups, she continued, children will need two shots for full protection.

Many viewers in the webinar’s chat asked about the vaccine’s efficacy and side effects. Some posed questions such as “How can we see a full list of the ingredients used

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in this vaccine?” and “What do we know about long-term side effects and potential fertility in pre-pubescent young children?” Others offered comments such as “This is child genocide!” and “Time to get a red pill about what’s really going on before too many dead kids are on your karma.”

O’Donnell addressed clinical trials of about 4,600 children, in which 3,000 were vaccinated against COVID-19 and tracked after vaccination for at least two weeks and up to two months. Those studies found the vaccine was 90.7% effective in preventing severe outcomes from COVID-19 among vaccinated children.

The majority of side effects for many vaccines become apparent in the first four weeks after injection, explained O’Donnell. Common side effects in children who received the COVID-19 vaccine included fatigue, headaches, muscle aches and swollen lymph nodes. These are “pretty normal findings after a vaccine — it’s a good immune response,” he said.

O’Donnell acknowledged that unknown side effects may occur.

But he continued, “I’m not comparing the side effects versus nothing. … Usually when I’m talking to people, I compare the vaccine side effects versus COVID disease itself and the side effects we get.”

Baur noted that while children seem to become less severely ill from COVID-19 than do adults — the disease has killed fewer than 600 U.S. residents under 18 through Nov. 3 — there are other health effects to consider. Children can have what is referred to as “long COVID,” she said, and as in adults, those long-term effects are uncertain. According to the CDC, longterm symptoms of COVID-19 can include shortness of breath, change in taste or smell or difficulty thinking or concentrating.

O’Donnell also addressed vaccine-induced myocarditis, an inflammation around and inside the heart.

He said that the rate of that condition (about 62 cases per million children ages 12-17 who got two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine) is “the same or less than the background rate that kids get [myocarditis] on a regular basis.” Early data from children who have had COVID-19, he noted in a follow-up email to Xpress, show a higher rate of myocarditis associated with the disease.

Attendees asked the health care providers to address immunity that follows from a viral infection, sometimes called “natural immunity,” as opposed to immunity that comes from a vaccine. Wade said that she prefers not to use the phrase because the physical response generated by the vaccine is the same.

“Your body says, ‘This is foreign,’ and it creates a natural immune response,” she explained.

BCHHS shared in a Nov. 9 press release that it had administered about 180 first doses Nov. 5 to children 5-11 years old at the county’s COVID-19 vaccination clinic, located at 40 Coxe Ave. (An additional 90 adults received a first, second or booster dose at the same event.)

At press time, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19 Response Dashboard did not include data about vaccinations among 5-to-11 year olds. Individuals under the age of 18 comprise about 18.4% of Buncombe County’s population, according to 2020 census data.

In an October survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 27% of parents said if a COVID-19 vaccine were approved for their child’s age group, they would get the child vaccinated “right away.” Thirty-three percent of parents said they would “wait and see,” while 30% said they would “definitely not” vaccinate their child.

The presentation can be viewed on Facebook in English at avl.mx/at1 and in Spanish at avl.mx/at5.

— Jessica Wakeman X

BUNCOMBE BEAT

Second Mountain Raise highlights crowdfunding for WNC businesses More than 100 potential investors packed into Hi-Wire Brewing’s event space Nov. 10 to hear pitches from Western North Carolina small-business owners looking to raise capital for their enterprises. The diverse gathering at nonprofit Mountain BizWorks’ Mountain Raise, ranging from boomers to millennials, cheered and applauded the ideas and success-to-date stories of the local companies. More than 50 people also tuned into a livestream of the event.

“This is such a great community in Asheville,” said founder Steph Prime, co-founder with husband Brandon of Cardstalk, an on-demand greeting card company that sells cards with artwork by local artists through kiosks in retail stores. Their first kiosk recently went up in Earth Fare at Westgate, and the Primes were seeking support from investors to fill more Earth Fare locations. The Seattle native said she appreciated Asheville’s commitment to sustainability and supporting local businesses, as evidenced by the cheering that went up at every mention of “green” products.

The pitches

Five WNC entrepreneurs presented seven-minute pitches designed to gauge interest from local investors.

Taking advantage of a new rule, passed in March by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, that allows for a public “testing the waters” phase before launching an official round of funding, the pitches were aimed at “collecting reservations of interest,” said Will McGuire, chief crowdfunding officer of Incolo, a Raleigh-based crowdfunding consultancy that had worked with several of the local firms.

“We train founders to tap into their crowd and train the community about how this exists,” he said. “Up until 2016, you couldn’t invest in a company unless you were an accredited investor [generally banks, loan companies, governments and wealthy individuals].

Now you can get in with as little as $1 sometimes.”

Other business owners pitching at the event included Banner Elkbased GreenLife Tech founder Bruce Roesner, showing off a countertop contraption that keeps fruits and vegetables fresh for more than 30 days. The entrepreneur said he was impressed

STARTING PITCHER: Steph Prime, co-founder of on-demand greeting card company Cardstalk, shares her business plan with potential investors at Mountain Raise. Photo by Oscar Molina, courtesy of Mountain BizWorks with the turnout. “Good diversity here,” he said. “And I was taken by how everyone was really paying attention.”

North Cove Leisure Club founder Luke Peniston shared his outdoor-focused business being built in the northern tip of McDowell County, which he hopes will be the “largest outdoor entertainment venue in the world.” Spectra3D Technologies founder Steven Schain boasted about his Asheville company’s 3D printing capabilities for industrial applications, while Boone-based SteakAger founder Scott Kobryn showed off his multifaceted backyard Wildfyre Grill.

Two surprises

While the other founders at the event had graduated from one of the

small-business programs offered by Mountain BizWorks, a surprise pitch came from Raleigh entrepreneur Johnny Hackett, who got a huge response to his proposal to expand his Black Friday Market into the Asheville retail scene. The marketplace, currently open in downtown Raleigh, provides space for Black crafters and artists to sell their wares in a “department store-like setting,” Hackett said.

His goal is to raise $650,000 to open five more stores throughout the state.

Hackett noted that Asheville businesses can sign up to be listed on #BlackDollarNC, a directory he founded that serves as a reference for Black-owned businesses in the state.

The website currently lists Blackowned coffeeshop Grind AVL as its only Asheville entry.

And hoping to tap into what he called the “silver tsunami,” Mountain BizWorks Executive Director Matt Raker announced the grand opening of the nonprofit’s Market Advisors subsidiary. The new initiative is designed to help business founders valuate and sell their firms as they prepare to retire or move on to other ventures. Buyers interested in purchasing a business also will receive guidance.

Raker announced that Chris Grasinger, an experienced lender with Mountain BizWorks, will head the new group as its director. Forms for expressing interest in Market Advisors services are now live on the Mountain BizWorks website at avl.mx/atj.

— Linda Ray X

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NEWS

NEWS BRIEFS

UNCA renames buildings after notable NC women UNC Asheville renamed four buildings on campus to honor notable women of North Carolina. The UNCA Building Renaming Task Force was charged with making recommendations for the individuals to be honored during the 2020-21 school year, which were presented to the college’s board of trustees and dedicated in a Nov. 3 ceremony.

The former Vance Hall was renamed Dykeman Hall, honoring the late conservationist and The French Broad author Wilma Dykeman. The former Ashe Hall was renamed Bird Hall to recognize Ella Bird, an elder in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians who also holds the tribal honor of Beloved Woman.

Hoey Hall was renamed Ray Hall for Julia Ray, the first Black member of Mission Hospital’s board of trustees. And lastly, Carmichael Hall was renamed Delany Hall in honor of the late Francine Delany, an Asheville educator and the first African American graduate of AshevilleBiltmore College, the school which eventually became UNCA. The 107-year-old Ray, her family, Dykeman’s family, faculty and students all attended the campus celebration of the renaming.

Cherokee land acknowledgment site debuts

The Buncombe County Register of Deeds launched a website about land cessions from the Cherokee, the original inhabitants of the area, in September.

The project, called As Long as the Grass Shall Grow (avl.mx/asr), uses interactive maps, accompanied by historical background on various land treaties, to visualize how the 100,000 square miles originally owned by the Cherokee were taken over time. The final map shows the two locations where Cherokees own land today: the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and the Qualla Boundary, home of the EBCI. “It’s good any time anybody acknowledges the history of the land, but more importantly, the people who were on the land first,” Principal Chief Richard Sneed of the EBCI told Xpress. “In the day and age we

live … it’s refreshing somebody is saying, ‘Here’s history.’ History is complicated. It really is.”

The website states on its main page: “Buncombe County Register of Deeds humbly acknowledges that the land we are on is the ancestral land of the Anigiduwagi, more commonly known as the Cherokee.

This land was acquired through violence, oppression, coercion and broken treaties.”

Sneed told Xpress he particularly appreciates the acknowledgment of broken treaties. According to the website, the phrase “as long as the grass shall grow” was used in treaties between Native Americans and Europeans to reference everlasting agreements.

“To see how the land was lost is devastating,” wrote Register of Deeds Drew Reisinger in a press release announcing the project. “To see North Carolina’s aggressive and illegal encroachment on native land while forcing treaties … a lot of that land was taken violently under guise of the American Revolution.”

Schools host COVID-19 vaccine clinics

Buncombe County Schools, Buncombe County Health and Human Services and Asheville City Schools are hosting COVID19 vaccine clinics on Saturdays in November and December for anyone ages 5 and older.

The Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 5-11 Oct. 29.

On Nov. 20, a clinic will take place at North Buncombe High School, 890 Clarks Chapel Road, Weaverville. On Dec. 4, clinics will be held at Clyde A. Erwin High School, 60 Lees Creek Road, and at T.C. Roberson High School, 250 Overlook Road. And on Dec. 11, clinics will occur at Charles D. Owen High School, 99 Lake Eden Road, Black Mountain, and A.C. Reynolds High School, 1 Rocket Drive.

All of the Saturday clinics run 9 a.m.-4 p.m. No appointment is necessary. The clinics will also provide booster shots for eligible people who have already received full COVID-19

HISTORY LESSON: Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Principal Chief Richard Sneed says it’s good any time there is an acknowledgment of the history of Cherokee land. Photo courtesy of EBCI vaccinations (more details available at avl.mx/at7); those receiving a booster shot should bring their vaccination card for documentation.

Buncombe Tax Department warns of debt scam An ongoing scam attempting to make individuals pay a nonexistent tax debt has prompted the Buncombe County Tax Department to issue a warning to residents.

Recipients of the scam have gotten letters claiming to be a “Distraint Warrant” from the “Tax Processing Unit of Buncombe County Public Judgement Records,” which does not exist. The letters warn, “Your debt must be resolved in full to remove the lien. To avoid enforcement, CALL 1(800)XXX-XXXX within fifteen (15) days of receiving this notice. Failure to respond in time will cause an additional penalty to accumulate and lead to default judgment.”

The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the scam and asks the public to call 828-250-4436 with any information. Victims of this scam should report it to the N.C. Department of Justice at 877-5-NO-SCAM (877-566-7226) or NCDOJ.gov/Complaint.

noon to discuss the findings in its new report, “Housing Needs Assessment of Western North Carolina.” The report, released Nov. 10, evaluates the housing supply of 18 WNC counties and the Qualla Boundary, the area served by the trust, through 2025. Patrick Bowen, president of Bowen National Research, the real estate market analysis firm that conducted the study, will present the findings. The report is available online at avl.mx/asz; registration for the webinar is as avl.mx/asy.

• Santa Claus will take a quick trip down from the North Pole to join children ages 2-9 and their parents for a “Breakfast With Santa” Saturday, Dec. 11, at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. at the Stephens-Lee Recreation Center, 30 George Washington Carver Ave. Tickets are $8 per person and are available at avl.mx/at0.

Movers and shakers • Asheville City Schools Superintendent Gene Freeman was appointed to the board of the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville earlier this month.

• Natalie Ivey became the manager of Buncombe County Justice Services’ Pretrial Services team Nov. 8. Ivey comes to the county from the Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking in East Tennessee.

• Hendersonville High school resource officer Joreeca Dinnall received a 2021 Axon RISE Officer Award, a national award for police officers committing everyday acts of heroism. The Hendersonville Police Department nominated Dinnall for assisting a young person through a mental health crisis in 2020.

— Jessica Wakeman X

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FEA T U RE S

Q&A with Ray Russell, founder of Ray’s Weather Center It takes a tornado of a personality and rare courage to attempt to foretell the future, especially when it comes to weather. A snowboarder who gets lukewarm rain instead of fresh powder or a disc golfer who encounters unexpected lightning on a treeless fairway can rain down upon the unfortunate forecaster a torrent of invective harsher than a hurricane when the elements don’t behave as predicted.

That’s just the risk that Renaissance man Ray Russell has taken for over 20 years as the founder of Ray’s Weather Center, Western North Carolina’s leading local source for forecasts.

A computer science professor at Appalachian State University, Russell holds a doctorate in the field from the Georgia Institute of Technology, has been ordained as a Church of Christ minister, served as a member of the N.C. House of Representatives and is a certified running coach. But as a meteorologist, he’s entirely self-taught. A childhood fascination with the weather led to him reading tomes of books on the subject, and when his wife gifted him a weather station for Christmas in 1998, he began streaming weather data to his personal ASU faculty page to predict winter snowstorms for Boone.

The accuracy of his forecasts became a thing of local legend, and eventually his passion project blossomed into a regional colossus that feeds on weather data from across WNC 24/7. Russell spoke with Xpress on a beautiful fall day about the growth of Ray’s Weather Center over the years, how forecasters handle the area’s tricky topography and what weather sayings carry a grain of truth.

How has Ray’s Weather Center grown over the years?

The company formally started in the summer of 2000. I took it totally private

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WEATHER MAN: Ray Russell, the founder of local online forecast service Ray’s Weather Center, enjoys a sunny day by the weather station at Valle Crucis School. Photo courtesy of Russell and away from the university, and it has lived a life of its own from there.

Ray’s Weather hopefully has become a style of getting weather forecasting done. It’s accurate, but it’s also a human production, not an automated bureaucratic output everyday. We have five meteorologists and a schedule of people doing the updates.

The real challenge has become the sustaining and building of the business.

When we started doing this, no one had heard of web advertising. I took complaints about there being advertising on the website — boy, has that come a long way! Weather is easy compared to competing in the modern internet market.

I still think we’re the most widely read media outlet that originates in WNC. We just put stuff out there; I don’t spend a lot of time counting.

Why are your forecasts different from those of national weather outlets?

A national weather site has sparse data that is made up, not real data.

They are interpolating — it’s a guess from actual data. That might work in Oklahoma, where it’s flat, but you can’t do that in a mountain environment and get away with the fact that people don’t know any better.

If you go to big commercial sites, they are totally produced by computers without any human intervention. Good forecasts start with good meterologists, and we have five.

Anybody in the business of forecasting anything is going to be wrong sometimes. What we try to do with

MOUNTAINX.COM

our forecast is to say, “It’s going to rain.” We don’t say what percent. We use terms like widely scattered and isolated, and then we give the time frame: afternoon and overnight, etc.

We try to put out a specific forecast that is actionable, that people can actually plan their days around.

WNC has many microclimates, and the weather can be vastly different from place to place, even when they are short distances apart. Why is that, and how do you deal with the challenge?

The Blue Ridge on the eastern escarpment of the Appalachian chain is a major weather boundary. There is much more rain along the Blue Ridge: When you lift that air over the ridge, it produces more rain in that region. In the winter, you get more snow on the western side of the Appalachians. The spine of the Appalachians is right along the Tennessee and North Carolina border — that is a major geographical feature.

One of our challenges is that people struggle with geography. People don’t know the difference between the Blue Ridge and Western Spine. To really understand what’s going to happen weather-wise, you have to know.

We try to capture those kinds of things in the writing of the forecasts.

Readers of our sites can say they really understand the geography. We do our best to blend readability and accuracy.

How is WNC’s weather being affected by climate change?

Certainly we are having more extreme weather events than before, and the extremes are more extreme. In the last 10 years, the Carolinas have had three 500-year floods. We’ve had one of the worst droughts, which burned down Gatlinburg and a lot of WNC. And snow is getting harder to come by; there has been a significant drop in the average snowfall since the 1980s.

Our weather is wetter overall.

Daytime highs are not necessarily hotter, but our nighttime lows are warmer.

Overall, there has been a steady drift to warmer weather over the last 10 or 20 years, but it’s very subtle. People that do trout fishing get it because it results in warmer stream waters.

All of these things are changing with climate change. It’s having a significant impact on agriculture and tourism. I tell any business, if you don’t have a plan for how your business will go forward with climate change, it’s going to have an impact.

Do you still love weather as much as you did when you first started out?

I do. Forecasting weather is one of the most multidisciplinary things: You have to know about chemistry and physics, but you also have to know about people — and to produce a good weather forecast, what they need to know. It’s our one common experience.

All of us are affected by the weather somehow. It’s our common challenge; on a day like today, it’s our common joy.

Are there any local weather myths that you’d like to address?

So many weather sayings have a seed of truth in them. Even things I’ve heard other people make fun of, there is often a seed of truth in there.

“See a ring around the moon, and you’ll have rain in 48 hours.” That’s one I’ve heard all my life. If you have a front coming in, the first part of that is high-level ice crystals. That’s what produces the ring around the moon.

“It’s too cold to snow.” Technically it never gets too cold to snow, but when someone says that, what they’re really observing is that arctic high pressure has taken so much control that it’s forced the moisture to the south.

It’s hard to snow when that happens, because cold air just overpowers everything else.

There are other weather myths that are fun conversation pieces, for entertainment purposes only. Punxsutawney Phil — the groundhog is wrong more often than it is right. That is one we can debunk without offending any of our local residents.

— Jonathan Poston X

ASHEVILLE ARCHIVES

by Thomas Calder | tcalder@mountainx.com

‘Anxious days’

Reflections on Thanksgiving amid the Great Depression, 1930

GRATITUDE: “Prayer is an attitude. Thanksgiving is a mood,” The Asheville Citizen wrote in a Nov. 27, 1930, editorial reflecting on the season of gratitude at the onset of the Great Depression. Photo courtesy of Buncombe County Special Collections, Pack Memorial Library; image embellished by Ele Annand A year after the 1929 stock market crash, an editorial in The Asheville Citizen’s Nov. 27, 1930, edition reflected on the country’s troubled times amid the season of giving thanks.

The piece began: “Prayer is an attitude. Thanksgiving is a mood. There are times when the heart sings with joy. There are times when it is bowed down with anxiety as well as with sorrow. These are anxious days through which we are passing. We can not blind ourselves to the confusion which exists in almost every part of the world. We can not blind ourselves to the suffering which is so general in our own land — suffering that is harder to bear because to most of those who are enduring it the experience is unfamiliar. We can not blind ourselves in this community to the troubles which have descended upon us as a community, troubles which are leaving in their wake problems of the gravest character the solution of which is still to be provided.”

Asheville’s unemployment rate stood at 3% that winter, with 1,500 of the city’s

50,000 residents out of work. But as previous “Asheville Archives” note, both individuals and local institutions soon came together to address the ongoing struggle that many in the community faced. (For a list of previous articles, see box at right.)

At the time of the 1930 Thanksgiving Day editorial, however, many of the local initiatives had not yet gone into effect.

The paper urged the community to act: “We know that the maladjustments in business and industry and agriculture which have resulted in present unemployment will be straightened out. We know that the financial depression will lift. We know that locally new foundations will be laid on which to build for the future.

These better things will not come over night, however, nor will they come of themselves. Their achievement will be the product of soundly directed effort. Their doing calls for the exercise of those virtues which in such periods mankind always has in reserve — for hard work, for straight and honest thinking, for the spirit

of sacrifice, for a deep sense of our responsibility to ourselves, to our communities, to others.”

Learn more

By its conclusion, the editorial waxed philosophical on the holiday’s purpose and potential amid hardships, proclaiming:

Want to learn more about Asheville’s response to the Great Depression? Revisit some of Xpress’s “Asheville Archives” of yesteryear.

“True thanksgiving is an acknowledgement that the blessings for which we express gratitude are ours only through the good pleasure of that Providence to which we voice our gratitude. We are not bits of flotsam and jetsam tossed blindly on the tides of chance. To believe that is to deny all meaning to Thanksgiving and all meaning, it seems to us to life. There is much that none of us can fathom but this we know, that as we buckle down to our responsibilities and discharge these responsibilities, searching our souls, meanwhile, we can overcome trials and troubles of every kind and character and be the stronger and the better for having done so.”

• “‘Native Pessimists’: Tobacco and the Great Depression,” July, 16, 2019 • “‘The Fighting Spirit of Asheville’: Citizens Respond to the Great Depression, 1932,” Aug. 16, 2020 • “‘Families will Suffer’: City Confronts Unemployment, 193032,” Oct. 11, 2020 • “All the Rage: Miniature Golf Craze Strikes amid the Great Depression,” April 18, 2021 • “‘Power of the Penny’: Community Support amid the Great Depression, 1931,” May 23, 2021 • “‘One Cow for Every Five Persons’: WNC Dairy Farming Pushed as an Economic Booster in the Early 1930s,” Aug. 1, 2021 X

Editor’s note: Peculiarities of spelling and punctuation are preserved from the original document. X

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NOV. 17-23, 2021

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COMMUNITY CALENDAR NOV. 11-25, 2021 For a full list of community calendar guidelines, please visit mountainx.com/calendar. For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, opt. 4. For questions about paid calendar listings, please call 828-251-1333, opt. 1.

Online Events = Shaded WELLNESS Yoga and the 12 Steps of Recovery (Y12SR) The Y12SR model addresses addiction as a physical, mental and spiritual disease.

WE (11/17, 24), 8:30am, Free, Asheville Yoga Center, 211 S Liberty St Montford T’ai Chi Weekly, all age groups.

Taught by acupuncturist Tyler White.

TH (11/18), 9am, Free, Montford Recreation Center, 34 Pearson Dr Intro to T’ai Chi Taught by Roger Byrd.

Class size is limited.

TH (11/18), 10:30am, Free, Asheville Yoga Center, 211 S Liberty St Queer Trans Body Love: a Yoga class in the Park All people across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum and allies are welcome.

Meet at the bridge to the picnic pavilions.

SA (11/20), MO (11/22), 11am, Carrier Park, 220 Amboy Rd Yoga in the Park Outdoors along the French Broad River. An all-level friendly Hatha/ Vinyasa flow taught by certified yoga instructor Ceiara Cartony.

SA (11/20), SU (11/21), 1:30pm, Carrier Park, 220 Amboy Rd Ben's Friends A local meeting of the national support group for people in the hospitality industry struggling with addiction.

MO (11/22), 10am, Free, AB Tech Culinary Arts & Hospitality School, 30 Tech Dr Steady Collective Syringe Access Outreach Free naloxone, syringes and educational material on harm reduction.

TU (11/23), 2pm, Firestorm Books & Coffee, 610 Haywood Rd Quest4Life 5Rhythms Waves Class Weekly instructional classes based on Gabrielle Roth's work.

No dance experience necessary.

TU (11/23), 7pm, $12-22, Terpsicorps Academy, 1501 Patton Ave

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ART 20 Views of Leicester Library Community Art Project Oil paintings, photography, sculpture and more, on display through Nov. 30.

WE (11/17, 24), TH (11/18), FR (11/19), SA (11/20), SU (11/21), TU (11/23), Leicester Library, 1561 Alexander Rd, Leicester Ruminations on Memory This exhibition features all nine prints from Robert Rauschenberg’s Ruminations portfolio, Judy Chicago’s Retrospective in a Box portfolio, and other selections.

WE (11/17, 24), TH (11/18), FR (11/19), SA (11/20), SU (11/21), MO (11/22), Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square A Dance of Images and Words: The Nancy Graves/Pedro Cuperman Tango Portfolio Exhibition presents Graves’s eight prints alongside the portfolio frontispiece and a page of Cuperman’s text.

WE (11/17, 24), TH (11/18), FR (11/19), SA (11/20), SU (11/21), MO (11/22), Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square Gestures: Mid-Century Abstraction from the Collection Explores works in a variety of media that speak to the vibrant abstract experiments in American art making during the middle of the 20th century.

WE (11/17, 24), TH (11/18), FR (11/19), SA (11/20), SU (11/21), MO (11/22), Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square Modernist Design at Black Mountain College Highlights the collection of design from Black Mountain College and situates it in the context of its influences and surroundings at BMC. WE (11/17, 24), TH (11/18), FR (11/19), SA (11/20), SU (11/21), MO (11/22), Asheville Art Museum, 2 S Pack Square NCGC Winter Wonderland With glass ornaments, snowflakes, snowmen, candy canes, and live glassblowing demonstrations.

NOV. 17-23, 2021

WE (11/17, 24), TH (11/18), FR (11/19), SA (11/20), SU (11/21), MO (11/22), 10am-5pm, North Carolina Glass Center, 140 Roberts St, Ste B The Last Rock & Roll Art Show Fourteen artists from NC were given 12 months to create or produce pieces for the exhibition. Artwork and photography for bands include popular acts such as Widespread Panic, Animal Collective and Wilco.

WE (11/17, 24), TH (11/18), FR (11/19), SA (11/20), SU (11/21), MO (11/22), TU (11/23), 12pm, Push Skate Shop & Gallery, 25 Patton Ave Grounded Flow Exhibit featuring works by apprentices Caroline Woolard and Keira Peterson.

WE (11/17, 24), TH (11/18), FR (11/19), SA (11/20), SU (11/21), MO (11/22), TU (11/23), 10am, The Village Potters, 191 Lyman St, #180 Small Work/Big Impact An annual exhibition that assembles intimately-scaled works in a variety of media by gallery artists and special guests. Through Feb. 19.

WE (11/17, 24), TH (11/18), FR (11/19), SA (11/20), SU (11/21), MO (11/22), TU (11/23), Momentum Gallery, 24 N Lexington Ave Nocturne A collection of works in a variety of media that celebrates the drama and mystery of the night. Through Feb. 19.

WE (11/17, 24), TH (11/18), FR (11/19), SA (11/20), SU (11/21), MO (11/22), TU (11/23), Momentum Gallery, 24 N Lexington Ave The Price of Progress: Remembering the WNC Railroad and the People Who Built It An exhibit focusing on the builders of the Western North Carolina Railroad, the first rail line to penetrate the state’s mountain region and open it for trade and tourism.

WE (11/17, 24), TH (11/18), FR (11/19), SA (11/20), SU (11/21), TU (11/23), Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center, 102 Water St, Old Fort Unearthing Our Forgotten Past Exhibit exploring the Spanish occupation of Fort San Juan and the native people who lived in the Joara area of WNC. Sponsored by the Western NC Historical Association.

TH (11/18), FR (11/19), SA (11/20), 10:30am, Smith-McDowell House Museum, 283 Victoria Rd

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LET THERE BE LIGHTS: After last year’s drive-thru event, The N.C. Arboretum’s annual Winter Lights show returns to the traditional outdoor walk-through, open-air format Friday, Nov. 19, through Saturday, Jan. 1. The event features a 50-foot lighted tree, 1 million lights throughout the gardens, live music, hot cocoa, fire pits and more. Tickets are sold per vehicle with three tiers of pricing available for 6 p.m., 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. each day. Photo courtesy of The N.C. Arboretum Night Visions One Night Exhibition & Reception Night photography combnied with “light-painting” by Weaverville artist Daniel Iyari.

TH (11/18), 5pm, Renaissance Asheville Hotel, 31 Woodfin St 20th Annual Survivor Art Show - Call for Submissions Due by Nov. 30 for the Dec. 17 show opening.

Curated by Different Wrld, in partnership with Our Voice.

Revolve, 821 Riverside Dr, #179 Aquatic Insect Art Auction Online auction of large paintings of small aquatic insects

by Tess Darling, to benefit Laurel Community Center of Madison County. Place bids by Nov 30. For more info call (828)656-3633, avl.mx/atc

ART/CRAFT STROLLS & FAIRS WCU Fine Art Museum Handmade Holiday Sale Featuring high-quality, handmade gifts created by students, staff, and alumni. Located throughout the BAC lobby and Star Atrium.

TH (11/18), 12-7pm, WCU Bardo Arts Center, 199 Centennial Dr, Cullowhee

‘Tis the Season Holiday Fair A festive shopping event featuring art, crafts, gifts, adornments for the home as well as holiday food and NC wines.

FR (11/19), SA (11/20), SU (11/21), WNC Ag Center’s Davis Event Center, 765 Boylston Hwy, Fletcher Aurora Studio & Gallery’s Fun on Friday Arts/fundraising activity for Asheville visitors.

To register, text Lori Greenberg at 828335-1038. Suggested donation.

FR (11/19), 2:30pm, $20, The Refinery, 207 Coxe Ave Open Hearts Arts Center Holiday Pop-Up Market Locally made gifts from a studio and gallery dedicated to representing and empowering adults with disabilities to reach their full potential through the arts. Outdoors.

SA (11/20), 10am, Open Hearts Art Center, 217 Coxe Ave The HeART of the Season A self-guided art walk to kick off the holiday season, with artist demos, live music and special promotions.

SA (11/20), Downtown Brevard, 175 East Main St, Brevard Holiday Arts Festival A variety of items from cards, prints, t-shirts, and silk scarves

to mixed media and paintings.

SA (11/20), 11am, The Refinery AVL, 207 Coxe Ave

COMMUNITY MUSIC The Woven Free concert by local folk trio who met as teenagers and have been creating music together for 20 years.

Donations requested.

TH (11/18), 6pm, Transylvania Community Arts Council, 349 S Caldwell St, Brevard A Tribute to Veterans and Our Armed Forces Free Concert Presented by Blue Ridge Symphonic Brass and Brevard College Wind Ensemble.

FR (11/19), 7:30pm, Porter Center for Performing Arts at Brevard College, Brevard Richard Smith: Fingerstyle The English-born guitar virtuoso plays bluegrass in the Blue Ridge.

SA (11/20), 7:30pm, $20-25, Madison County Arts Council, 90 S Main St, Marshall Songs of Hope for the Season Presented by Voices in the Laurel. Followed

by Jack the Dipper ice cream social with proceeds going to support future programming.

SU (11/21), 2:30pm, $12-15, Long's Chapel, 133 Old Clyde Rd, Waynesville

SPOKEN & WRITTEN WORD Miss Malaprop's Storytime Recommended for ages 3-9.WE (11/17), 10am, Registration required, avl.mx/7b9 Sandor Katz presents Fermentation Journeys in conversation with Chris Smith The authors discuss book by Katz. Sponsored by Malaprop's.

WE (11/17), 6pm, Registration required, avl.mx/are Tanja Hester presents Wallet Activism The author discusses her book. Sponsored by Malaprop's.

TH (11/18), 6pm, Registration required, avl.mx/arg Malaprop's Notorious HBC (History Book Club) Group discusses The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang.

TH (11/18), 7pm, Registration required, avl.mx/9s9 Screenwriting Workshop w/Nathan Ross Freeman Participants will learn all aspects of writing the screenplay.

SA (11/20), 10am, The Writers’ Workshop, 387 Beaucatcher Rd

Writers at Home Reading series features work from UNCA’s Great Smokies Writing Program and The Great Smokies Review. Sponsored by Malaprop's.

SU (11/21), 3pm, Registration required, avl.mx/asq

THEATER Listen to This An evening of stories and songs from Asheville writers, performers and citizens.

TH (11/18), 7:30pm, $15, Asheville Community Theatre, 35 E Walnut St The Outsider A non-partisan political satire presented by The Autumn Players, written

by Paul Slade Smith.

FR (11/19), SA (11/20), SU (11/21), 2:30pm, $8, Asheville Community Theatre, 35 E Walnut St The Little Mermaid Jr. The Disney classic featuring 32 local children.

SA (11/20), 7:30pm, SU (11/21), 2pm, Hart Theatre, 250 Pigeon St, Waynesville Moana Jr. A Disney musical presented by Parkway Playhouse's fall junior theater programming.

FR (11/19), SA (11/20), 6:30pm, SU (11/21), 3pm, $10-15, Parkway Playhouse, 202 Green Mountain Dr, Burnsville

CLASSES, MEETINGS & WORKSHOPS Men's Garden Club of Asheville November Meeting Speaker Alison Arnold, NCSU Cooperative Extension Agent, will present Landscape Design – Start Now To Look Forward.

WE (11/17), 12pm, Beverly Hills Baptist Church, 777 Tunnel Rd Progressive Alliance Postcard Party & Silent Vigil Writing legislators on issues and showing support for immigration reform with a vigil outside at the Old Courthouse at 4pm.

FR (11/19), 3pm, 305 Lounge & Eatery, 305 N Main St, Hendersonville Holiday Wreath-Making Workshop Fee covers instruction and materials. Advance registration required by 5pm Nov. 18.

Outdoors.

SA (11/20), 10am, $12, Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center, 102 Water St, Old Fort Jackson County NAACP Branch #54AB Meeting to discuss 2022 MLK Day plans.

Email jcnaacp54ab@ gmail.com to join.

SA (11/20), 10am Dowsing the Geopathic Stress Tragedy Robert Egby, geopathic stress expert, will present on how it can be identified and neutralized for improved health and well-being.

SA (11/20), 1pm, Free, avl.mx/at8 Holiday Wreath-Making Workshop Fee covers instruction and materials. Advance registration required by 5pm Nov. 18.

Contact Brittany Joachim 828-668-9259 or brittany.bennett@ ncdcr.gov. Outdoors.

SA (11/20), 2pm, $12, Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center, 102 Water St, Old Fort Drink & Draw BYOB and BYO art supplies, the live model and instructor will be Continuum Art owner and tattoo artist, Katie Montes.

Open to beginners and advanced students.

SU (11/21), 6:30pm, $10, Continuum Art, 147 Ste C, 1st Ave E, Hendersonville WNCHA Presents: Narrow Gauge Logging Railroads of the Champion Fibre Company This presentation will feature historical

photographs, track maps, and show several railroads that became hiking trails in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

TU (11/23), 6pm, avl.mx/asw

fundraiser. Pricing is per vehicle.

FR (11/19), SA (11/20), SU (11/21), MO (11/22), TU (11/23), WE (11/24), TH (11/25), 6pm, $25-30, NC Arboretum, 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way

Miss and Mister Gay Latino Asheville This year’s theme is “Celebration of Life.”

With performances by MGLA Dancers from Miami.

SA (11/20), 7:30pm, Diana Wortham Theatre, 18 Biltmore Ave

FOOD & BEER

Annual Record Fair Over 5,000 square feet of records, 45s, and collectibles, with beer and food concessions and live DJ sets and broacasts. Presented by 103.3 Asheville FM. SA (11/20), 10am, $5-15, Harrah's Cherokee Center, 87 Haywood St

Third Annual South Asheville Turkey Trot 5K presented by Hunter Subaru to support Sheep Dog Impact Assistance. Space is limited to 1500 runners.

TH (11/25), 9am, $2035, Cecil Park, Biltmore Park Town Square, 30 Town Square Blvd

Weaverville Tailgate Market Local weekly market every Wednesday through Dec. 22.

WE (11/17, 24), 2pm, 60 Monticello Rd, Weaverville RAD Farmers Market Year-round, midweek market featuring 30+ local farmers, makers, bakers, and craft artisans.

WE (11/17, 24), 3pm, Pleb Urban Winery, 289 Lyman St ASAP Farmers Market Local market, Saturdays through Dec. 18.

SA (11/20), 9am, A-B Tech, 340 Victoria Rd Thanksgiving Market Seasonal, farm-fresh products, baked goods and locally-made crafts from over 40 vendors.

SA (11/20), 10am, Hendersonville Farmers Market, 650 Maple St, Hendersonville Jackson Arts Market Weekly event every Saturday through Dec. 18.

SA (11/20), 1pm, 533 W Main St, Sylva West Asheville Tailgate Market Local market every Tuesday through Dec. 21.

TU (11/23), 3:30pm, 718 Haywood Rd, Asheville

FESTIVALS & SPECIAL EVENTS Sippin’ Santa A holiday tiki themed cocktail pop-up, with 10% of all proceeds from the sale of signature glassware to the James Beard Foundation’s Open for Good campaign, to aid the relief efforts of independent restaurants. Beginning Nov. 23-Jan. 1.

The Montford Rooftop Bar, 199 Haywood St Winter Wonderland The historic 1920s building will be decked for the holidays with Mr. and Mrs. Claus visits, a tree lighting ceremony, indoor snow and more. Daily through Jan. 3.

TH (11/18), Grove Arcade, 1 Page Ave NC Arboretum Winter Lights Walk through the gardens lit with one million lights. This year’s theme is Forest and Garden Whimsy.

The event is the Arboretum’s largest annual

Asheville Holiday Parade Celebrating 70+ years, the 90 minute parade features 100 entries including marching bands, dance and cheer squads and festive floats, with a performance area in Pack Square.

SA (11/20), 11am, Downtown Asheville, BiltmoreAve/College St Sixth Annual Stout Bout Festival With 17 local particpating breweries, to include a blind tasting.

21 and over, no pets.

SA (11/20), 12pm, Hi-Wire RAD Beer Garden, 284 Lyman St

SPIRITUALITY Online Baha'i Third Wednesday Devotional An informal, unstructured virtual monthly gathering.

WE (11/17), 7pm, Free, avl.mx/arx

Miracle on Haywood Rd A holiday-themed popup with specialty drinks and decor. Nightly except Wednesdays through Jan. 1.

TH (11/25), 5pm, The Golden Pineapple, 503 Haywood Rd 15th Annual Gingerbread Cookie Contest Cookies must be 100% edible and submitted

by Dec. 1. Winners will be announced during Narnia Studios’ 27th Annual Christmas Open House on Dec. 3, with cookies on display throughout that weekend.

Narnia Studios, 408 N Main St, Hendersonville

Online Baha'i Sunday Devotional Informal, unstructured gathering. All are welcome.

SU (11/21), 10am, avl.mx/a9m Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church 141st Anniversary Celebration During worship service on Saturday and Sunday, to include the Victory March for sacrificial gift giving.

Any questions please contact Deacon Bernard Oliphant (703)786-7064 or Sister Joyce Oliphant (828)273-2681.

SU (11/21), 10:45am, Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 47 Eagle St Baha'i Holy Day Observance and Devotions Observation of the Day of the Covenant with prayer and music. All are welcome.

WE (11/24), 7pm, Free, avl.mx/ata

VOLUNTEERING Experiential Garden Volunteers Needed Looking for people who are interested in landscaping, gardening, carpentry, and art.

Please contact Polly Phillips at pphillips@ verneremail.org, Verner Center for Early Learning, 2586 Riceville Rd Project Linus The WNC chapter is seeking volunteers to make children’s blankets. The chapter creates and donates handmade blankets to area children providing a sense of security and warmth Contact Ellen Knoefel at (828)645-8800 gknoefel@charter. net or Pat Crawford (828)873-8746.

One Last Blast Before Winter Help take down parts of the stage, throw out trash and ready the grounds for the off-season. Montford Park Players will provide lunch and beer.

Bring helpful tools if you can.

SA (11/20), 10am, Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre, 92 Gay St

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NOV. 17-23, 2021

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WELLNESS

Lessons for life

Anti-domestic violence org teaches healthy relationships to teens

BY JESSICA WAKEMAN jwakeman@mountainx.com “Healthy relationships are the best protector against abusive relationships,” says Chaka-Khan Gordon of Helpmate, an Asheville nonprofit providing services and support for survivors of domestic violence. That’s why, as a youth outreach specialist, Gordon visits high schools in Buncombe County to teach boundaries, respect and healthy communication.

“I don’t teach it, like, ‘This is about dating,’” she tells Xpress, noting that many ninth graders in her classes aren’t dating yet. The idea is to offer young people healthy relationship skills for any relationship, be it with family, friends or romantic partners.

The terms “dating violence” or “domestic abuse” evoke obvious physical violence, such as visible bruises. However, that characteri-

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HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT: Technology, especially social media, has created new avenues for abuse and harassment; in some regards, it enables abusers to hide more easily. One sign of relationship abuse is checking a person’s phone, email or social media accounts without permission. Photo from iStock zation of abuse in relationships has never shown the whole picture.

According to Love Is Respect, a project of the National Domestic Violence Hotline aimed at teens and young adults, “Dating abuse is a pattern of coercive, intimidating or manipulative behaviors used to exert power and control over a partner.”

Abusive behaviors include putting someone down frequently, isolating someone from family or friends, stalking and pressuring or forcing physical intimacy.

Technology, especially social media, has created new avenues for abuse and harassment; in some regards, it enables abusers to hide more easily. One sign of relationship abuse is checking a person’s phone, email or social media accounts without permission, explains Love Is Respect.

Bringing Helpmate into schools is a project of the Community Violence Prevention Task Force of Buncombe Partners in Prevention, says Christy Price, the nonprofit’s director of outreach. Buncombe Partners in Prevention is a collaboration among Helpmate, Pisgah Legal Services,

Mountain Child Advocacy Center and the sexual violence prevention nonprofit Our VOICE. Julia Horrocks, managing attorney at Pisgah Legal Services, says her nonprofit supports the program because “a child’s exposure [to domestic violence] increases the chance that the child will become a victim or a perpetrator as an adult.” But education can reduce a child’s risk of exposure to abuse, she continues.

In other words, it can break the cycle.

‘ABUSIVE TACTICS AS ROMANCE’ Abusive relationships can occur between partners of any gender.

However, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence states that women ages 16-24 experience domestic violence at the highest rate of any age group.

“A huge reason is a lack of experience [with dating] and the normalization of abusive tactics as romantic,” explains Gordon. Receiving attention from someone we like is captivating.

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“That produces all these chemicals and hormone releases, and it feels really good,” she says. Those emotions can make it difficult for someone in a relationship to identify when abusive behaviors appear later.

She cites “love bombing” as an example of an abusive tactic: the practice of showering a partner with overthe-top affection, attention and/or gifts at the start of a relationship, then using that behavior to justify later control, manipulation or neediness.

It’s difficult to assess the scope of dating violence, as much of it goes unreported. And data collected by the N.C. Department of Administration’s Council for Women and Youth collates all reported domestic abuse and doesn’t identify the relationship to the abuser, such as a family member or a dating partner. Nevertheless, NCDOA data from July 2020 to June 2021 shows that 1,898 children in North Carolina ages 13-17 received remote or in-person services for domestic violence, and as did 9,079 people in the state ages 18-24.

Buncombe County doesn’t collect data pertaining to dating violence among youths. Despite the lack of data, however, Gordon says she knows anecdotally that dating abuse exists in the county. Why? Because students — and even teachers — speak with her about it.

HEALTHY BOUNDARIES

Buncombe County teaches a curriculum called In Touch With Teens, developed by the nationwide nonprofit Peace Over Violence. One component of the curriculum contextualizes abusive relationships within American culture. “Relationship abuse is not a personal problem. It affects people personally, but it’s really a social problem,” says Gordon. “Our relationships are simply reflections of the larger community and larger society that we live in. … Look at the messages you’re presented in the media.”

In class, students analyze how violent, abusive or controlling relationships are normalized in song lyrics, TV and film — such as the romantic comedy trope of the relentless male suitor who wears down a woman’s resolve until she finally agrees to go on a date with him. The goal is to encourage students to discern their own values and “[live] from personal choice,” rather than emulating popular culture’s example, Gordon explains.

Technology and social media always come up in lessons. Gordon says, “Whenever I talk to them about [social media abuse and harassment], I’ll say, ‘How many of you have been mistreated, abused, harmed?’ They all raise their hands.”

He gets his music online.

His t-shirts at the mall.

Gordon focuses on how “nothing on the internet is private.” No matter if kids are sending text or images, Gordon says, “Somebody can find it.” She asks that students treat “the internet [as] a public space, just like when you go into the mall or you go to school.” She also teaches about communication styles, such as being passive or assertive.

Yet the healthy relationship topic that adolescents most want to discuss isn’t directly tied to tech. “Boundaries are a huge thing with youth,” Gordon says. “Because so many adults have problems with healthy boundaries, they are on the receiving end of so many poor boundary experiences.”

BREAKING THE CYCLE

Helpmate’s program has come to some county schools since 2003, but it only received funding for a youth prevention educator in 2016, says Price. In previous years, it taught in the county’s schools sporadically, she continues, but adds, “T.C. Roberson has always been a high school where a specific coach reached out annually to schedule our prevention education programming.” In 2021, T.C. Roberson is the only school where

Gordon, who began her role in winter 2020, will be serving. She credits the coach, Laura Beatty, for advocating that the program reaches students.

“Helpmate teaches setting dating boundaries before you are in a difficult situation,” Beatty writes in an email to Xpress, noting that she mostly teaches ninth graders. “[S]tudents are less likely to go beyond what one may be comfortable with in a dating relationship if boundaries are known and set beforehand.” Beatty also writes that she likes how the curriculum teaches what respect looks like while dating.

Typically the lessons take place in two back-to-back health classes; in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gordon has been presenting lessons over video on PowerPoint.

She wants to see the curriculum be more widespread so its lessons can be reinforced. “You teach this in the ninth grade and that’s the last time you talk about it; that’s not good for social-emotional learning,” she says.

“We’d prefer to present this to every grade every year.”

Helpmate’s 24-hour hotline can be reached at 828-254-0516. More information about violence in teen and young adult relationships is available at LoveIsRespect.org. X

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ARTS & CULTURE

Roller-pin ready

Pie experts and amateurs offer insights into the perfect crust

BY KAY WEST kwest@mountainx.com Whoever coined the phrase “as easy as pie” likely never baked one.

The most experienced and professional bakers use other words to describe the process, particularly when it comes to the crust.

“You’re creating art when you craft a pie, and you have to enjoy doing it,” says local author and culinary instructor Barbara Swell, whose 11 cookbook titles include The Lost Art of Pie Making Made Easy. “It’s a process and it takes time. You can’t rush it.”

Kelsianne Bebout, pastry chef for All Souls Pizza, agrees. Though the ingredients for pie crust are simple — flour, butter and salt — “making it all come together is complicated and takes a lot of skill,” says Bebout, who also sells custom desserts through her Instagram account, @beebowbakes. “Pie is very finicky.”

As we approach high pie season (what is Thanksgiving without that

HOMEMADE: Xpress reached out to local bakers to discuss the secrets to making homemade pies, including the crust.

Photo courtesy of Barbara Swell dessert on the table?), pie anxiety nibbles away at the confidence of many hosts. As a result, they often turn to — shudder — store-bought, premade crusts.

According to food writer Megan McArdle’s July opinion piece, “Can America Save Its National Dish?” published by The Washington Post, over 50 million Americans used frozen pie crust in 2019, while an additional 40 million opted for the refrigerated cylinder of dough to roll out at home.

Swell sighs. “I was talking with friends last week about Americans accustomed to eating store-bought crusts — terrible, inadequate and mediocre crusts. But many people just look at the crust as a vehicle for holding the innards. It’s no wonder people often leave the crust on the plate.”

And while neither Swell nor Bebout pretends making pie crust is easy, the two have shared with Xpress 22

NOV. 17-23, 2021

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helpful tips and recipes this holiday season to encourage bakers of all skill levels to try their hand at creating the seasonal favorite from scratch, with additional insights and encouragement from emerging baker Annabel Pulman, a 2021 graduate of Asheville High School.

THE BIG CHILL

The basic butter crust is key to whole pie success, says Swell. “If you can nail a butter crust, that will take you pretty far.” Along the way to the summit, there are multiple possibilities for failure, but Swell and Bebout stress a couple of immutable foundations: temperature and handling.

“Keep your fat cold and don’t overhandle your dough,” Swell advises.

“Flour has gluten, which will seize up

if you handle it too much, and your crust will be tough.”

Bebout admits one of the major mistakes she made when starting out was not having her butter cold enough. “If it’s not straight out of the refrigerator, you’ll go wrong immediately. Take it out of the refrigerator, dice it, then throw it in the freezer for ten minutes. Butter that’s not cold enough will blend in and you’ll get shortbread.”

She typically mixes the salt — and occasionally sugar and herbs — into the flour and refrigerates that too.

“Have everything ready before you start,” she stresses. “Don’t walk away from your dough to get something.”

Bebout elevates the traditional butter crust by using different flours from Farm & Sparrow, an Appalachianbased seed project, grain collection and mill. “Instead of using basic 100% white Appalachian flour, I add a portion of a specialty flour like buck-

wheat, spelt or rye. One of the pies I’m making for Thanksgiving will be a flour collaboration between Gaining Ground Farm and Farm & Sparrow that is a really pretty gray-blue color.”

Once the butter is broken down in the flour to pea-sized pieces, add icecold water one tablespoon at a time.

“If you get your dough too wet, it will be a nightmare to roll out,” warns Bebout. “It just won’t happen. Once there is no dry flour in the bowl, stop.

You don’t want sticky dough.”

Or agitated dough, says Swell. “I am adamant about making sure the dough rests in the refrigerator overnight. Some people say 30 minutes or an hour, but it takes a while for the flour to absorb the moisture from the water.”

Bebout flattens her ball of dough into a disc about an inch thick before

refrigerating. Swell says she likes to roll the dough out the day before baking the pie. She likes wooden rolling pins, and clear-glass, shallow pie plates, as well as ceramic and silicone-covered metal, but steers novices away from deep-dish pans.

Par-baking (also known as blind baking) a crust before adding the filling is recommended for custard-type pies. “Pecan and pumpkin pies have eggs in them, so they’re tricky,” says Swell. “Partially bake your crust at 400 degrees, then cool it, then add the filling and bake the pie at 350 degrees.

Don’t underbake. You want that crust a nice, golden brown.”

Swell acknowledges that pumpkin is not everyone’s favorite Thanksgiving pie. “For a lot of people, it’s a texture thing. People love pecan pie, and it’s apple season right now, so take advan-

tage of that. I’m making an apple-pear pie right now.”

MISS AMERICAN PIE

Despite McArdle’s discouraging report on the country’s reliance on premade crusts, there is hope for the future of American pie. It can be found in the likes of 19-year-old Pulman. In addition to being a 2021 graduate of Asheville High School, she is a longtime member of the Asheville Performing Arts Academy. Currently, Pulman is a freshman studying musical theater at Oakland University in Michigan.

“Pie is my favorite subject to talk about,” Pulman says with great enthu-

Filling: • 3 ½ pounds apples (thinly sliced) • 1/2 cup apple butter • 2 tablespoons lemon juice • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract • 2 teaspoons melted butter • 1/2 cup sugar • 1/4 cup brown sugar • 1/4 cup flour • 1 tablespoon fresh thyme • 1 teaspoon cardamom • 1/2 teaspoon allspice • 1/2 teaspoon ginger • 1 teaspoon salt Instructions: • For crust: Whisk flour, sugar, salt and fresh thyme in a mixing bowl.

Dice butter into half-inch cubes, refrigerate for 15 minutes. Prepare ice water and add apple cider vinegar. Add very cold butter to the flour mixture, turn the mixer to speed 3-4. Once butter is broken down to about pea size, turn mixer to lowest setting, slowly add the ice water about 2-3 tablespoons at a time. When the dough starts coming together and there is no more dry flour on the bottom of the bowl, turn the mixer off. The dough should not be sticky. Separate dough into two rounds, for a 1-inch disc, wrap and refrigerate.

• Preheat oven to 450 F. • Filling: While dough chills, thinly slice or mandoline apples and coat with lemon juice and vanilla. Add apple butter and melted butter to sliced apples. In another bowl, whisk together sugar, flour and spices. Add dry mix to the apples and gently stir with spatula to combine.

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Apple spice pie, by Kelsianne Bebout Crust: • 2 ½ cups flour • 2 tablespoons sugar • 2 tablespoons fresh thyme • 2 teaspoons sea salt • 1/2 cup ice water • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Why I support Xpress:

• Roll out one dough disc on a lightly floured surface until about 1/2 centimeter thick, line 9-inch pie tin.

Roll out other dough disc; at this point, you can decide if you prefer a double-crust top or lattice. Add apple pie filling into lined pan making sure to fully pack into the edges.

Top with double crust or lattice top, folding the ends under the bottom layer of lined pie and then crimp or press as desired.

• Freeze for 15 minutes. Put the pie onto a baking pan. Bake pie for 15-20 minutes at 450 degrees F. After initial browning turn the oven down to 350 degrees F. Bake for 30-50 minutes.

• Do not take the pie out of the oven until it becomes jammy. You will notice the filling bubbling around the edges, this means it is almost ready. But leave the pie in the oven until it is bubbling and jammy in the center. Take pie out of oven and wait 1 hour before slicing. X

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ARTS & CU L T U R E

Mrs. Painter’s pumpkin and bittersweet chocolate pie (courtesy of Barbara Swell) An old-timey firm pumpkin pie with a chocolate ganache layer beneath the filling. Makes a 9-inch pie. Roast a local heirloom pumpkin or winter squash for best flavor.

Filling: • 2 cups pumpkin puree (fresh or canned) • 1 egg, beaten • 1 cup evaporated milk • 1 tablespoon flour • Pinch salt • 3/4 cup brown sugar (or a bit less) • 1 teaspoon each ginger and cinnamon plus pinch of nutmeg Instructions: • Parbake your pie crust to prevent soggy bottom crust: Poke fluted pie crust sides and bottom with fork. Line with parchment paper and fill with about a pound of dried beans.

Cook about 12 minutes in a 400-degree F oven. Remove beans and parchment. Repoke with fork and continue to bake

about 3 more minutes just until set, but not brown. Allow to cool.

• Chocolate ganache layer: Heat 4 tablespoons cream just to boil and stir in 3 ounces chopped good dark chocolate until creamy. Brush onto bottom of cooled, parbaked 9-inch crust and allow to chill while you make your pie innards.

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine pumpkin ingredients and whisk well until blended.

Pour over chocolate layer. Place pie in bottom third of oven and immediately turn heat down to 350 degrees F. Bake around 40 minutes until set in the middle.

You can decorate with prebaked decorative crust cutouts and serve with whipped cream. X

Barbara Swell’s butter pie crust (top and bottom for 9-inch pie) Baker’s note: Make your dough the night before you bake and keep ingredients cold as you prepare.

Ingredients: • 2 ½ cups (330 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour • 8 ounces cold unsalted butter (2 sticks) • Scant 1 teaspoon fine sea salt • 1 ½ teaspoons lemon juice or cider vinegar • 1/2 cup ice-cold water plus a tablespoon or so more as needed Instructions: • Combine flour and salt in your bowl. Cut the butter into halfinch cubes. Divide the cubes into two piles. Add one pile of cubes to your flour mixture and blend quickly with fingertips until it’s the texture of cornmeal.

(Pop into freezer for one minute if your mixture is not cold to touch.) Add the other pile of butter cubes. Use a pastry cutter or fingertips to cut the butter into the flour until the fat is the size of peas. Combine the lemon juice or vinegar with the water and sprinkle enough of the

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NOV. 17-23, 2021

liquid into your flour and butter mixture until a small amount of the dough holds together when pressed. Look for moist crumbs.

• The schmear (fraisage) for extra flakiness, entirely optional. This step only works if your butter is still cold; if not, freeze dough for a few minutes. Toss the cold dough pieces onto a counter or board and divide into two piles.

Take the first pile of crumbs and make a line across the bottom of your board. Using the heel of your hand, schmear the crumbs across the board and then stack the flattened smears.

Form into a patty and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or up to three days.

Repeat with the second pile of crumbs.

• Skip the schmear? Divide your moistened dough into two piles and wrap each pile in plastic wrap. Flatten your packets lightly with a rolling pin. X

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FINICKY: Though the ingredients for pie crust are simple — flour, butter and salt — “making it all come together is complicated and takes a lot of skill,” says local baker, Kelsianne Bebout. “Pie is very finicky.” Photo courtesy of Bebout siasm. The conversation began nearly a decade ago when she expressed interest in pie baking and her mother, Katie Locke, told her homemade crust was too hard and took too much time.

“Something went off in my brain, and I was like, ‘I have to learn how to make pie crust!’” Pulman says with a laugh.

Though her earliest desserts were with premade crust, she later began making it from scratch, thanks to hands-on help from her pie-loving, NASA scientist cousin. “My first solo pie was a vanilla bourbon pecan pie,” she remembers. “It was pretty OK. What I do now is very different from what I did then. It’s been a lot of practice.”

And an intense practice amid the pandemic shutdown, she adds.

“My mom got me [Erin Jeanne McDowell’s] The Book of Pie, and

NOW!

it became my quarantine hobby.

I’m pretty sure I made every pie in that book and really got into making intricate decorations on the pies and started giving pies as gifts.”

Her go-to gift pie is salted caramel apple, and a family favorite is cranberry curd. For Thanksgiving, Pulman is thinking of a ginger snap crumb pear pie or spiced coconut pumpkin pie.

Whatever pie you may undertake this Thanksgiving, bear in mind this last bit of advice from Swell. “What trips people up is this fantasy of a perfect pie. People aren’t looking for a perfect pie. They’re looking for one that looks homemade and crafted and has a little bit of the filling bubbled onto the crust that makes you want to eat it. Perfect and pie do not go together.” X

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ARTS & C U L T U R E

MUSIC

Concert cornucopia

The Grey Eagle and Isis Music Hall resume Thanksgiving traditions

BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN earnaudin@mountainx.com Thanksgiving is a time for gathering with friends and family to share a meal and convey gratitude — and sometimes, play a little music.

Taking a pause from menu planning, Xpress spoke with a few area artists and venue owners who have turned the holiday weekend into an annual celebration of song and fellowship — traditions upended in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic.

SHINE ON

Thanksgiving 2020 was tough on many people, including Steve “Big Daddy” McMurry. Since 2005, the singer/guitarist for Acoustic Syndicate looked forward to playing in the bluegrass rock band’s annual holiday weekend show, which originated at The Orange Peel and shifted to The Grey Eagle in 2014. But with the venue and many other spaces not yet back to hosting in-person performances last November, the event was canceled.

“I really missed it. That left a huge hole in my year, and I’m sure it did for a lot of folks,” McMurry says. “A lot of things didn’t happen. We didn’t have our family gatherings. For the last 10 years, I’ve had at least 50 people at my house for Thanksgiving, and that didn’t happen. But I’m optimistic and I’m looking forward to the days that we can get back to being sensibly and responsibly together again. Let’s get this COVID thing in the rearview mirror and move on.”

Acoustic Syndicate will be part of one such gathering when the tra-

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HOMECOMING: Acoustic Syndicate’s Steve “Big Daddy” McMurry, second from right, is thrilled to bring back the tradition of the band’s Thanksgiving show on Nov. 27 at The Grey Eagle, which began hosting the annual event in 2014.

Photo by Sandlin Gaither dition resumes on Saturday, Nov. 27. In the years since the group moved the event from downtown to the River Arts District, McMurry and company have made plenty of fond memories — including one occasion when, unbeknownst to the band, someone passed out jars of moonshine, resulting in an especially raucous and joyful atmosphere.

“It’s such a warm and inviting place to be, and it’s got a good vibe,” McMurry says. “It’s always kind of a homecoming. That’s what it feels like to me — like a family reunion. It’s always a happy occasion.”

The return to The Grey Eagle is especially meaningful for Acoustic Syndicate this year. Though his entire family network and close friends are vaccinated, McMurry says he can’t justify having a big get-together at his house this Thanksgiving and risk older friends getting sick. Instead, the Asheville venue — which requires proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test from within 48 hours — will serve

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as a fine substitute for his Cleveland County farm. And though McMurry wishes that infection rates were low enough that mandatory mask-wearing indoors wasn’t necessary, he agrees that it’s the smart thing to do right now and, while inconvenient, it isn’t “a complete buzzkill.”

“As far as the band goes, we try not to let that affect us at all because it’s not really for us. It’s for the people,” he says. “Our job is to do the best we can under those circumstances, and if that means kicking it up a notch, then that’s what we’ll do.” avl.mx/at3

SONGS OF THANKS

Also in 2005, Asheville-based singer/songwriter David Wilcox began his own annual holiday show at The Grey Eagle. Around that time, he and his family had embraced a quasi-nomadic lifestyle but knew they’d be home for Thanksgiving and able to reconnect with loved ones.

“We had this Airstream for two years, and it was lovely home-school-

ing our boy and seeing all the national parks,” Wilcox says. “We would come back through Asheville in the fall, and that was a time to catch up with our musical friends.”

Over the years, Wilcox has looped in such fellow local artists as David LaMotte, Billy Jonas and Chris Rosser to join him onstage, all of whom he says are quick to accept his invitations and appreciate the opportunity to catch up. Like Acoustic Syndicate, Wilcox was unable to continue that tradition at The Grey Eagle in 2020. But instead of canceling the event outright, he presented it as a solo livestream. While he appreciated learning how to perform in the digital realm, he notes the change was “really weird” and is elated to be back gigging in front of people in the same space.

“I’ve got, like, 30 new songs that are really influenced by my gratitude and my appreciation for things that I had taken for granted before,” Wilcox says. “They’re about how I stay inspired and how I stay curious

and the lessons that I’ve learned, and I think that’s a real common ground with what we’ve all been through.”

In his recent performances, Wilcox has felt a complementary sense of gratitude from attendees, whose strong “need for music and the need for gathering itself” has resulted in a “beautiful energy” between concertgoers and the musician. The Friday, Nov. 26, return to The Grey Eagle is a chance for Wilcox to see even more familiar faces, who he says appreciate the holiday tradition as much as he does.

“It would be fun for me to play more regularly in town, but I kind of like having a normal civilian life here and making this gig a little more special instead of having a monthly little residency in a smaller club,” he says. “It’s kind of fun that my crowd remembers, ‘Oh, Dave’s doing that Thanksgiving thing.’ So, they don’t need to comb the calendars to find out where I’m going to be. It just makes it easier.” avl.mx/at4 APPALACHIAN ADJUSTMENTS Isis Music Hall & Kitchen 743 opened in October 2012 but didn’t host its first musical performance until that December. The following Thanksgiving weekend, co-owner Scott Woody booked celebrated folk trio The Kruger Brothers for consecutive nights — and did so again the next Thanksgiving weekend and every one after that until 2019, when the Wilkesboro-based band played the Diana Wortham Theatre.

HOMEWARD BOUND: Asheville-based singer/songwriter David Wilcox brings his annual Thanksgiving weekend show back to The Grey Eagle after pivoting to a livestream performance in 2020. Photo by Lynne Harty “We have a smaller capacity and [The Kruger Brothers] can certainly draw,” Woody says. “They’ve been real kind to us, and I think they like our space quite well because of the sound and everything. So, it’s always been a pretty fun thing for us.”

For Thanksgiving, the Krugers typically travel to Asheville with their wives and stay with friends for the weekend to make the occasion extra special, Woody notes, adding that the band’s family-oriented approach to life aligns well with Isis’ family-owned professional dealings. The

warm atmosphere of the back-toback evenings has also resonated with Isis’ patrons, many of whom have folded the events into their own traditions.

“The one year that we didn’t have it, I recall that one of our patrons indicated that they always celebrated their wedding anniversary with the Krugers,” Woody says. “There are a lot of very familiar faces for those particular shows.”

Since Isis is permitted as a restaurant, the business was able to reopen and program music ear-

lier in the pandemic than venues without a food service classification. Though the statewide indoor capacity restrictions in fall 2020 made booking the Krugers for Thanksgiving weekend impractical, Woody was able to bring in local singer/songwriter Chuck Brodsky that Saturday and attracted a strong turnout.

With the Krugers on tour in Europe this fall, Woody hopes to book them between Christmas and New Year’s Day, and to resume their November holiday tradition in 2022. But for this Thanksgiving, he’s lined up an all-local set of main stage shows, including vocalist Kat Williams (Friday, Nov. 26), singer/ songwriter Seth Walker (Saturday, Nov. 27) and jazz group The Page Brothers Quartet (Sunday, Nov. 28). Williams’ concert was originally going to be with local instrumentalist ensemble Free Planet Radio, but the group’s bassist, Eliot Wadopian, died unexpectedly in September.

In changing her plans, Williams is embracing a theme of gratitude for the performance and views it as an opportunity to give back to her supporters.

“I kind of bring a realistic approach to the table through entertainment. Whatever I can do to help, I am here to help and serve — that’s it,” Williams says. “This show is a wonderful chance for me to show the good folks of Western North Carolina, Scott and his family just how much I appreciate them and how grateful I am to be part of this loving community.” avl.mx/at2 X

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ARTS & C U L T U R E

FILM

Flickers of light

A look back at the Asheville Film Festival’s brief, exciting run In 1997, Leni Sitnick started campaigning for mayor of Asheville on a platform that included a focus on the local economy.

“It was my idea that we should support the businesses that already exist in Asheville and help them thrive and survive, and to look at Asheville’s existing strengths and try to promote things that were successful,” Sitnick says. “One of those things was the magical and wonderful history that already existed for Asheville and Western North Carolina in the movie industry.”

Fresh off the filming of My Fellow Americans (1996), the area previously welcomed such famous productions as The Last of the Mohicans (1992) and The Fugitive (1993), and was home to numerous behindthe-scenes professionals. What was lacking was something to help bring these various industry components together and celebrate their accomplishments while continuing to enhance the region’s draw.

STREET CREDENTIALS

Sitnick was elected to office that November and says Asheville City Council and various municipal departments supported pursuing ways to elevate the local film community. A few years later, Melissa Porter, then festival director for the Asheville Parks & Recreation Department, was invited by her sister-in-law, who was living in Utah, to attend the Sundance Film Festival in Park City.

“I went out there and absolutely fell in love with the town and the look of it and what they were bringing to Utah and the thought process behind it,” Porter says. “And I was like, ‘This so could be Asheville.’ I could just feel that energy that we could do something really great.”

Porter, who also coordinated the Bele Chere summer festival, ran the idea by Asheville Parks & Recreation director Irby Brinson.

He encouraged her to meet with community members, then write a strategic plan and create a budget to take before City Council.

The proposal was approved and, with guidance from economic development nonprofit AdvantageWest’s WNC Film Commission, Porter assembled a festival advisory board 28

NOV. 17-23, 2021

T’OTHER KEN: Former Xpress film critic Ken Hanke, center, sits with filmmaker Ken Russell, right, and Russell’s wife, Lisi, at the 2005 Asheville Film Festival. Photo courtesy of Lisi Russell composed of local film industry members, among them film and television production veteran Lee Nesbitt Madison. Other key figures involved in steering the festival included John Cram and Neal Reed of the Fine Arts Theatre, former Xpress film critic Ken Hanke and the marketing team of Steve Lutz and Kathi Petersen.

The multiyear process resulted in the inaugural Asheville Film Festival in 2003, which Sitnick and Porter recall as being an exciting, multiday event at numerous downtown venues, culminating in an awards ceremony at Blue Ridge Motion Pictures, housed in the current Highland Brewing Co. complex.

AFF’s early success soon attracted such notable filmmakers as Ron Howard (2004), Ken Russell (2005) and Don Mancini (2005-07).

Meanwhile, one of the city’s most famous celebrities also partook in the festivities.

“At the time, Andie MacDowell lived here and she was involved from the beginning,” Porter says.

“We were able to use her name to get street credibility in a national and regional way.”

Following the inaugural AFF, the city hired Western Carolina University’s Center for Regional Development to survey the 8,000plus attendees. Of the 635 people

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who responded, 388 reported spending an average of $133 per day. Eighty-three stayed in local hotels, spending an average of $119 per day for lodging. Though festivalgoers’ chief complaint was that many films were sold out, almost all stated they planned to return for the 2004 event.

BRIEF BUT MEMORABLE

In hindsight, Porter believes that AFF was somewhat ahead of its time in that it lacked the budget to become a true destination film festival. Funding hovered around $90,000 from 2006-08, then dropped to $67,400 in 2009, part of a 30% overall decreased budget for the Festivals Fund, partly prompted by the economic recession. In turn, Porter feels that it grew more difficult to maintain year after year; especially after she left her job at the city in 2008, and Nesbitt Madison stepped down as advisory committee chair the same year, both prior to that year’s festival.

Nevertheless, Porter is proud of the work that she and her collaborators put into it.

“There’s a handful of events that I look back on with such strong memories and bonds,” says Porter, now a managing partner at Asheville

Event Co. “Like so many other people in the community, I gave a lot of my time and vision to that event.”

Asheville had also evolved over that time. In tandem with dedicated entrepreneurs, downtown Asheville was thriving — to the point that, according to Porter, Bele Chere was causing many business owners to lose money instead of attracting customers. The summer festival became increasingly difficult to program from a political standpoint and ended after its 2013 edition.

Meanwhile, AFF had its own issues.

Despite programming some of its highest-profile films yet, including awards season darlings Slumdog Millionaire and The Wrestler, the festival continued to lose money in 2008 — as was the case each year — and various partners expressed frustration at its organization under the new city leadership of Superintendent of Cultural Arts Diane Ruggiero.

An early 2009 Xpress report depicts a festival on its last legs with attendance down and organization in disarray. Hanke bemoaned a perennial lack of planning, stemming from the absence of a full-time festival director, and the event taking a back seat to Bele Chere each year. And Orbit DVD owner Marc McCloud proclaimed “the whole thing has been botched,” pointing to an emphasis on parties and celebrities over quality films.

In June 2010, citing fiscal responsibility, City Council voted 6-0 to cease funding AFF. After a year hiatus, AFF officially concluded its run in 2011 with a one-day, free event where locally made national releases Patch Adams, 28 Days and In Dreams were screened.

“It was a really good opportunity and it had a real economic impact. There were people that came and stayed, and it was a destination — and this is before the big beer boom,” says Reed, now the director of operations for the Fine Arts’ parent company, New Morning Ltd. “But the economic development goals aren’t the same, and our current environment of tourism and being a destination for things has changed.”

TORCHBEARERS Multiple local film festivals have come and gone since AFF concluded. The former Carolina Cinemas Asheville (now The Carolina Cinemark Asheville) hosted the indie-centric Ricochet Film Festival in 2010 and the genre-focused ActionFest, 2010-12. The latter event brought such action stars as Chuck

Norris and Gina Carano to town for career achievement awards before shifting to a monthly series in 2013, ultimately its final year.

Area filmmakers Sandi and Tom Anton, who wanted to buy AFF, launched the Asheville Cinema Festival in 2011 and used connections with The Weinstein Co. to program local premieres of such future Academy Award winners as The Artist and Silver Linings Playbook.

The event was last held in 2014.

There was also a noncity-sponsored Asheville Film Festival, which ran 2016-18 at A-B Tech and screened small independent films. Each festival ended without explanation.

Current active offerings include the Asheville Jewish Film Festival (which began in 2009); Cat Fly Film Festival (2017), which supports up-and-coming indie filmmakers across the Southeast; and Connect Beyond Festival (2018), which uses music, film and storytelling to help forge bonds among creators.

Asheville also attracts popular oneor two-day traveling adventure film festivals (e.g., Reel Rock and the Fly Fishing Film Tour) that consistently sell out spaces like Diana Wortham Theatre and Highland Brewing. The Fine Arts Theatre hosts AJFF and Connect Beyond, and Reed believes that such small, grassroots events are the future of film festivals.

“Studios and studio film, even in the last 20 years, has changed so much. And what we now call ‘independent film’ has changed so much,” he says. “We have filmmakers now that make films with phones. With a MacBook Pro, a good camera and a few thousand dollars, you can make a stunning film, so the definition of film and the structure of film and the way films are made has changed and is evolving.”

In addition to the democratization of filmmaking, those creators can now get their work to a larger audience at a vastly reduced price thanks to the rise in on-demand streaming. Reed sees the increased access as “nothing but a good thing” for everyone who loves quality films but he misses the purity of sitting in a theater and watching an image projected on a screen that’s produced by light passing through a celluloid reel. He notes that expe-

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rience was all but nixed in 2012 when studios switched to a digital distribution model, a move that he says killed 30% of independent theaters — and has prompted several digital-averse cinephiles within his friends circle to stay away from theaters ever since.

“Add COVID to this mix, and now you’ve got people that don’t want to go and spend time in a room with other people, and then people of a generation that have no understanding of a shared reaction to a film — that laughter in a room,” Reed says. “Film festivals were originally ultimately tied to theaters, and so with that changing dynamic, if there’s no need to go to a theater to see a film, then why is there a need to go to the theater to see a film for a film festival?”

Along with their traditional in-person screenings, Sundance, the Toronto International Film Festival and other premier North American fests now offer digital programming, allowing interested parties to view films from home. And while numerous film critics and movie lovers continue to spend upward of a week hopping between theaters, subsisting on street food and watching films from 8 a.m. until beyond midnight — as Reed did for many years at TIFF — the theatrical exclusivity that film festivals once offered has dwindled, and, in turn, the interest in engaging in such activities.

“It was just so much different when a movie theater was the place to watch a film,” Reed says.

“And that’s the big aspect that you can quantify and say it’s not the case anymore.”

For self-proclaimed “movie freak” Sitnick, the shifting paradigm likewise feels like a loss. The rise in ticket costs have resulted in her rarely going to theaters in recent years, and though she’s attended one screening during the pandemic, the atmosphere barely resembled the days before home viewing became a viable alternative.

“There were two other people in the theater,” she says. “With all of the opportunities on TV, and Netflix and Google, and streaming this and streaming that, the theaters are suffering. But the industry continues.”

— Edwin Arnaudin X

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FOOD ROUNDUP

What’s new in food

Though Iris Rodriguez, her husband, Jose Busto, and their business partner Luis Betances had been toiling inside the compact cinderblock building at 134 Coxe Ave. since they signed the lease in March, it wasn’t until they painted it bright mustard yellow in early October that it really caught the attention of neighbors and downtown workers. “We were being called ‘the yellow building people,’” Rodriguez says with a laugh.

Since their soft opening earlier this month, Little Chango Hispanic Craft Kitchen can still be identified by its eye-catching hue, but the trio intends to be known for Rodriguez’s food. “My heritage is Puerto Rico, so the menu will be mainly Caribbean-inspired dishes I grew up with — tostones [fried plantains], ropa vieja [shredded beef served on tortillas], pork, rice and beans,” Rodriguez explains.

Since coming to Asheville six years ago, Rodriguez has worked in several restaurants, including Cúrate and Hole Doughnuts; meanwhile, Busto previously held a position at Twin Leaf Brewery, next door to the couple’s new restaurant.

“We wanted our own place and had our eye on that building for a while,” says Rodriguez. “When the lease came open, we jumped on it.”

Little Chango Hispanic Craft Kitchen’s Instagram account teases photos of menu items such as pepiada chicken salad; an adobo pork arepa with escabeche salad; and a shimmering come-hither round of flan made with coconut milk and cardamom.

“The most well-known arepas are Venezuelan and made with corn maize,” says Rodriguez. “In Puerto Rico, we also make a version with wheat flour, but we are doing the Venezuelan arepa at Little Chango.” The ground maize dough is shaped into a disc, cooked in a skillet or flat grill, split open to make a pocket to fill with shredded meats and vegetables, then topped with fresh herbs and typically a squeeze of lime.

As for the restaurant’s name, Rodriguez explains, “We call grackles changos in Latin American countries. They are very gregarious little birds with very voracious appetites. We identify! We are very gregarious people, and we love to eat.”

Little Chango Hispanic Craft Kitchen is at 134 Coxe Ave. For 30

NOV. 17-23, 2021

Little Chango Hispanic Craft Kitchen opens on Coxe Avenue

HELLO, YELLOW: Partners Luis Betances, right, Iris Rodriguez, center, and Jose Busto are ready to reveal the interior of the bright yellow building housing their new restaurant, Little Chango Hispanic Craft Kitchen. Photo by Ashley Santana hours and a complete menu, visit avl.mx/asd.

Blackbird spreads wings On Oct. 18, Michael Reppert and John Tressler, owners of Blackbird restaurant on Biltmore Avenue, purchased their second downtown

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eatery, El Gallo, from restaurateur Jacob Sessoms. “We always loved that location and space, and we wanted something else downtown,” Reppert says. The restaurant’s menu, he adds, will remain the same.

In addition to the recent purchase, Reppert and Tressler have plans to launch Shiloh & Gaines, a coffee shop/bar that will open in a former mattress store on Hendersonville

Road in Shiloh, where Reppert has lived since 2017. “I just want a place nearby to get coffee, and a dive place you can have a beer, hear live music, play pool and throw some darts.” Reppert says they are not installing a full kitchen but will have basic food, what he calls “hotties and coldies.” They expect to open in early 2022.

El Gallo is at 48 College St. For more information, visit avl.mx/9r7.

Commemorate your

Pie high

If you lack the time or talent to roll up your sleeves and roll out some dough for this year’s Thanksgiving pie, Buxton Hall BBQ has you covered. But act now. The deadline to order pie a la go is Thursday, Nov. 18. The tasty trio of choices includes sweet potato, caramel and spice banana pudding (made with Spicewalla spices) and chocolate and orange pecan. All whole pies are $40 and can be picked up at Buxton Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 23, and Wednesday, Nov. 24.

Buxton Hall BBQ is at 32 Banks Ave. To place a pie order, visit avl.mx/asf.

Sideline Rocky’s Hot Chicken Shack likes to say it’s been giving Asheville the bird since 2009, but its Thanksgiving takeaway menu is all about sides and desserts to accompany your own bird — or whatever the centerpiece of your celebratory meal is. Among the items to stuff yourselves silly with are deviled eggs with candied bacon, collard greens, corn budding, mashed potatoes and gravy, casseroles, mac and cheese, three kinds of pudding and Coca-Cola cake. Several sizes are offered, and everything will be packaged cold to reheat at home and place in your own serving dishes (no one will be the wiser). Online orders are being accepted through Sunday, Nov. 21, and pickups will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 24, at both locations.

Rocky’s Hot Chicken Shack is at 1455 Patton Ave. and 3749 Sweeten Creek Road, Arden. For more information, visit avl.mx/asg.

Focused on food relief Focal Point Coworking is collecting canned and dry goods through the end of November for MANNA FoodBank. Focal Point founder Alison Page is encouraging people to focus on healthy fare such as peanut butter, canned tuna, applesauce, fruit cups, low-sodium soups and stocks.

According to MANNA, for every 1.2 pounds of food collected, the nonprofit can provide one meal, and for every $1 donated, the organization helps provide four meals to WNC residents facing food insecurity.

Collections will be received Mondays-Fridays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., at 125 S. Lexington Ave. For more information on the foods most needed, visit avl.mx/ash.

win with an

On the AIR

If you’d rather leave the holiday meal cooking and cleanup to the professionals, Asheville Independent Restaurant Association is here to help with the online publication of members’ holiday hours, which covers the Big Three — Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. The site will be updated frequently. avl.mx/8pf.

Also, after a COVID hiatus, AIR is bringing back its popular AIR Passport, which provides carriers with tickets to buy-one-get-one meals at over 50 member restaurants. Passports make great stocking stuffers and proceeds go to support AIR efforts on behalf of Asheville’s independent restaurant community. Check the AIR website for the release date in December. avl.mx/asi.

official plaque

To purchase, contact advertise@mountainx.com

Local time

Worries over disrupted supply chains and backed-up shipping channels are adding to the normal holiday stress load. The Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project suggests dialing back the noise by shopping local, where all the goods and goodies are at the tip of your fingers, ready to put in your reusable bag and take home. Though the 2021 season is winding down for most weekly tailgate markets, until they bid adieu to you, several are offering holiday markets, featuring local artists and adding handcrafted items like wreaths, pottery and jewelry to the menu of vegetables, fruits, baked good, cheese, meats and specialty items.

For a list of those, along with dates, hours and locations in Buncombe County and beyond, visit avl.mx/5uh.

— Kay West X

Asheville’s Ballet Academy Premier Professional

Experience the joy of dance, classes for all ages

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$29.99

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NOV. 17-23, 2021

31

ARTS & C U L T U R E

ROUNDUP

Around Town

Miss Gay Latina Asheville and Mister Gay Latino Asheville share center stage

LIFE’S RICH PAGEANT: For the first time, the Miss Gay Latina and Mister Gay Latino Asheville pageants will be combined into one event. “For anyone who might expect just a Latin-themed drag show, they are in for a wonderful surprise,” says Elio Gonzalez, owner of Gonzalez Diaz Enterprises, which produces the events. Photo by Ayana Dusenberry Elio Gonzalez launched the Miss Gay Latina Asheville pageant in 2008 as a way to highlight the talents of local drag performers who otherwise lacked a venue. The event long ago outgrew the modest West Asheville church where it started, but Gonzalez says the pageant’s original goal of empowerment and self-expression remains at its heart.

“It is important to have an event like this in a city like Asheville that’s not only growing, but also growing in its diversity, because that’s what the pageant has done each year: grown to include representation of all cultures, sexual orientations and identities,” says Gonzalez. “It has been so important that our contestants have felt welcomed, accepted and embraced by the Asheville community.”

This year’s annual gathering takes place at the Wortham Center for the Arts on Saturday, Nov. 20, at 7:30 p.m. A double feature, the celebration will also feature Mister Gay Latino Asheville, which Gonzalez first introduced in 2019. Both events were canceled last year due to COVID-19.

Eight contestants will vie for the title of Miss Gay Latina in the categories of interview, national costume, talent and evening gown. Meanwhile, four additional contestants will compete for Mister Gay Latino in interview, swimsuit, talent and formal wear.

The event will highlight Latin culture through costumes, music and dance 32

NOV. 17-23, 2021

performances by drag and nondrag performers and contestants. In addition to local talents, Miss Continental 2021, Juliana Rivera, will perform, as will Dance Empire of Miami.

“We like to say that the show is a pageant like no other,” Gonzalez says.

The mistress and master of ceremonies will be, respectively, Miss Gay Latina Asheville 2019, Sunny Dee-Lite, and Mister Gay Latino 2019, Aries Mateo Kelly.

The Wortham Center for the Arts is at 18 Biltmore Ave. For more information or to get tickets ($40-$80), go to avl.mx/as0.

Stacks of wax

Looking for that rare Sun Records 45? Or a classic LP by Miles Davis?

Maybe you just need another copy of Abbey Road or Rumours.

Here’s your chance.

The second annual Asheville FM Record Fair will be at Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville on Saturday, Nov. 20, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. (with early admission at 10 a.m. for VIP ticket holders). Already a dozen or so national vendors have committed to the event, meaning there will be at least 18 tables of used records to peruse, says KP Whaley, general manager of 103.3 Asheville FM, the event’s sponsor.

“These folks are record store owners, record vendors and collectors.

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Many of them tour all over the country dealing and swapping new and used vinyl,” he says.

Asheville FM also will sell records that have been donated by the public.

The inaugural fair was held at New Belgium Brewing in 2019 and drew several hundred people. Due to its success — and because New Belgium hasn’t fully reopened all its public spaces — organizers decided to change venues.

“We wanted to move forward in an indoor space that we felt was safe and provided more room to grow,” Whaley explains. “We’re certain this is going to become a signature event for us and also for Asheville.”

All proceeds from admissions benefit 103.3 Asheville FM, a listener-supported community radio station.

Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville is at 87 Haywood St. For more information or to purchase tickets ($5-15), visit avl.mx/as2.

Asheville Holiday Parade The Asheville Holiday Parade debuted in 1946, the same year It’s a Wonderful Life hit movie theaters. And like the Jimmy Stewart classic, the parade has become a beloved tradition.

“I think the parade’s longevity is due to it being a true community event,” says Meghan Rogers,

executive director of the Asheville Downtown Association. “You may see your neighbor on one of the floats or your friend’s kids performing with their cheer or martial arts group.”

The 75th annual Asheville Holiday Parade will make its way through downtown on Saturday, Nov. 20, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. The official performance stop is at the corner of Biltmore and Patton avenues, but viewing areas will be available all along both streets.

The parade will feature more than 100 entries, including marching bands, dance and cheer squads, youth sports teams, nonprofits and businesses. Oh, and Santa Claus is scheduled to bring up the rear.

Rogers says of all the events the Downtown Association was forced to cancel in 2020, the parade was the hardest to swallow. “It brings such joy to the community and kicks off the holiday season for the whole region. It’s very exciting to be able to bring that joy back to our community this year.”

For more information, go to avl.mx/as3.

Make a list, check it twice

It’s never too early to get some holiday shopping done.

The Western Carolina University Fine Art Museum will hold its 12th

annual Handmade Holiday Sale at Bardo Arts Center on Thursday, Nov. 18, noon-7 p.m.

The event will feature gifts created

by WCU students, staff and alumni.

Items for sale will include artwork, candles, ceramics, wearable accessories and woodwork.

Participating vendors include the WCU Art Education Club, ECB Designs, K&K Wright, Kalmia Handmade Goods, Local Art by Jane, Made by Barb, the WCU ceramics club, Paula’s Cards and More, Procrastinating Piddler Creations, Petite Lumière, ReMade by Mel, Smoky Mountain Creations and Spriggly’s Beescaping.

The Bardo Arts Center is at 199 Centennial Drive, Cullowhee. For more information, visit avl.mx/ary.

Artist-in-residence Carolyn Rose-Grayson will be the 2021-22 artist-in-residence for Southern Equality Studios, a program of the Asheville-based Campaign for Southern Equality.

Rose-Grayson is a Fayettevillebased mixed media artist who is best known for digital creations.

“As a queer Black artist living in North Carolina, perseverance and self-exploration have both played a pivotal role in the development of my identity, as well as my craft,” the artist says in a press release.

“They have also been instrumental in strengthening my desire to uplift and empower other QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous People of Color) artists within the community.”

During the residency, she plans to “examine the legacy of QTBIPOC resistance” through various forms of artistic media, culminating in an exhibition, a zine, a documentary and other means of artistic expression.

Formed in 2011, the Campaign for Southern Equality works across the South to promote full LGBTQ equality.

For more information, go to avl.mx/asl.

Outside show

The Autumn Players of Asheville Community Theatre will present as readers theater three performances of The Outsider, a comedy by Paul Slade Smith Friday-Sunday, Nov. 19-21, at 2:30 p.m. The Friday and Saturday performances will be on ACT’s main stage, and the Sunday performance will be at UNC Asheville’s Reuter Center.

The play will be directed by Elliot Weiner, with a cast that includes LuAnn Bolnick, Joe Scully, Julianne Arnall, Kermit Brown, Jerre’ Bolnick, Melody Hockley and Donald Beck.

The Outsider tells the story of a governor who is thrown out of office because of his sexual shenanigans and the political gurus who want to install an easily manipulated buffoon in his place.

The Asheville Community Theatre is at 35 E. Walnut St. The Reuter Center is at 300 Campus View Road on the UNCA campus. For more information or to purchase tickets ($8), go to avl.mx/asm.

— Justin McGuire X

MOVIE LISTINGS Bruce Steele’s and Edwin Arnaudin’s latest critiques of new films available to view in local theaters and on popular streaming services include: PASSING: Actor Rebecca Hall makes a confident debut as a writer/director with this B&W period drama about Harlem housewife Irene (Tessa Thompson) unexpectedly reuniting with old acquaintance Clare (Ruth Negga), who’s been passing as a white woman.

Grade: B-plus. Rated PG-13 THE HARDER THEY FALL: A Who’s Who of Black actors — e.g.

Idris Elba, LaKeith Stanfield, Regina King, Delroy Lindo and Jonathan Majors — powers this violent, action-packed western.

It’s a promising feature directorial debut from Jeymes Samuel, whose inexperience nevertheless shows. Grade: B. Rated R

Find full reviews and local film info at ashevillemovies.com patreon.com/ashevillemovies

LATIN FARE-STYLE TACOS & ENTREES

Vegan, Vegetarian & Gluten Free Options

Thoughtful, locally-sourced dishes, inspired by the dynamic regions of Latin America.

At El Gallo, our vibrant atmosphere celebrates food, dining, drinking and music.

MON. & THUR.: 12pm-9pm • FRI.: 12pm-10pm SAT.: 11am-10pm • SUN. 11am-9pm | CLOSED TUES. & WED. 48 College St. • Downtown AVL • 828.505.8455 • elgalloavl.com MOUNTAINX.COM

NOV. 17-23, 2021

33

CLUBLAND

k

The featured icon indicates which venues or artists require proof of vaccination for upcoming shows. Due to the evolving nature of the matter, the list may not be comprehensive.

Before heading out, please check with all venues for complete information on any vaccine or negative COVID-19 requirements.

For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, opt. 4.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17 12 BONES BREWERY Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm 185 KING STREET Trivia Night, 7pm ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Karaoke, 8pm ARCHETYPE TAP LOUNGE + VENUE Bluegrass & Brews w/ Knob Creek Incident, 6pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY • Comedy Roast of Kenny Stempienk 7pm • Aquanet: Goth Nightk 9pm ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Disclaimer Stand-Up Lounge Comedy Open Mic, 8pm

BEN'S TUNE UP Big Blue (jam), 8pm BLACK MOUNTAIN BREWING Jay Brown (roots), 6pm BOLD ROCK HARD CIDER Trivia Night, 6pm GREEN MAN BREWERY Green Man Trivia, 7pm HANDLEBAR & GRILL Ladies Night Karaoke, 7pm HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Well-Crafted Wednesdays w/Matt Smith (Americana, singer-songwriter), 6pm ICONIC KITCHEN & DRINKS Marc Keller (acoustic), 6pm

GIVING THANKS WITH GOSPEL: Legendary gospel group The Highway QC’s will perform at The Double Crown on Thursday, Nov. 25, 9-11:45 p.m. The quartet has been led by Spencer Taylor Jr. since 1956. He was preceded in the role by Lou Rawls and Sam Cooke. Photo courtesy of The Double Crown ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 An Evening of New Orleans Funk w/John "Papa" Gros, 8:30pm MYSTIC DOME STUDIO Open Jam in the Dome (open mic), 6:30pm OFF THE WAGON All Request Piano Show, 8pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam, 6pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Wild Wednesday Funk n Rock w/Free Anesthesia, 10pm

CASCADE LOUNGE Team Trivia, 7:30pm

THE ORANGE PEEL Sullivan King (metal) k 9pm TRISKELION BREWING CO. TriskaTrivia, 7pm TURGUA BREWING CO Trivia Night, 6pm WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN Irish Music Circle, 7pm

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18

FLEETWOOD'S Terraoke (karaoke), 6pm GINGER'S REVENGE CRAFT BREWERY & TASTING ROOM Gluten-Free Comedy Open Mic, 6pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 Bue Cactus w/ Shay Martin Lovette (Americana, country)k 7:30pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Bluegrass Jam w/Drew & the Boys, 7pm

SILVERADOS The Karma Mechanics (rock, punk, blues), 6pm THE JOINT NEXT DOOR Rod Sphere (rock), 5:30pm THE ORANGE PEEL Not Your Mama’s OldTime Radio Comedy Showk 7pm TRISKELION BREWING CO. Jason's Krazy Karaoke, 6:30pm

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19

MILLS RIVER BREWING Funky Ass Trio Jam (funk), 6pm

185 KING STREET The Get Right Band (psychedelic, indie), 8pm

RENDEVOUS Albi (vintage jazz), 7pm

185 KING STREET Spalding McIntosh (Americana), 7pm

OFF THE WAGON All Request Piano Show, 8pm

ALOFT HOTEL Ben Phantom (singer-songwriter), 7pm

SILVERADOS Open Mic Night, 7pm

305 LOUNGE & EATERY Bob Sherill (singer-songwriter), 1pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Kid Billy (roots, blues, ragtime), 7pm

ALLEYCATAVL Open Mic w/Lincoln, 8pm

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Phursdays w/Gunslinging Parrots (Phish tribute), 9:30pm

AMERICAN VINYL CO. Descolada w/Eliza Thorn & Zachary Warren (Americana, blues, country)k 7pm

SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia, 6:30pm THE 2ND ACT Round Robin Open Mic w/Letters to Abigail, 6pm THE GREY EAGLE • Sean K. Preston (honky tonk, blues, rock)k 5pm • Hustle Souls w/The Orange Constant (soul, rock, jazz)k 8pm

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THE OMNI GROVE PARK INN The B's (jazz, standards), 7pm

SALVAGE STATION Andy Frasco & The U.N. (with Nick Gerlach's Cult Conference), 8pm

131 MAIN Aaron LaFalce (soul, rock, pop), 6pm

SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BREWERY Jazz Night w/Jason DeCristofaro, 5:30pm

NOV. 17-23, 2021

BOLD ROCK HARD CIDER Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Funk'N Around & Melissa McKinney's Birthday Jam, 7pm

SLY GROG LOUNGE Safety Coffin, Cardinal Lake, North by North, Lavender Blue (rock), 7pm

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THE ODDITORIUM Bumpin' Uglies Presents Back to the 80s Dance Party, 8pm

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Move On Up: Soul/R&B Nightk 9pm ASHEVILLE CLUB Mr Jimmy (blues), 5pm ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Will Ray and the Space Cooties (rock, blues, jam), 7:30pm ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Toadface w/Shanghai Doom (dance, electronic), 9pm BEN'S TUNE UP Offended! Open Mic (comedy), 9:30pm

ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Jake Eddy, Carter Eddy & Graham Brewer (bluegrass), 6pm ORANGE PEEL Purity Ring (dance, electronic)k 8pm PISGAH BREWING COMPANY Hunter Begley & Eric Ledford (Americana), 6:30pm RYE KNOT KITCHEN BREWERY DISTILLERY Chris Flanders (acoustic), 6pm

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Everybody Free Dance Partyk 10pm ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Mr Jimmy (blues), 7:30pm ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL An-Ten-Nae w/Attaya, Pathwey & Soak (dance, electronic), 9pm BEN'S TUNE UP DJ Kilby Spinning Vinyl (throwback dance party), 10pm BLUE MOUNTAIN PIZZA & BREW PUB Acoustic Swing (acoustic duo), 7pm

BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS CHIMNEY ROCK Jonathan Calhoun (acoustic), 5pm

THE BLACKBIRD RESTAURANT Spiro & The Falling Trees (blues, folk, bluegrass), 10pm

CONTINUUM ART Comedy Night w/Hillary Begley, 8pm

THE DUGOUT Sinder Ella (classic rock), 8pm

CORK & KEG The Barsters (acoustic, old time, bluegrass), 8pm

THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR Getaway Comedy w/ Gabe Pacheco, 8pm

DRY FALLS BREWING CO. The Stipe Brothers (rock), 7pm

THE GREENHOUSE MOTO CAFE Leading to Follow w/ Miami Gold (rock), 8pm

FLEETWOOD'S Busy Weather, Bonny Dagger, Pipsqueak & Istari (punk, rock, metal), 8pm GINGER'S REVENGE CRAFT BREWERY & TASTING ROOM Aunt Vicki (acoustic/ electric folk duo), 7pm GUIDON BREWING Mike Pauer (singer-songwriter), 7pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 • Adam Hood (Americana roots, soul, country)k 7pm • Seth Mulder & Midnight Run (bluegrass), 8:30pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB The Well Drinkers (bluegrass), 8pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Free Dead Friday w/ Gus & Phriends & Generous Electric Duo, 9:30pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Roots & Dore (blues, roots), 6pm SAWYER SPRINGS VINEYARD Myron Hyman (classic rock, blues), 2:30pm SLY GROG LOUNGE Variety Music Sound Show, 5pm ST. PAUL MOUNTAIN VINEYARDS IN FLAT ROCK Friday Night Jams w/ Wiregrass (bluegrass), 6pm

THE GREY EAGLE • High Blue Heron (Americana, rock)k 6pm • SUSTO (rock)k 9pm THE ODDITORIUM Bold Burlesque Presents #thefeels, 7pm THE ORANGE PEEL We Hate Movies (live podcast)k 7:30pm THE POE HOUSE Howie Johnson (rock), 7pm THE SOCIAL Twisted Trail (Southern rock, blues, country), 8pm TRISKELION BREWING CO. SOHCAHTOA (progressive rock, jazz, funk), 7pm UPCOUNTRY BREWING COMPANY Iggy Radio (rock, metal, blues), 6pm WILD WING CAFE SOUTH Commodore Fox (rock, dance), 8:30pm

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20 185 KING STREET • Hellbender Taiko fundraiser (drumming ensemble), 2pm • Kendall Street Company (jam, alt rock), 8pm ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Karaoke, 9pm ALOFT HOTEL • Asheville Holiday Parade w/DJ Phantom • Pantone, 11am DJ LC Tamagotchi, 7pm

AMERICAN VINYL CO. Slow Packer w/ Nostalgianoid (rock, experimental)k 7pm

STATIC AGE RECORDS Twompsax, Rythym Hams, w/Forever Peace & Charm (punk), 8pm

ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY • Beauty Parlor Comedy w/Geoff Tate & Trey Galyonk 7pm • Sacrilege: Goth Partyk 10pm

SUNNY POINT CAFÉ Albi (vintage jazz), 6pm

ASHEVILLE CLUB Kyle Corbett (acoustic), 6:30pm

THE BURGER BAR Karaoke, 9pm

ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Vince Junior Band (soul, blues), 7:30pm BATTERY PARK BOOK EXCHANGE Dinah's Daydream (jazz), 5pm BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS CHIMNEY ROCK J. Stephens (acoustic), 2pm DRY FALLS BREWING CO. The New Rustics (Americana, folk, country), 7pm FLEETWOOD'S Sane Voids, Bad Ties & The PlayRights (punk, indie, grunge), 8pm GUIDON BREWING Bob Keel (folk), 7pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 • Conservation Theory (Americana, folk, bluegrass), 7pm • Slim Gambill (jazz, rock, jam band)k 8:30pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Lil Lesley & the Bloodshots (Western rockabilly), 8pm JIMMY'S ON THE RIVER Lucky James (Americana), 7pm ONE WORLD BREWING WEST Spiro & 7 Spirits (rock, blues), 7pm

THE BLACKBIRD RESTAURANT Reggie Headen Trio (jazz), 10pm

THE DUGOUT Twisted Trail (classic rock, country), 8pm THE GREY EAGLE Willie Watson (Southern gospel, folk, blues) k 9pm THE POE HOUSE Mr Jimmy (blues), 7pm TRISKELION BREWING CO. • Pete Henry (folk, jazz, blues), 2:30pm • Pleasantly Wild (alt rock), 7pm WNC OUTDOOR COLLECTIVE Brother Biggs (bluegrass), 1pm URBAN ORCHARD CIDER CO. SOUTH SLOPE Shake, Jiggle, and Wobble w/ Your Cousin TL (DJ), 7pm

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21 185 KING STREET Open Electric Jam w/ the King Street House Band ft. Howie Johnson, 6:30pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY • Life's a Drag Brunchk 11:30am • Sunday Dance Party w/DJ RexxStepk 10pm ASHEVILLE CLUB Vaden Landers (country blues, honky tonk), 3pm

SALVAGE STATION Eddie 9V, 8pm

ASHEVILLE GUITAR BAR Mark's House Jam & Beggar's Banquet (jam), 3pm

SLY GROG LOUNGE DRRTYWULVZ w/Chmura (electronic), 7pm

BEN'S TUNE UP Good Vibes Sunday (reggae), 6pm

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CLU B LA N D BLACK MOUNTAIN BREWING Dark City Kings (rock), 2pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Quizzo Pub Trivia w/ Jason Mencer, 7:30pm

BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS CHIMNEY ROCK Rush Morgan (Americana), 2pm

LITTLE JUMBO Ghosts of the American Dream (Americana jazz) k 7pm

HIGHLAND DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Mr Jimmy Blues & Brews, 1pm ISIS MUSIC HALL & KITCHEN 743 Min Xiao-Fen & River Guerguerian (world-inspired improvisation), 7:30pm

OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. House of SYNth, 6:30pm SILVERADOS Monday Bike Night w/ Contagious (rock), 6pm SLY GROG LOUNGE Bonnie & the Mere Mortals (Appalachian goth), 7pm

JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Bluegrass Brunch w/ Supper Break, 12pm

THE GOLDEN PINEAPPLE Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 8pm

NOBLE CIDER Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 6pm

THE JOINT NEXT DOOR Mr Jimmy & Friends (blues), 7pm

OFF THE WAGON All Request Piano Show, 8pm RIVERSIDE RHAPSODY BEER CO. Drinkin' & Thinkin' Trivia w/Allie & Alex, 5:30pm SLY GROG LOUNGE Open Mic with Mike, 6pm STATIC AGE RECORDS Wailin Storms w/Harsh Realm & Zillacoah (postpunk, alternative), 8pm THE FOUNDRY HOTEL Daniel Shearin (acoustic), 6pm THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR Drag Show, 9pm THE GREY EAGLE • Burlesque Brunchk 12pm • Neil Hamburger w/ Major Entertainer (comedy)k 9pm THE OMNI GROVE PARK INN Bruce Lang (guitar, vocals), 7pm WNC OUTDOOR COLLECTIVE Many A Ship (indie folk rock), 1pm

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22 ASHEVILLE CLUB Freshen Up (comedy, open mic), 7pm DOUBLE CROWN Country Karaoke, 10pm HAYWOOD COUNTRY CLUB Open Mic Night, 7:15pm HIGHLAND DOWNTOWN TAPROOM Cheers to Chess, 5pm

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23 185 KING STREET Tuesday Casual Collaborations: Fireside Duo w/Cara Mastroianni (roots), 6pm 305 LOUNGE & EATERY Bob Sherill (singer-songwriter), 1pm ANTIDOTE The Little Posey Trio (jazz, swing), 6pm FRENCH BROAD RIVER BREWERY Robert's Totally Rad Trivia, 7pm GREEN MAN BREWERY Old Time Jam, 5pm HAYWOOD COUNTRY CLUB Grass at the Club (bluegrass), 8pm MAD CO. BREW HOUSE Team Trivia Tuesday, 6pm MILLS RIVER BREWING Trivia Night, 6pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Team Trivia, 7pm THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR Turntable Tuesday, 10pm THE GREY EAGLE NEGATIVLAND (multimedia show)k 7pm WAGBAR Tuesday Trivia Night, 6pm WHISTLE HOP BREWING CO. Trivia Tuesdays, 6pm

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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 24 185 KING STREET Trivia Night, 7pm ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Asheville's Best Karaoke, 8pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY • Beauty Parlor Comedy w/Rachel Foglettok 7pm • Aquanet: Goth Nightk 9pm ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Disclaimer Stand-Up Lounge Comedy Open Mic, 8pm BEN'S TUNE UP Big Blue (jam), 8pm BLACK MOUNTAIN BREWING Jay Brown (roots), 6pm BOLD ROCK HARD CIDER Trivia Night, 6pm CITIZEN VINYL Open Folk, 6pm GREEN MAN BREWERY Green Man Trivia, 12am HANDLEBAR & GRILL Ladies Night Karaoke, 7pm HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Well-Crafted Wednesdays w/Matt Smith (Americana, singer-songwriter), 6pm ICONIC KITCHEN & DRINKS Marc Keller (acoustic), 6pm MYSTIC DOME STUDIO Open Jam in the Dome (open mic), 6:30pm OFF THE WAGON All Request Piano Show, 8pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam, 6pm ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Wild Wednesday Funk n Rock w/Free Anesthesia, 10pm SILVERADOS Open Mic Night, 7pm

THE 2ND ACT Round Robin Open Mic w/Letters to Abigail, 6pm THE GETAWAY RIVER BAR Dirty Bingo, 9pm THE GREY EAGLE Mary Lattimore & William Tyler w/Walt McClements (indie folk, pop rock)k 8pm THE OMNI GROVE PARK INN The B's (jazz, standards), 7pm TRISKELION BREWING CO. TriskaTrivia, 7pm TURGUA BREWING CO Trivia Night, 6pm WHITE HORSE BLACK MOUNTAIN Irish Music Circle, 7pm

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25 131 MAIN Aaron LaFalce (soul, rock, pop), 6pm 305 LOUNGE & EATERY Bob Sherill (singer-songwriter), 1pm ALLEYCATAVL Live Music Open Mic w/ Lincoln, 8pm ASHEVILLE BEAUTY ACADEMY Move On Up: Soul/R&B Nightk 9pm ASHEVILLE CLUB Mr Jimmy (blues), 5pm BEN'S TUNE UP Offended! Open Mic (comedy), 9:30pm CASCADE LOUNGE Team Trivia, 7:30pm DOUBLE CROWN Gospel Night w/The Highway QCs, 9pm FLEETWOOD'S Terraoke (karaoke), 6pm JACK OF THE WOOD PUB Bluegrass Jam w/Drew & the Boys, 7pm OFF THE WAGON All Request Piano Show, 8pm

SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BREWERY Jazz Night w/Jason DeCristofaro, 5:30pm

ONE STOP AT ASHEVILLE MUSIC HALL Phursdays w/Gunslinging Parrots (Phish tribute), 9:30pm

SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia, 6:30pm

RYE KNOT KITCHEN BREWERY DISTILLERY Chris Flanders (acoustic), 6pm

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FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries poet and philosopher Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843) had many ups and downs. He was one of Germany’s greatest poets and philosophers, but he also endured more emotional distress than most people. His biographer wrote, “Sometimes this genius goes dark and sinks down into the bitter well of his heart, but mostly his apocalyptic star glitters wondrously.” You may have been flirting with a milder version of a “bitter well of the heart,” Aries. But I foresee that you will soon return to a phase when your star glitters wondrously—and without the “apocalyptic” tinge that Hölderlin harbored.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Author David Foster Wallace felt sad about how little of our mind’s intense activity can be shared with others.

So much of what goes on inside us seems impossible to express. Or if it is possible to express, few of our listeners are receptive to it or able to fully understand it. That’s the bad news, Taurus. But here’s the good news: In the coming weeks, I believe you will experience much less of this sad problem than usual. I’m guessing you’ll be especially skilled at articulating your lush truth and will have an extra receptive audience for it.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “I never resist temptation,” declared playwright George Bernard Shaw. Why did he dare to utter such an outlandish statement? “Because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me,” he said. I propose that you aspire to embody his attitude during the next eight weeks, Gemini. Make it your aspiration to cultivate a state of mind wherein you will only be tempted to engage with influences that are healthy and educational and inspiring. You can do it! I know you can!

CANCER (June 21-July 22): While still a teenager, Cancerian cowboy Slim Pickens (1919–1983) competed in the rodeo, a sporting event in which brave athletes tangle with aggressive broncos and bulls. When America entered World War II, Pickens went to a recruiting office to sign up for the military. When asked about his profession, Pickens said “rodeo.” The clerk misheard and instead wrote “radio.” Pickens was assigned to work at an armed forces radio station in the American Midwest, where he spent the entire war. It was a safe and secure place for him to be. I foresee a lucky mistake like that in your near future, Cancerian. Maybe more than one lucky mistake. Be alert.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): To create your horoscope, I’ve borrowed ideas from four famous Leos. They all address your current astrological needs. First, here’s Leo author P. L. Travers: “More and more I’ve become convinced that the great treasure to possess is the unknown.” Second, here’s Leo author Sue Monk Kidd: “There is no place so awake and alive as the edge of becoming.”

Third, Leo poet Philip Larkin: “Originality is being different from oneself, not others.”

Finally, Leo author Susan Cheever: “There is no such thing as expecting too much.”

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I encourage you to adopt the perspective expressed by spiritual author Ann Voskamp. She wrote, “I want to see beauty. In the ugly, in the sink, in the suffering, in the daily, the moments before I sleep.” I understand that taking this assignment seriously could be a challenging exercise. Most of us are quick to spot flaws and awfulness, but few have been trained to be alert for elegance and splendor and wondrousness. Are you willing to try out this approach? Experiment with it. Treat it as an opportunity to reprogram your perceptual faculties. Three weeks from now, your eyes and ears could be attuned to marvels they had previously missed.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran educator and anthropologist Johnnetta Cole wrote, “The first

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sign of an educated person is that she asks more questions than she delivers answers.” I agree and would also say this: A prime attribute of an intelligent, eager-to-learn person is that she asks more questions than she delivers answers. I encourage you to be like that during the coming weeks, Libra. According to my astrological estimation, you are scheduled to boost your intelligence and raise your curiosity. An excellent way to meet your appointments with destiny will be to have fun dreaming up interesting questions.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Some people become so expert at reading between the lines they don’t read the lines,” wrote author Margaret Millar. That’s not a common problem for you Scorpios. You are an expert at reading between the lines, but that doesn’t cause you to miss the simple facts. Better than any other sign of the zodiac, you are skilled at seeing both secret and obvious things. Given the astrological omens that will be active for you during the rest of 2021, I suspect this skill of yours will be a virtual superpower. And even more than usual, the people in your life will benefit from your skill at naming the truth.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Storyteller and mythologist Michael Meade believes that each of us has an inner indigenous person—a part of our psyche that can love and learn from nature, that’s inclined to revere and commune with the ancestors, that seeks holiness in the familiar delights of the earth. The coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to cultivate your relationship with your inner indigenous person.

What other experiences might be available to you as you align your personal rhythms with the rhythms of the earth? What joys might emerge as you strive to connect on deeper levels with animals and plants and natural forces?

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn novelist Haruki Murakami writes, “I was always hungry for love. Just once, I wanted to know what it was like to get my fill of it—to be fed so much love I couldn’t take any more. Just once.” Most of us feel that longing, although few of us admit it. But I will urge you to place this desire in the front of your awareness during the next two weeks. I’ll encourage you to treat your yearning for maximum love as a sacred strength, a virtue to nurture and be proud of. I’ll even suggest you let people know that’s what you want. Doing so may not result in a total satisfaction of the longing, but who knows?

Maybe it will. If there will ever be a time when such fulfillment could occur, it will be soon.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): An article published in the journal Scientific American declared, “Most people don’t know when to stop talking.” Conversations between strangers and between friends typically go on too long.

A mere 2% of all dialogues finish when both parties want them to. That’s the bad news, Aquarius. The good news is that in the coming weeks, your sensitivity about this issue will be more acute than usual. As a result, your talk will be extra concise and effective—more persuasive, more interesting, and more influential.

Take advantage of this subtle superpower!

(Further info: tinyurl.com/WhenToStop) PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Since 1996, Ira Glass has produced the renowned radio series This American Life. In 2013, as a reward for his excellence, he was offered a raise in his annual salary from $170,000 to $278,000. He accepted it for one year, but then asked that it be lowered to $146,000. He described the large increase in pay as “unseemly.” What?! I appreciate his modesty, but I disapprove. I’m always rooting for Pisceans like Ira Glass to embrace the fullness of their worth and to be aggressive about gathering all the rewards they’re offered.

So I’m inclined, especially right now, to urge you NOT to be like Glass. Please swoop up all the kudos, benefits and blessings you deserve.

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BY ROB BREZSNY

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DIRECT CARE STAFF (which we call Mentors) who are on the frontline of our work, supervising students throughout the day

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TEACHING/ EDUCATION A-B TECH IS HIRING A-B Tech is currently taking applications for a Full-Time position Computer Integrated Machining Instructor .

For more details and to apply: https//www.abtcc.peopleadmin.com/postings/5857 A-B TECH IS HIRING A-B Tech is currently taking applications for a Part-Time position Transitional Studies Greeter. For more details and to apply: https:// www.abtcc.peopleadmin.com/ postings/5862 FT, GREAT PAY/BENEFITS, REWARDING Black Mountain Academy is seeking Overnight Residential Coaches for 3rd shift to work at our therapeutic boarding school supporting adolescent males with Level 1 (high-functioning) Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) or who have social challenges, anxiety, and difficulty in traditional academic settings.

Interested candidates, please send your resume and cover letter to jobs@theblackmountainacademy.com.

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LEGAL NOTICES NOTICE OF SERVICE OF PROCESS BY PUBLICATION STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE JACKSON COUNTY DISTRICT COURT DIVISION FILE NO. 21-JT-45 IN RE: BLADES, A minor child MICHAEL S. BLADES, Petitioner, V. VIRGINIA CLAIRE NOVOBILSKI Respondent, Take notice that a pleading seeking relief against you has been filed in the above entitled action. The nature of the relief being sought is as follows: Petition to Terminate Parental Rights You are required to make defense to such pleading no later than November 29th, 2021 and upon your failure to do so the party seeking service against you will apply to the court for the relief sought. This 25th day of October, 2021 NIELSEN LAW, PLLC Joshua D. Nielsen Attorney for Petitioner 413 Walnut St Waynesville, NC 28786 (828) 246-9360 (828) 229-7255 facsimile NOTICE OF SERVICE OF PROCESS BY PUBLICATION EBCI THE CHEROKEE COURT, CHEROKEE, NC. FILE NO.: CV

21-601. WALANIA SHELL v.

DAWNINA MIA SHAE JUMP, and DALTON RAY CLINE. TO: DAWNINA MIA SHAE JUMP. TAKE NOTICE that a pleading seeking relief against you has been filed in the above-entitled action. The nature of the relief being sought is CHILD CUSTODY. You are required to make defense to this pleading not later than December 13, 2021, said date being 40 days from the first date of this publication, and upon your failure to do so, the party seeking service against you will apply to the Court for the relief sought. This is the 3rd day of November 2021. Stephanie-Lyn Lepre, Attorney for Plaintiff, EBCI Legal Assistance Office, PO Box 2280, Cherokee, NC 28719.

828.359.7400. N.C.G.S._1A-1, Rule 4(j1).

NOTICE TO CREDITORS Having qualified as Executor for the Estate of the late Kenneth Wayne Fraher of Buncombe County, North Carolina, the undersigned does hereby notify all persons, firms and corporations having claims against the estate of said decedent to present them, in writing, to the undersigned at c/o Paula A. Kohut, Kohut & Adams, P.A., P.O. Box 269, Wilmington, North Carolina 28402 on or before the 4th day of February, 2022, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons, firms and corporations indebted to the said estate will please make immediate settlement with the undersigned. This the 3rd day of November, 2021. Robert Grey Bustle III, Executor for the Estate of Kenneth Wayne Fraher. Paula

A. Kohut, KOHUT & ADAMS, P.A., 513 Market Street, Wilmington, NC 28401. PO Box 269, Wilmington, NC 28402.

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2021

specialty shops issue Publishes December 1

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edited by Will Shortz | No. 1013

ACROSS 1 Chin dimple 6 Lawn care supply 9 Awakens 14 Low-carb “stone age” diet 15 Night before 16 Vodka ___ 17 They’re often used with people, but rarely with pets 19 Psychoanalyst Fromm 20 First and only female prime minister of India 22 Poker variety 25 With 8-Down, street with no outlet 26 “___ Enfants Terribles” (Cocteau novel) 27 That, in Spanish 28 Something you might say at a doctor’s office 30 Stationary 32 “Red Cube” sculptor with an eponymous museum in New York 36 Colosseo locale 37 Word after launch or lily 38 Item on a list 42 First M.L.B. player to enter the Meikyukai (a Japanese baseball hall of fame) 47 Justice who died in 2016 50 Chilly air 51 Period, essentially 52 Krazy ___ 53 New Deal agcy.

55 Merch stand staple 57 Fashion designer and judge on “Project Runway All Stars” 61 Tree with papery bark 62 Island nation once home to the dodo 66 Join forces 67 Like-it-orloathe-it bread piece 68 N.J. town next to Palisades Park

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2 Golden State team, on scoreboards 3 Chicago trains 4 Stinky 5 Cover for the bed of a pickup truck 6 Highway hauler 7 “Your turn,” on a walkie-talkie 8 See 25-Across 9 Sneakiness 10 Extremely undecided 11 Not going anywhere 12 Embarrassment of ___ 13 Crystalline rock 18 TV’s Don Draper, e.g.

21 Dip for chips, informally 22 Prince, for one 23 ___ buco 24 Gardener’s soil 29 Tribe that considers the Grand Canyon its creation place

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47 One who loves to shred some gnar pow 48 Betting setting 49 Classic consoles 54 Songwriter Mann 56 “Take two and ___ right” (old baseball adage) 58 Opéra division 59 Off-the-wall 60 Like cutting and pushing 63 Réunion, for one 64 One-eighty 65 With 70- and 71-Across, agree … and a phonetic hint to this puzzle’s theme

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NOV. 17-23, 2021

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