Hey, man. I'm looking to score a Velvet Elvis. Seen on Asheville's Craigslist under "Barter".

"I have a 21 inch TV with vhs and remote. It works pretty well, although you have to jiggle the wire occasionally when you're watching cable. To get picture in picture I once taped a photo on it."

"My current projects include decorating my doublewide, building a solar hottub, and growing stuff. Here are some trade ideas: a velvet elvis, ceramic hands used to manufacture latex gloves, organic fertilizer, fuzzy dice, yellow bell pepper seeds, a cast-bronze taco 006, a solar differential controller, a rubbermaid structural foam stock tank."

"Hilarious and worthless trades considered."

WTF? Just how random is that?? Seen on Asheville's Craigslist under "Barter".

Citizen Camera!
Each camera was left in place for at least 24 hours with attached instructions to take a picture and leave the camera there. Then uploaded to Flickr.

What a cool idea.

Citizen Camera link | via Blog Asheville

Weekend Theremin Festival!

The world's finest Theremin Players are gathering in Asheville to teach and showcase the music of the World's Oldest Electronic Musical Instrument (AND the only musical instrument you play without touching!) - the Theremin. Moog Music will again sponsor this International Theremin Festival – EtherMusic Festival 2008 - a celebration of the Theremin. This event will feature workshops and concerts and much, much more - all sponsored by internationally renowned Moog Music of Asheville, N.C.

Tickets at The Orange Peel website.

link | MySpace

x-posted to Around Asheville

Next Thursday (April 17th, 2008)

A film by Henry Ferrini & Ken Riaf
7:00 p.m., Thursday, April 17
Fine Arts Theatre, 38 Biltmore Ave., Downtown Asheville
Admission: $7 BMCM+AC members + students with ID-$9 non-members
Filmmaker Henry Ferrini will be in town for the screening and will answer questions afterward.

"A beautifully composed homage to one of the few truly monumental American poets of our times." Jack Hirschman, Poet Laureate of San Francisco

"The best film about an American poet ever made." Bill Corbett, The Boston Phoenix

"...an impressionistic, yet informative and moving document about the act of creation that neither shies away nor oversimplifies." Michael Kelleher, ArtVoice

Just in time for National Poetry Month in April, the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, The Captain’s Bookshelf and Western Carolina University present a striking new film about Charles Olson, poet and charismatic leader of Black Mountain College during its final years, at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 17th. Polis is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place wrestles with the six foot eight inch 275lb colossus of poetry through an extraordinary mix of word and image. Filmmaker Henry Ferrini will be present at the April 17th screening at the Fine Arts Theatre to answer questions following the film.

Polis Is This combines interviews, archival footage, commentary and animation into a single voice full of insight and visual beauty. The film allows the audience access to the subject even as it captures the zeitgeist of a formative era in literary history. The 60-minute documentary features John Malkovich, as well as interviews with poets and scholars Robert Creeley, Ed Sanders, Diane di Prima, Gerrit Lansing, John Sinclair, Pete Seeger, Chuck Stein, Anne Waldman, Charles Boer, Susan Thackrey, Amiri Baraka, Robin Blaser, Michael Rumaker, Jonathan Williams, Ammiel Alcalay, John Stilgoe, Vincent Ferrini and the poet’s son, Charles Peter Olson.

Read More »| x-posted to Around Asheville

TYLER RAMSEY

Asheville's Tyler Ramsey - now playing with Band of Horses

Sporting a beard that would make most men jealous and a talent that would make most women swoon, Tyler Ramsey is a songwriter who clearly values intricacy, quality songwriting, and atmospheric credibility. A guitarist whose stylistic range varies anywhere from gentle finger-picking treats to bluesy riffs of utmost enjoyability, Ramsey has the ability to capture a broad spectrum of emotions in his highly impressive solo material. Though he will likely be remembered for his solo career, Ramsey also serves as a backing and studio guitarist for a variety of acts located around his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. More recently, he has been recognized as the opening act and part-time guitarist for Band of Horses. Though the highly touted indie-rock trio is based out of Seattle and not Ramsey’s own North Carolina, they are giving Ramsey a well-earned opportunity to try his hand at stardom. With the way that his new album sounds, I would not doubt that he reaches it.

link | x-posted to Around Asheville 11/7/07

Rev. Billy Graham: A Prince of War Exposed

The propaganda machine of the Evangelical Christian Right will soon be in counter attack mode. One of its darling preachers is about to take it on the proverbial chin. The Rev. Billy Graham, who has created a multimillion dollar media empire, that a Rupert Murdock would envy, is the subject of a shocking expose’ due out on Nov. 15, 2007. It’s entitled, "The Prince of War: Billy Graham's Crusade for a Wholly Christian Empire". The author is Cecil Bothwell. He hails from Asheville, North Carolina and is an award winning investigative reporter. Bothwell’s unflattering portrait of Rev. Graham shows him as a wily warmonger and a lackey for the Establishment. He describes Rev. Graham as a public figure who: "Undermined the Founders’ skeptical Deism and sought to rebrand the U.S. as a Christian nation, [and] its armies [as] the rightful instruments of [a] Christian crusade and empire."

Read the Review

Asheville's Cecil Bothwell's compelling book sure has people talking. I can't wait to read it.

Patriots Meeting: August 21, West Asheville NC Library
In the past two weeks there have been two illegal arrests in West Asheville, NC of people simply exercising their right to free speech.

Neither Mark Kuhn, for hanging the US flag upside down, nor Jonas Phillips for holding a sign saying "Impeach Bush-Cheany, "broke any laws.

Mayor Terry Bellamy said in city council on August 15, that she wil not tolerate civi disobedience in her city, and has instructed the Asheville Police Department to quell all such portesting. Counciwoman Robin Cape went on record seroiusly objecting to her comments

On Tuesday, August 21, 6:30-8PM, a special meeting of patriots will covene at the West Asheville Library, 942 Haywood Rd. to actively discuss what is to be done.

Plesae tell everyone!

Info 828-254-6620

link

Abuse of Power in Asheville?

What's wrong with a little harmless "freeway blogging" around Asheville? Apparently a whole lot.

Go read the story about an Asheville couple's experience when they held up a sign on an overpass Wednesday.

There's the police department's take on it, ACLU's involved, and AC-T came calling last night.

Police said Thursday that it would change charges against a man who held an "Impeach Bush, Cheney" sign from a bridge over Interstate 240. link

*** X-posted to Around Asheville who has been following the incident since Wednesday and has daily updates on the story.***

Everyone appears to be searching for charges to file against Jonas, Asheville's Freeway Blogger. If you have to confab, search and scrounge for a charge, wouldn't it be much simpler just to let it go? Yeah, that'll happen.

Today a massive police operation was deployed in Buncombe, Henderson, and Transylvania Counties (near Asheville, NC) to prevent activists from protesting a dirty power plant responsible for climate change. Dozens of uniformed and undercover cops surrounded the site of the Southeast Convergence for Climate Action as a police helicopter hovered over the site. [Read More »]


Southeast Convergence for Climate Action

As a culmination of the Southeast Convergence for Climate Action, activists took a bold direct action against Bank of America over concerns regarding their investment throughout the coal cycle and their promotion of climate injustice. Although there was much speculation regarding a protest action at the Progress Energy Skyland coal-fired power plant, protestors surprised the downtown office of Bank of America.

Two activists locked down inside the main lobby and other activists blockaded the entrance to the downtown branch of Bank of America. The protest included a large, lively group of concerned citizens dressed as canaries and polar bears. Activists carried signs and banners that read: "Bank of America Stop Funding Climate Change," "Bank of America Stop Mountaintop Removal," "No Coal, No Nukes, No Kidding" "Bank of America Climate Criminal."

Bank of America has lent hundreds of millions of dollars to companies that run and are planning to build new power plants, such as Florida Power and Light. Between 2005 and 2007, Bank of America facilitated nearly $1 billion in loans to Massey Energy and Arch Coal, two of the largest companies responsible for the destructive practice of mountaintop removal coal mining. This form of mining literally blasts the tops off of mountains to get at thin seems of coal that lay beneath. Mountaintop removal coal mining has permanently destroyed over 500 square miles of mountains and buried over 1,200 miles of streams in West Virginia alone.

link | video
Environmental protesters gathered at Bank of America and Pritchard Park on Monday afternoon protesting the bank's business with coal-fired power plants. (7,547 KB)

Monday, August 13 2007 @ 6:24 PM EDT
**UPDATE: Asheville: 5 arrested protesting bank of America's investments in coal and climate change. Asheville Police Department uses electric shock on locked down protesters. link

Monday, August 13 @ 11:22 PM
**UPDATE: Flickr Photos from Ashvegas

Tuesday, August 14
**UPDATE: Asheville Indymedia--Photos

Wednesday, August 15
***UPDATE: CORRECTION

We would like to clarify statements that were made about the Asheville Police Department (APD) using tazers against participants in the action against climate change and mountaintop removal at Bank of America yesterday.

The Climate Convergence sent out a press release saying that people locked down inside the bank were subject to electrocution shocks from tazers, based on the accounts of witnesses inside the bank. Now that the protestors are out of jail, we have learned that this was an inaccurate conclusion based on reasonable suspicion. One protester was heard screaming while pinned down by large group of officers and subjected to excruciating pain compliance holds right after the police were heard yelling back and forth to each asking "Who has a tazer? Get a tazer!" Many of the officers on the scene were equipped with electrocution devises, along with rubber bullets, chemical weapons, dogs, and training in torture techniques. In addition, a certified Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) who attempted to check on the safety of the protesters after hearing shouts from officers about tazers was not allowed to do so.

The APD has a history of using tazers, widely recognized as a form of torture and the cause of several deaths around the country, on nonviolent protesters. In light of increased use of paramilitary tactics by local police forces in civilian situations, such conclusions are to be expected. We reported information we thought to be accurate at the time; in light of new information, we apologize for any inaccuracies we reported.

In Defense of a Living Planet,
The Southeast Convergence for Climate Action
Related Link: http://www.climateconvergence.org

* * * * * * *
please email me if you have any additional info or photos. thanks go out to jeremy, greenenergy2, fawn, melissa, and the others!

Chanting For The Magnolia

In Asheville, NC, participants in a Wiccan ceremony led by Coven Oldenwilde chant "barbarous words of power" intended to protect a large magnolia tree in front of City Hall from being cut down by a developer, last Friday evening. The tract of land the tree is planted on was sold by the county earlier this year to a developer who plans to build condominiums and retail space.

Staff photo by JIM GENARO

This is the spirit of Asheville and it represents the ongoing struggle of the people against the developers.

link

Flagged down: Activists arrested in row over protest flag, allege abuse by Buncombe deputy



by David Forbes

The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office arrested activists Mark and Deborah Kuhn in West Asheville Wednesday morning after a complaint that the couple was desecrating an American flag. They say a deputy invaded their home and used excessive force. [The photo, taken by a neighbor, shows Mark on the ground, with Deborah standing by, during the arrest.]

The flag was hung upside down as an act of protest and had several statements pinned to it, including a picture of President Bush with the words "Out Now" upon it and one explaining the meaning of the upside down flag, a sign of distress.

The Kuhns, along with several neighbors and witnesses, assert that a sheriff's deputy violently invaded their home at 68 Brevard Road. The sheriff’s office claims that the couple assaulted deputy Brian Scarborough and resisted arrest.

According to the report from the sheriff’s office, Scarborough arrived at the home at 8:45 a.m. in response to a complaint about the desecration of a flag.

Lt. Randy Sorrell says that while the address was in the city of Asheville, "when we receive a complaint that the law is being broken, we have to respond."

Under a rarely enforced state statute, it is a misdemeanor to desecrate or trample a U.S. or North Carolina flag. The Kuhns said the flag was taken as evidence, though the sheriff’s department has no record of it.

After knocking on the door, the couple answered it and, after being shown the statute, said they complied and took the flag down. Scarborough then asked for their identification.

"The flag covered our whole front porch; he comes up with this printout about the law and tells us that we can’t attach things to the flag, that we’re desecrating it," Deborah Kuhn said. "We tell him we're not meaning to desecrate it - all we had was a picture of [President] Bush with 'out now' on it and a note saying this was not a sign of distress or disrespect. We did this because the country is in distress and we don't know what to do."

Read More » | Asheville

x-posted: aroundasheville.blogsopt.com

Interesting...

...if only just a little bit

Is there a "DC Madam" phone call from your area code? Do a search here for your area code and then Google it to see where it leads:

Asheville area code 828 is on the DC Madam's phone bill once in 2003 and the call was made to Candle Station Ltd, Asheville, NC.

~pinched from "peter castro"

I'm Lijit, Baby!

I'm trying out a search widget called Lijit. It is on the right sidebar of this website (for all of you feed readers). It not only searches this website, but you can add other sites and bookmarks and favorites of yours that you also want it to search. It helps me locate something and it helps readers find something quickly.

I have it set up to search my del.icio.us bookmarks, my flickr photos, my stumbleupon page, my youtube, myspace, and any other website I write or contribute to. I've just started using it so I can't totally endorse it yet, but so far, so good.

And the best thing is that it keeps stats for you. It helps me know what the readers are looking for and what they expect to find here. **For instance, someone was searching for the Michael Moore documentary, Sicko, to see if it was playing in Asheville soon and I'm off to find that out for the reader and for myself.

My Lijit


SICKO PREMIERE IN ASHEVILLE TODAY

**The Asheville premiere of Michael Moore's SICKO is today, Friday, June 29. So far Regal Hollywood Cinemas 14 is the first place announcing that they are showing the movie.

*Syntax tells us that SiCKO is also playing @ the Fine Arts Theater downtown as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Regal Hollywood Cinemas 14
1640 Hendersonville Road, Asheville
828.274.9500

SICKO
Rated PG-13, 2 hr 0 min
Showtimes: (1:00), (4:00), 7:30, 10:25

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fine Arts - CASH ONLY
16 Biltmore Avenue
Downtown Asheville
828.232.1536

SICKO (PG-13)
Showtimes: 1:00 | 4:00 | 7:00 | 9:30 (Daily)

Movie Schedules For Asheville

Asheville Cyclists Confront Bank of America for Investments in Coal Industry

Today dozens of cyclists paid a surprise visit to Bank of America to protest their financial backing of coal companies as a part of the International Day of Action Against Climate Change and G8. After tying up downtown traffic, the 30-strong bike ride descended on the downtown Asheville headquarters of Bank of America.

Once there, a number of people dumped coal in front of the main entrance, while another person spontaneously sacrificed their bike lock and locked the front doors shut. With police still not in sight, the bike ride continued on to another Bank of America branch, where participants plastered the bank in stickers, handed out flyers to customers, and held banners reading, "Stop Banking on Climate Change" and "Climate Chaos: Brought to you by Bank of America."

Outstanding!!

link | via | photos

CICADA FESTIVAL
May 25-28, 2007
Deerfields
Asheville, NC

OUR MISSION
There exists an interconnectivity in todays world which is unprecidented. We belive that Now is the time to embrace such ideals as: Clarity, Balance, Acceptance, and unfettered interchange of thought. Come join us in celebrating life.

PERFORMERS
MOONTRIBE, Los Angeles - moontribe.org
ORACLE GATHERINGS, Seattle - oraclegatherings.com
EVOKE COMMUNITY, Asheville - evokecommunity.com
TOUCH SAMADHI, Asheville - touchsamadhi.com
DANIEL PINCHBECK, Author - breakingopenthehead.com

...and much, much more

Link

Happening In Asheville Today


Day In The Life Of Asheville

Flickr fanatics in Asheville, NC, will document a day in the life of our wonderful mountain town.

This event: Satuday, April 14, for DILO Ashvegas. Get out your cameras and go. Then upload your pictures to the group on Flickr. Asheville Midnight photo by Bill in Ashvegasa.

(x-posted to Around Asheville)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Saturday April 14 - Global Warming Rally

This rally is one of 1,300 rallies across the United States. With your help we can easily turn out 1,000 people for this Asheville event. We are expecting more! I am writing to ask you to share this with your friends, get the word out. This is just one hour out of your Saturday. Speakers include City of Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy, Warren Wilson College President Sandy Pfeiffer, NC Council of Churches Richard Fireman, NC State Treasurer Richard Moore, and WWC Environmental
Leadership Center John Huie.

There is a great deal of information on the following websites - speaker list, map of the rally site, etc:

For national info: http://www.stepitup2007.org
For local info: http://phillipraygibson.blogspot.com

Goa Gil - May 19, 2007 - Deerfields (Asheville, NC)

Atlanta Psytrance and Those People Productions welcome Goa Gil back to the Southeastern US, on his second rite of passage as your shamanic guide, for an extended journey into the heart of Primordial Bliss.

Join us in a regional gathering of the tribes as we celebrate as one primal force Goa Gil's sonic transmission of cutting-edge psychedelic trance across Deerfields, a 940-acre private retreat in the sacred Appalachian Mountains. Beneath the skies, on earthen soil where nature abounds, we will dance by ritual fire as the ancients once did -- guided by Goa Gil in Redefining the Ancient Tribal Ritual for the 21st Century through the Trance Dance Experience!

link

2 arrested for scaling billboard to protest power plant

Two local environmental activists protesting a power plant proposed for northern Buncombe County took over a billboard along U.S. 19-23/Future I-26 this morning. The residents are part of Rising Tide North America, a group dedicated to fighting the root causes of climate change. The protest lasted over three hours until local police and fire department forced them down.

Micah Lee, 21, and Abigail Singer, 27, both of Asheville, scaled the billboard around 7:30 a.m. and put up their own sign that read "Burning Oil Ain't Progress. No new Woodfin power plant." The sign, which the Asheville Fire Department cut down around 9:30 a.m., featured 3-foot-tall letters and was clearly visible to interstate travelers.

"Western North Carolina is already suffering from some of the worst air
pollution in the country. By building an oil burning plant that we don’t
even really need, Progress is choosing to endanger our health for the
sake of profit instead of making the necessary investments in energy
conservation and clean energy." said Micah Lee, a life-long Asheville
resident.

SEE VIDEO OF PROTESTORS

link//via//back story
x-posted to around asheville, blog asheville

Asheville couple arrested for having public sex at beach

Shortly after noon Saturday, Myrtle Beach Police took a report of a couple spotted having sex on a balcony at The Breakers Resort.

Officers talked with four witnesses, including an 11-year-old girl, who reported seeing a nude man and woman engaging in sexual intercourse on a balcony facing the resort?s pool.

Officers went to the couple?s room and knocked but got no reply. They gained entrance to the vacant room next door and went to the balcony where an officer spotted the woman on the next balcony wearing only a T-shirt.

He told her to get dressed and answer the door, and after several seconds of arguing with the officer, saying she didn?t need to get dressed and didn?t want to answer the door, the man let the officers into the room, according to police. The couple told police they have been dating for seven years and that if the people downstairs didn?t want to see them, they didn?t have to look, officers said in the investigative report.

The couple also told police the man had recently received a prescription for the erectile dysfunction medicine Cialis and they were in love.

link

Well, maybe after living with his E.D. problem, they couldn't ignore, um, the call.

Just what does separate us from the animals? Animals do it in the open and people can usually wait until they can find someplace private.

The American kirtan movement is alive and well in Asheville, NC.

Bhagavan Das, one of the central figures in Ram Dass' Be Here Now, returned to Asheville this week to lead kirtan at the Namaste Center on Saturday, Jan. 6. (Virato interviewed him on his radio program the last time he was in town.)

And there's Sangita Devi, a group that holds kirtan Namaste every Tuesday @ 7:30 p.m., for a donation. Info: sangitadevi.com.

In an errand run yesterday to do some of my Mother's Christmas shopping for her hairdresser, baker and candlestick maker, I was surprised to see the traffic gnarling it's way throughout this small Tennessee town. People pulling out in front of you, cutting you off every other block.

I reminded myself that it's not as bad as the traffic in Asheville, NC. And surely not as bad as Atlanta, GA. Atlanta is probably the worst clusterfuck of traffic I've ever witnessed. And yes, worse than New York. Pack a lunch in case you get stuck on I-285 circling the city looking for your exit.

When the String Cheese Incident comes to town, it's usually an event. Sure, SCI fans would say that, but I'm talking about what often goes on when they come to your town.

Years ago after playing an outdoor gig, they observed their fans staying behind cleaning up the venue. SCI soon began helping, too, by giving back to the communities that embraced them and most recently coordinated Fall 2006 Food Drives with Conscious Alliance. It's a great outfit comprised of visionary artists who made excellent posters, and musicians who raise money and donate their time to those in need.

On the day of the show in Asheville (NC) last week, SCI and voluteers spent the afternoon cleaning up trash along the river banks.

But for 2007 New Years, a gale of cultural forces will unite for two super freaky nights at the Sea Of Dreams event, that's put together by Anon Salon, Peak Experiences, (the new millenium's Bill Graham,) & Madison House in San Francisco. You can see from their previous events that this one is not to be missed if you are anywhere west of the Mississippi.

String Cheese Incident along with other bands will be there and every element and orifice will be rocked for your entertainment pleasure.

Guerrilla Art School

Black Gum College allegedly existed in or around Old Fort, North Carolina during 1972-3. The surviving mission statement of this guerrilla Art School claims that its purpose was "to inject ooze into society so that art can exist in this constrictive culture."

According to legend, students were "recruited" then led blind-folded to "the campus," a forest clearing where they were given workshops in energy transference, witchcraft, and juice drawing. Students were warned against disclosing the college's location or going public with details concerning their education. No one has yet come forth as a former student. Read more»»

Recent drawings by Steve Brown and the final performance of the black ooze

Reception 7- 11 pm October 13th 2006
Performance some time after 9 pm October 13th 2006
Harvest Records · 415-b Haywood Rd · Asheville · NC · 28806
harvestrecords@gmail.com
828 258 2999

So far I cannot find one thing on the internet about this art school.

Great God Pan

technorati tags:Asheville, Black_Gum

Blogged with Flock

Asheville-based non-profit, Kleiwerks International, is hosting an exciting one-night fundraiser with Starhawk, author, activist, and one of the most respected voices in modern earth-based spirituality. At this critical juncture in Asheville 's growth, our community is fortunate to have this rare opportunity for hundreds of us to gather, envisioning and activating our city's future.

Visioning Asheville’s Future with Starhawk & Janell Kapoor of Kleiwerks International. Join 200-300 local visionaries/actionaries for a slideshow presentation, guided visioning, interactive discussion, raffle/auction, and catered snacks.

Date: Monday September 25th, 2006--TONIGHT!
Time: 6pm-10pm
Location: Jubilee! 46 Wall Street - Downtown Asheville
Information: Call Janell at 828.279.1955 or email janell@kleiwerks.org

Affiliated with Asheville's Earthaven Ecovillage and others.

CROTAN

Dr. Dennis McKenna is the world's leading researcher into Ayahuasca, a trans-formative chemical compound that was developed by the Shamans of the Amazon. Just wanted to touch base with everyone and let you know about Croatan. Thank you for helping us to make this happen. Croatan is a unique event and the first of it's kind to be hosted in the heart of Appalachia. Dennis will be making a brief appearance at Malaprops (Asheville, NC) on Saturday around noon and then back to the Croatan site by the river that evening. The main lecture will be at 5:30 on Saturday, 4-22. [MORE]

Directions - You'll find more liberal, progressive, and underground events like this on my Asheville website.

Authorities Shut Down Sadomasochistic Dungeon

At least six men traveled from across the nation and South America to have their genitals mutilated in what Haywood County authorities described as a sadomasochistic dungeon.

Sheriff Tom Alexander and District Attorney Michael Bonfoey this morning announced the arrests of the men in connection with the illegal castrations. The sheriff and prosecutor said the victims were willing participants.

The victims met the men through a locally produced Web site that published photographs of men engaging in sadomasochistic behavior. Yahoo! shut down the site in December 2004. The castrations took place last year beginning in March and continued through November, according to police documents.

During a search of the home on Wednesday, investigators found DVD recordings of the castrations.

Mondo Fucking Bizarro. This happened in the next county over from Asheville, NC. Just a regular house on a normal road. Do you ever really know who lives in the houses on your street? Is voluntary castration going on in your neighborhood? Eek!

Link

See Screenshot of Website

Monday WebTrail

The 28rd Annual St. Stupid’s Day Parade takes place this Saturday, April 1st in downtown San Francisco - [via]

Jarmusch directs Racounteurs video - Link

WeBeHigh.com - Worldwide Marijuana Travel Guide With Marijuana Prices, Spots & Legalization Status.
[Where to cop in Asheville]

60s Beyond - Survivors from the 60s and 70s. Busy and intimate Yahoo group that's fun and imformative.

"There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life."
-- Frederico Fellini

Bush: Star spangled bummer.

WEBTRAIL - Dubya, TYA, Into The Mystic, Customers, Psym-who?, Gurus, Madness & Freaks

Defective Yeti has another humorous piece for you on George Bush. Iraqi Invasion: A Text Misadventure

Into The Mystic is a smart and soothing breath of fresh air.

If you like 60s music, Sonic Pollutions, is a good site that's blazing a trail on the blog circuit. Ten Years After featured today.

In case you forgot to save it the first time around --How to get a real live human when calling Customer Service.

Psymbiote is today's one of "6000 intriguing people you want to meet online before you die".

Everybody's doing it. Sudoku now in most newspapers will also be included in the Asheville C-T.

Guru Ratings - Yep, they're ALL there.

Today's Quote - Madness is not enlightenment, but the search for enlightenment is often mistaken for madness. ~Richard Davenport-Hines

Too many freaks, not enough circuses.

For 11 weeks, PETA supporters have hammered retailer J.Crew with letters, and phone calls, and protests, demanding that the chain stop selling fur. This pressure paid off on November 30, when J.Crew confirmed that it will pull fur from its stores and never sell it again. Most fur sold in the United States comes from China, where investigators found that fur farmers swing animals by their hind legs and smash their heads on the ground—breaking the animals’ necks or backs but leaving them panting, blinking, and conscious as they are skinned alive. So this is a huge victory for animals throughout the world, and we hope that you will celebrate with us!

Good to see the hard work pay off. JCrew has a distribution center in Asheville and used to have a call center here which was later phased out. Actually, I was surprised when they recently began selling fur products.

Asheville's a "Cool City" – officially

When President George W. Bush pulled the United States out of the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement to curb global warming by reducing fossil-fuel emissions, a grassroots movement sprung up in municipalities across the country to commit cities to the international agreement's pollution-reduction goals.

Asheville NC's outgoing mayor, Charles Worley, became the 188th city leader to sign the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection agreement on Nov. 16.

Is your city a Cool City?

Link

Bush didn't think the Kyoto treaty was a priority? He may chop it off at the federal level knees, but concerned people are finding a way around it by taking it to the streets. Well, to the cities and states. So... can't we find a way to do that with a presidential election and leap-frog the sheeple's choice?

RE-BLOGGING

The worldwide Freecycle Network is made up of many individual groups across the globe. It's an international grassroots movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. Since I first posted about it, many other communities have opened up their own Freecycle groups. Put in your zipcode and check it out.. Best thing I've freecycled or bartered lately? The car I'm driving was bartered for my husband building someone a deck.

Locally, Hendersonville and Ashevilleboth have busy groups.

* Bandnews.org - Live from the Web | Search & Read official Music News - Band Directory - Archive. "Bandnews.org is a search engine keeping track of what is going on in the band scene. A bot collects the news from official band websites and magazines so you can read them on one page." [via: DJ Martian]

Professors publish case study of successful nutritional treatment for cancer. Link [via: Rutabaga Stew]

November 15, 1969. 250,000 War Protesters Stage a Peaceful March and Rally in Heart of Washington. - Link [via: One Thousand Reasons]

AOL has a new stand alone browser. They took some ideas from Firefox, like tabbed browsing, and there's some nice, new features of their own. Check it out @ AOL Explorer. For Windows, Mac, and Linux. 10 minutes download for modems; 1 minute for DSL, Cable.

Now Playing - Incredible String Band - The Sun In Pale Silence

EdgyMama writes in BlogAsheville today that some NC cites are completely out of gas... [via]

I'm not in panic mode yet, although I recall very well the gas rationing in 1974, buying gas on odd and even days, acccording to your license tag number. I paid 2.95 a gallon for Regular this morning in Hendersonville, NC, and didn't see any gaslines. By this afternoon, gas stations on Asheville Hwy 25, all had long lines waiting to pump gas. My daughter has a date to go to the movies tonight--on a motorcycle. Our local news report at 11pm last night sparked a fear in everyone here when they said the area gas stations may not be able to get any more gas this week. Is everyone else experiencing the same problem?

*UPDATE--Oh, shit. Gas can't be distributed for at least another week. The NC gas pipeline has no electricity due to the problems caused by Katrina, and many gas stations here are already out of gas. Well, it suppose it could be much worse.

Synthesiser pioneer Dr Robert Moog has died at his North Carolina home aged 71, four months after being diagnosed with brain cancer.

MEMORIAL CELEBRATION: August 24, 12 NOON
The Orange Peel, Social Aid & Pleasure Club
101Biltmore Ave
Asheville, NC
828 225-5851
www.theorangepeel.net

Link
Memorial
Aug 18 post

Reading the world through Asheville's digital diaries - They're a new breed of citizen-reporters, net-savvy activists and digital diarists, and through their Web logs, or blogs, they keep journals of their passions, posting them online for all to read. In recent years, they've also made blogs a new media force to be reckoned with.

And now cyberspace is rife with blogs from and about Asheville – a widely varying set of sites that are tough to classify, except to say that each one of them is driven by someone's passion for getting their message out. Log on for an inside look at Asheville's blog scene.

Easy Bake Coven - easybakecoven.net
According to the description by creator Susan Cook, EBC's content "May include art, literature, music, film, recovery, counterculture, political climate from a guitar-picking earth mother who practices sarcasm as a form of tantric sex."

Very nice write-up on great group of Asheville bloggers in Asheville's alternative weekly, the Mountain Xpress, with a quick note about my site, too. It mainly features the good folks at Blog Asheville. I thought it would be rather gauche of me to participate in the meeting for this article when local paper, Citizen-Times, already did a blogging spread on me and some others in May 2003. They also chose some folks off of my blogroll to feature. Remember that, Anne and Theo?

Link

Musician Robert Moog diagnosed with brain tumor

Robert Moog, whose Moog synthesizers chart