Oh Sh*t the Video

Cross-posted from Ukulele Rockstar

It's Friday. Christmas Jams and Christmas Spirit.

The Christmas Jam is this weekend and apparently there is a boatload of live music - even during the middle of the day. Check out the Christmas Jam Guide over at MountainX.com

My girls made some crafts and will be participating in the West Asheville Craft Show and Clothing Swap.

Our tree is up. Got a picture? Post it in the comments! Let's get some Holiday spirit for this weekend.

Now that home prices are falling and I have gone back to renting over the last year, I have a renewed interest in finding a home to buy. Love em or hate em, the Asheville Real Estate search tool over at Beverly-Hanks is pretty bad-ass.

Have a great weekend.

PS: Unless I missed it, no one made any sort of announcement about the new BlogAsheville layout. Just wanted to say I like it :-)

The East West Asheville Holiday Art Walk

Most folks are familiar with the west Asheville renaissance that took place with the Bledsoe Building at its epicenter. What folks may not know is that on the east side of the west side there's another arts and business surge. Just east of I-240 on Haywood Road, a collection of entrepreneurs have teamed up to present the East West Asheville Holiday Art Walk. It's this Saturday from 10am - 6pm.

From their website:

Until recently, if you were to say ‘West Asheville’, thoughts usually ran to the shops and restaurants along Haywood Road at the Bledsoe Building and generally west of State Street. But in the past year alone, several new businesses have inhabited buildings along and adjoining Haywood Road immediately east and west of I-240. These new additions have expanded the mercantile strip of Haywood Road, creating another hub of eclectic businesses to draw drive by and walk by patrons into West Asheville.

On Saturday, December 6, several artists and businesses, including several that have opened within the past year, will host a Holiday Art Walk to welcome the holiday season and celebrate the diverse and growing small businesses of the area. Designated the “East West Asheville Holiday Art Walk”, the parameters of the event span the area on Haywood Road on both sides of I-240, and include Domino Lane – a side street off Westwood Place. Participating businesses include the Bloom Room, Blue Ribbon Hair, Minx and Runny Bunny, just west of I-240 on Haywood Road. On the east side, Haywood Road merchants include The Admiral Restaurant, Harvest Records, Blue Barnhouse, A Touch of Glass, Bookworks, Custom, Marty Mitchell Glass, Krug Creative and Steebo Designs. Crazy Green Studios, Mimi Strang Design and Pleasant Hugh Studio are located on Domino Lane. At press time, additional businesses were being added but had not yet been confirmed.

With ample street parking on Haywood Road and on adjoining side streets, all businesses can easily be reached on foot.

Gingerbread Structures

Evidently no one except me, the Lally clan, and those who live on the street where it happens knows about the annual Halloween night Jack-o-lanterns in Kenilworth. But the Annual National Gingerbread House competition and display at the Grove Park Inn is probably more heard-of and seen-of. Check it out, free except possible parking ordeal, and ongoing until January 11th.


(Oh, and I have a little gallery over at Liminal Screeds.)

Holiday Boombox Parade Saturday, 7 p.m.

From a friend's email:

UNSILENT NIGHT is a holiday season boombox sidewalk parade featuring the music of Phil Kline, a New York composer who created the outdoor ambient music piece for an INFINITE number of boombox/tape players.

The parade (started in 1992 in Washington Square) is like a Christmas caroling party except you don’t sing, but rather carry boomboxes, each playing a separate tape which is a "voice" in the piece.

In effect, everyone becomes part of a city sidewalk, multi-dimensional stereo sound sculpture! The 43 minute tape/CD is a beautiful shimmering, ringing sound piece.

In 2006, Unsilent Night was presented in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tucson, Charleston, Milledgeville, Georgia, Banff, Vancouver, the Yukon, Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, Berlin, Germany and Middlesbrough, England (and Asheville, NC!).

You are invited to bring your family and experience this boombox sound sculpture parade in Asheville on December 15th, 2007 at 7:00 pm. starting at Pack Square, walking down the sidewalks to Lexington and then up Hiawassee to Flint, then to Haywood and then back to Pritchard Park and back to Pack Square. It will take roughly an hour to spread an aural fog over the downtown area. It could be quite an evening!

Unsilent Night cassette tapes and/or CDs will be provided free to people with boomboxes who want to participate. For iPod people, here is a link for downloading an MP3 file of Phil's music to play Saturday night.

The Mp3 link: http://www.unsilentnight.com/download

Select Asheville from the city list and then you can download the Mp3.

Consider bringing your family and joining this grand, silly, beautiful and hopeful performance. This event is not really about Christmas or Hanukkah or any faith tradition, but it is about a larger creative human community and the wonder and weirdness we can create for ourselves.

Phil Kline's website with information about the Unsilent Night event is http://www.philkline.com

For more information and other cities participating in Unsilent Night, visit: http://www.unsilentnight.com/

Vance Monument in Pack Square

Saturday, December 15, 2007

7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

bring your boombox or music player (or just come listen)
info: Jim Julien at 335-7708

Smoky Mountain Toy Run

Thousands of bikers - 2,500 to 3,000 - gathered in downtown Asheville and drove out to Swannanoa Saturday to drop off toys they'd collected. An amazing event. Hope you didn't get stuck in traffic waiting for them to pass.

The Truth About Mistletoe

Blue Ridge Blue Collar Girl has the poop on the kissing plant.

Excerpt: "The derivation of the word “mistletoe” belies its romantic reputation. It comes from two Anglo-Saxon words: “Mistel” from the Anglo-Saxon word for “dung” and “tan” from the word for “twig.” Translated, mistletoe would be something like “dung on a twig.”