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Finale by ~NutriGrainKiller at Deviant Art

No Means No - Or Does It?

The county again tries to slip some small zoning provisions into the process. The rest of us get to see the No Means No! yard signs again.

From the Buncombe County eNews:

"In June of 2006, the Board of Commissioners asked the Planning Department to draft maps showing the implementation of:

* a Modified Limestone Zoning District in the Metropolitan Sewerage District service area and
* an Open Use Zoning District in the parts of the County not already zoned or inside a municipality

Once the maps are adopted by the Planning Board, the County will set a series of public meetings to display the maps and get public input prior to a public hearing."

If you've ever wanted to hear folks go OFF about property rights, go to the "public input" portion of that meeting. I'm all for lots and lots of zoning, but I don't reckon I ought to get to tell the county folk how to live. Anyone who'd like to try ought to sign up for the input session.

Click here to read more about the zoning proposal.

What movie is your Christmas most like?

Your Christmas is Most Like: The Nightmare Before Christmas

Christmas was not a big deal for you growing up... And you're still trying to figure out what it all means.

What Movie Is Your Christmas Most Like?

Public Transit and the Homeless

The Asheville Free Fare promotion, which ran for 90 days, ended on November 11. During this time, anyone was able to hop on a bus and take it anywhere within the Asheville public transit system without paying.

Overall, Asheville Free Fare was a success, since many people rode the bus for the first time.

How much of a success has yet to be seen. Will people who rode for free continue to use public transit? Has the experience for the new riders been positive enough so that word of mouth will encourage more frequent use?

While the numbers to answer these questions are being crunched by accountants and experts, I'd like to discuss a problem with the Free Fare promotion that began to manifest itself about six weeks into the promotion:

Asheville's homeless problem began to spill into the bus system - thus making the drivers de-facto baby-sitters.

At the start of the Free Fare promotion this wasn't much of an issue: If an employee noticed someone spending an inordinate amount of time on the bus, s/he would simply tell that person to get off. Within a few weeks, unfortunately, the homeless population began to learn how to get off and on the buses so that they could spend the entire day jumping from one vehicle to the next.

Understandably, the drivers began to deeply resent this, and it showed in an overall decrease in job performance. (You try getting yelled at by an irate homeless man once a day - and see if that doesn't effect your job satisfaction.)

If a free-fare is to be done again, it should be limited to 30 days. After the 30 days, the drivers should be given a bonus. This would go a long way to solving the morale problems from the influx of new riders.

The fare is now $1 per ride, which should solve the problem somewhat since to a homeless person or drug addict 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 equals a lot of money.

But even with the fare increase there is a deeper lesson here: The problems of homelessness cannot be separated from the desire to run an efficient, accessible public transit system that serves everyone. Otherwise they will hold back whatever you build.

To improve the safety, efficiency and cleanliness of the buses; the homeless need access to mental health care, shelter, drug rehabilitation and jobs that pay a living wage.

This makes the problem of improving public transit look overwhelming. It's like deciding to clean your kitchen, but then finding out you have to re-plumb the entire house first.

The goals of homeless activists, labor unions, heathcare professionals, environmentalists and public transit advocates overlap significantly.

For the explanation behind the Brainshrub Bus Project, click here.

To see all posts for the Brainshrub Bus Project, click here.

Earthhaven in the Post

The Washington Post loves writing about WNC these days. They're even giving the Earthhaven folks a fair shake in this article in the Sunday edition:

"THE SOLUTION TO THE ENERGY CRISIS turns out to be, in part, mood lighting. You go with one gentle bulb, a 10-watt number that shoos away enough of the darkness to keep everyone at the table identifiable. We're having a delicious, if arguably dim, meal on a pleasant summer evening at a place called Earthaven. It's an "ecovillage." It's in western North Carolina, east of Asheville, in a notch in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We're off the grid, and deep inside one version of the human future."

It's a long one. Go read it all.

Asheville Holiday Parade Pictures

"The Hillcrest Highsteppin' Majorettes and Drum Corps are always a crowd favorite at the Asheville Christmas Parade."

"Dancers from the Asheville Center for Performing Arts during the Asheville Christmas Parade."

"Children in colorful dress walk along the float by Families With Children From China during the Asheville Christmas Parade."

"The Grinch goes along for the ride on the Jackson's Western Store float during the Asheville Christmas Parade."

"The Asheville High Marching Band proceeds up Patton Avenue during the Asheville Christmas Parade."

"The Asheville Clogging Company spreads good cheer during the Asheville Christmas Parade."

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All pictures credits by: jcoutlakis@citizen-times.com of the Citizen-Times

One can purchase these images from the Citizen-Times!

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Great parade, Asheville!!!

We were down near the Jack of the Wood crowd, who were rowdy but fun: they cheered for every float that went by.

Kudos for the city not charging $10.00 dollars to park, like so many of the private parking-lottiteers!

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Ash has a goodly amount of images from the parade up at Ashvegas! IMHO, his site is one of the best in WNC for images of life in our fair city.

Happy Holiday Parade

60th Annual Asheville Holiday Parade

"Getting There:
When planning your trip downtown parade day, remember there are 100,000 spectators expected!

Public Transportation:
Buses will be operational, and it is a great option with no hassles of parking. Street closings begin at 12 noon, with some streets closing at 1:30.

Parking:
All public parking lots and decks are open.
Remember, meters have a 2 hour maximum.
Carpool when possible.

Participants Drop Off:
#1 corner of Haywood St. and Montford Ave at Three Brothers.
#2 corner of Clingman and Hilliard
Groups should arrive at lineup together! Cars will not be permitted to drive through the lineup to drop off!

Pick up:
Professional Floats and Band Buses will line up on Southside. All other entries will be routed to Buxton and may arrange to meet their parties at Buxton and Asheland.

The Parade will start around the intersection of Haywood Street and Patton Avenue, and will run east down Patton Avenue through downtown Asheville. At the Vance Monument, it will turn south down Biltmore and end near Charlotte Street."

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See you there!

Looking West

-Photograph by Tom Williams of Asheville, North Carolina

It's A Big Old Goofy World

-John Prine-

Scenes from True Home Open Mic podcast

Host, Jarrett Leone, welcomes "pod people" (5200 podcast subscribers from 20 + countries) and guests to the True Home Open Mic at The Courtyard Galley

KT, Solo, Yawway perform Don't Fade Away

Whiskey Drip--all the way from Iceland

Jen reads her poem Sick and Tired

Ash joins Anneabell as they perform Orphan Girl

[More photos at 1000 Black Lines]

Drinking Liberally: Can You Hear the Presidential Noises?

I can't speak for the rest of you, but around here we're still, quite frankly, exhausted from last week's election results. There are still a number of races that are too close to call (including one between "Flip-Floppin'" Robin Hayes and Larry Kissell in North Carolina's 8th Congressional District), but before a mere two weeks could pass between Election Day and now, even before any of the freshman Senators and Congressmen have had a chance to grab a real estate magazine and start looking for apartments in DC, many high profile Democrats and Republicans are already announcing their intentions to run for President in 2008!!

Here's a somewhat long shortlist of some of the names of Presidential hopefuls I've heard bandied about over the last few days: Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Christopher Dodd, Russ Feingold, Mit Romney, Bill Frist... even Newt Gingrich! NEWT FRICKIN' GINGRICH!!! I was in such a great mood this morning before I typed that name... I think I'm gonna need a drink or two this evening.

Which is convenient, because this week Drinking Liberally returns to its regularly scheduled time of 7:00 - 10:00 pm at the Asheville Brewing Company (77 Coxe Ave., Downtown). Come join us for some high-quality brew, tasty food, engaging conversation and all-around good company.

Who knows? We may even talk about who we would like to see run for office in 2008. Who among the current front runners would you like to see square off in two years? If you could draft anyone to run, who would it be? Who would make a better leader - Zombie Harry Truman or Zombie Franklin Roosevelt? Perhaps all of these questions will be answered tonight. Either way, it would be an honor if you'd join us.

Thanks!
syntax (yr. co-host)

Asheville Citizen-Times Asks For Your Help (and gets with blogging)

Joy Franklin says this in her Nov. 13th editorial:

"At the end of this month, our new editorial board plans an off-site retreat to discuss and debate our key issues for 2007. My vision for the editorial position of the paper is more local and more focused than perhaps it has been in the past.

At our retreat we plan to try to reach a consensus on three to five top priorities for Asheville and Western North Carolina.

We invite you to send suggestions on where our focus should be to make WNC an even better place to live. We will consider them all at the retreat.

Send your ideas to jfranklin@citizen-times.com by Nov. 24. We also will take your suggestions on proposed additions and/or deletions to our stable of local and nationally syndicated columnists."

It's good to see our local newspaper refocusing and working towards further improvement. And it's up to us to answer Ms. Franklin's call. What would you like to suggest?

While you're pondering that one, know that the AC-T's parent company has decided work more closely with "citizen journalism":

"Gannett is radically changing the way its papers gather and present news by incorporating elements of reader-created ‘citizen journalism,’ mining online community discussions for stories and creating Internet databases of calendar listings and other non-news utilities.” You can read the full story [here].

We expect to have the Information Center concept fully rolled out at the Citizen-Times by the spring."

In otherwords, the newspaper is going to use the work of bloggers and other internet users to augment, add to, and inform their reporting. I wonder if they'll invite any bloggers to help them do so. Maybe we ought to invite the editorial board out for a fun dinner to explore the possibilities and to say thanks for creating a local blogroll on their editorial page.

Warren Haynes Christmas Jam - Tickets on Sale Today

AC-T's Take 5: "Pre-sale for the show begins at 3 p.m. today through the fan Web site www.xmasjam.com. You will need to register on the site first. Price is $43.50 and service charges. If any tickets remain after this pre-sale, they’ll be available starting Nov. 24 at the Civic Center box office and through Ticketmaster.

Dave Matthews is the big guest name at this year’s jam, along with Haynes’ own blues-rock jam group Gov’t Mule, The John Popper Project Featuring DJ Logic, Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives, the New Orleans Social Club Feat. Henry Butler, Leo Nocentelli, Ivan Neville, George Porter & Raymond Webber, Taj Mahal Trio, Mike Barnes, Brendan Bayliss, Randall Bramblett, Audley Freed, Col. Bruce Hampton, Kevn Kinney, Mickey Raphael, Dave Schools and more."

This is the most music your money is going to buy, and all the proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity. Thanks Warren Haynes!

A Cop Just Stopped By

So this cop just appeared at our door. He wanted to know who was sitting in the passenger seat of my car an hour and a half ago, at the Arbys on Patton and Florida. We called A's boyfriend J to the door, since he was the culprit. Turns out that he flipped off the Arbys, which he has a grudge against, and the cop, who was sitting inside the Arbys at the time thought that HE was being flipped off, so he spent the last hour and a half running my tags and tracking us down.

Don't Asheville cops have anything better to do? Is there no crime in this city? I mean, since when did flipping off a fast food joint become a crime? I grant you that it was a tacky and somewhat unpleasant thing to do (please note that I don't endorse this use of the middle finger in most circumstances) but criminal? Worthy of police notice? Weird and unsettling and even more so because the officer had some apparent trouble believing that in actual fact, none of the people in the car, my daughter, my son & my daughter's boyfriend, even saw him. How paranoid do you have to be to be sitting in a fast food restaurant, see someone in a passing car flip off the restaurant, and assume that you're the target? And just what, exactly, would he have done if J had been flipping him off? Is flipping off a cop against the law? And is any of it worth what it no doubt cost for this officer to use police resources to track down the flipper off?

More or less cross posted from the Hangover Journals.

This Weekend: November 10, 11, and 12

Jeremy Brett of Virtual Inanity is assistant directing a Spanish-language play that will be performed at UNCA this weekend. It's an Argentinean show called "Lejos de aquí," and we have a great cast from Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico. The theme of the show is immigration and our collective desire to move on to better things, whether that transition be physical or emotional. Tickets are free, and the show would be a great experience for anyone, even if the only Spanish they know is "hola."

Teatro Latino de Asheville and UNCA present the Spanish-language play "Lejos de aquí" by Roberto Cossa and Mauricio Kartun. Directed by Greta Trautmann. November 10 and 11 at 8 p.m., November 12 at 2 p.m. in the Highsmith Union on the UNCA campus. Tickets free, donations accepted. Reservations: 251-6195 or telash@unca.edu. www.myspace.com/telashNC

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Ya'll get out and support our fellow North, South, and Central Americans, as well as one of our blogger brethren, this weekend at UNCA!

Sweet Baby James - Dixie Chicks and James Taylor

-For your viewing pleasure-

A Little Help

This popped into the BlogAsheville Inbox:

"I'm wondering if you can send this out to the blogosphere. I'm looking for some help for a friend who appears to have had his car jacked late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning.

You guys might know Jason Holt, a designer-builder friend of mine. He was at the Coxe Avenue Pizza Company election shindig last night. He left the pizza company about 11:20 p.m. and had some beers with me downtown.

Afterward...we drove around town trying to find his truck. He was really confused and wondering if he just had too much to drink. Unfortunately, it looks like someone stole his truck, a tan Toyota four-wheel drive. It's got some rust on the body and isn't the typical vehicle you would think a thief would target (no stereo, very utilitarian.)

We believe the truck was parked near the Wachovia Bank ATM/drive-through. If anyone saw anything could you call Jason 713-6451."

Charles Taylor Concedes

The Citizen-Times is reporting "U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor has conceded his race to Democratic challenger Heath Shuler.

Taylor, a Brevard Republican in office 16 years as the 11th Congressional District representative, delivered his concession speech about 10:35..."

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Heath Shuler is our new Congressman...Congratulations, Heath!

Dueling Emmylou's

From 1977. Lovely early performance by Emmylou on the Kitty Wells classic.

Self penned track from Emmylou from Spyboy, era 1997-2007.

A quick message from the MoveOn office in Asheville:

Jeremy Tarr, a MoveOn organiser working in Flat Iron building in downtown Asheville has requested all local bloggers to post this message to their blogs:

Now is the time to make a difference in this election.

1) Vote EARLY on Tuesday. Asheville area polls are open from 6:30 am to 7:30pm. Heath Shuler (U.S. House), Susan Fisher ( N.C. House), and other candidates need your overwhelming support.

2) Volunteer at the Democratic Headquarters. We need you to join other concerned citizens. If you have never volunteered for a campaign, just come to the Asheville Democratic Headquarters in Oakley (.951 Fairview Rd). We will match your interest with our immediate needs.

3) Get your friends to vote. Call and your friends to make sure they vote.

1-2 hours of your time today or tomorrow will make a difference in the many important races this year. Volunteering is easy and fun, so come join the movement to change the U.S. and N.C. Congresses.

Join the national wave of change by making your voice heard on the war, the environment, and healthcare. Today's urgent issues to are too important to let others decide them for us!

Call me at 828-582-8153 to volunteer.

Jeremy Tarr
Volunteer
Susan Fisher for NC House District 114
Asheville, NC
828-582-8153

The First-Ever Drinking Liberally Election Night Throwdown - Tomorrow Night!!!

(Cross-posted from Scrutiny Hooligans)

You've worked hard. You've gnashed your teeth and pounded the pavement. You've wrestled with idealism, pragmatism, and realism. You've canvassed, phone banked, written letters to the editor, and donated money. You've paid attention and tried to act responsibly.

Now it's time to celebrate your efforts by watching the returns through the bottom of a pint glass.

Drinking Liberally and the Asheville Brewing Company are thrilled to host an Election Night Bash on Tuesday night from 7pm until 2am at 77 Coxe Avenue. We'll have live election returns from across the country, live music by DJ Swiftboat, live wires, and scads of joie de vivre.

Bring your laptop if you want to set up at one of our two command centers (one indoors, one outdoors). Help us count down to the magic numbers: 15 takeovers to win the House, 6 takeovers to win the Senate, 1 takeover to win the district. Watch Van Duncan blow Bobby Medford's machine out of the Sherriff's seat. Watch the NC House and Senate races. Catch it all as fast as the internets can deliver it.

Thanks for everything you've done, and we'll see you on Tuesday!

Go To Sleep You Little Baby

Alison Krauss & Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris




Just a little something for the soul....

Drinking Liberally - The Calm Before the Storm

The last couple of weeks have been nerve-wracking here @ Asheville Drinking Liberally HQ, as I'm sure it's been for many of you. We're already burning the candle at both ends, trying to get in as much volunteer time as possible before the election. A few of us are sacrificing a meal or two to donate to candidates. Some are having to ignore important tasks like raking leaves to do some phone-banking.

Okay, okay, you caught me. But raking leaves sucks.

We're thinking that tonight would be a perfect night to just chill out with a cold one and reflect on what's happened during this election season and what will happen over the next five days. So, tonight's Drinking Liberally meeting will be dedicated to recharging our batteries and psyching ourselves up for the long weekend ahead of us.

And believe me, you're going to want to save your energy for this coming Tuesday night, because Asheville Drinking Liberally is hosting their very first Election Night Extravaganza at the Asheville Brewing Company! More details will be posted over the weekend, as we're still in the process of working out some of the technical stuff, but you'll be among the first to know. All we know is that this thing is going to be big. Big enough to coax the reclusive DJ Swiftboat out of retirement to provide some musical accompaniment. So be sure to swing by after the polls close and have some tasty microbrew. Got a laptop? They've got Wi-Fi, so you can grab up-to-the-minute returns on all the local and national races. Most importantly, this is going to serve as a fitting bookend to a very tough and very exhausting election season, and no matter the outcome we'll all have a reason to down a few pints. More details to follow.

So be sure to join us @ the Asheville Brewing Company (77 Coxe Ave., Downtown) tonight for a nice, mellow chill session, and on Tuesday for a massive throwdown that you won't soon forget!

Come Laugh for a GREAT Cause

Play it Again, for Seth

November 2nd, 4th, and 5th, The OxyMorons are rocking some very special fundraising shows for the Asheville City School's Foundation supporting the Seth Olson Playground at Isaac Dickson Elementary School. Seth Olson was a talented young man who was the heart and soul of The OxyMorons for nearly a year before his tragic, unexpected death. So we're doing everything we can to help support the awesome charity that bears his name.

WHERE: The Asheville Pizza and Brewing Company at 675 Merrimon Ave.
WHEN: Thursday - 10:00pm
Saturday and Sunday - 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
WHAT: Thursday - Adult Comedy Improv Show w/door Prizes
Saturday and Sunday- Kids' Shows with Special Kids Improv Workshops (ages 5-12)
HOW MUCH: Thursday - $15, Saturday and Sunday - $5 (includes FREE pizza for kids!)

Come out and laugh for a ridiculously good cause. If you can't make it to the show, go visit the official site for the Seth Olson Playground at Isaac Dickson Elementary School and make a donation. If you don't, karma will get you. Don't forget about karma, pal.