Arts + Entertainment

 

Jokes, laughter, happiness and good health

As part of my gifts for Father’s Day this year, my daughter bought me a book. She apologized before handing it to me, saying “It’s really terrible and silly, and I almost didn’t give it to you.” 

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Love you madly: A retrospective on rock rebels Cake

In the vast annals of American rock music, alternative rock act Cake remains a beacon of eccentricity — this sonic love letter to quirky individuality and creative freedom. It’s a unique blend of rock, country and funk, the sum of which swirling around the spoken-word prose of lead singer John McCrea. 

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‘The Anxious Generation’ — Part 2

Editor’s note: This first part of this review was published in the July 24 edition of The Smoky Mountain News The evidence is clear that social media is not healthy for girls under the age of sixteen.

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Carry this together: Zoe and Cloyd

With their latest album, “Songs of Our Grandfathers,” rising Asheville Americana/folk duo Zoe & Cloyd decided to take a different approach to this most recent musical endeavor. 

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The ‘Anxious Generation’ – Part 1

A month ago I called my brother-in-law, known to all the family as Uncle Jim, to ask a favor. He readily said yes to the favor, then said he had one for me. He wanted me to read “The Anxious Generation,” the book about the first generation to go through adolescence with smartphones. 

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A bird’s eye view of feathered friends

In a remarkable book that combines eco-poetry, poetic prose and personal and scientific information by award-winning African-American ornithologist and professor at Clemson University, J. Drew Lanham, birds are the major focus, with Lanham even giving us a semi-humorous list of rules for birders.

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Blurring the Lines: A conversation with Liam Purcell

Straddling the line between neo-traditional and progressive bluegrass, Liam Purcell & Cane Mill Road are a fiercely ambitious and purposely elusive melodic force to be reckoned with in the live music scene of Western North Carolina and beyond. 

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Dealing with loss, grief, and the balm of love

On the first Saturday of June, my friend John and I were just leaving McKay Used Books in Manassas, Virginia, when I spotted a woman young enough to be my granddaughter seated at a table topped by a couple of piles of books.

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Mural celebrates past, present and future of Pigeon Center

A visually stunning amalgamation of images — both historic and aspirational — now adorns Waynesville’s Pigeon Community Multicultural Development center, breathing new life into an old neighborhood and commemorating the important role of the structure in regional Black history. 

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