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By Chris Cooper
A rather popular band was recently branded with the criticism of being “a small band trying to sound big.” It’s an interesting idea, because in a different context (and in regards to a different band), it could easily be taken as praise.
By Michael Beadle
As a Broadway hit, “My Fair Lady” made Julie Andrews a star. As a film, it made Audrey Hepburn a Hollywood icon.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Sylva town board members should expect a heated public comment session at their upcoming meeting on Thursday, July 6, as Downtown Sylva Association members are rallying support to persuade aldermen to overturn their decision to cut the organization’s funding from $20,000 to $2,000.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Fifty years ago, Jackson County’s Greens Creek was used as a dumping ground — milk jugs, tin cans and all kinds of unwanted items, local residents say.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Late last month Macon County consultant Gary Nicholson sent out 351 letters to local accommodations owners to begin building a database of who is supposed to pay the county’s 3 percent tax on overnight lodging aimed at tourists.
By Lee Shelton
After the primary election results were in, I offered a commentary on county government and the implications of the election’s outcome. That column elicited several responses, and led me to explore the history and role of county government in North Carolina.
The North Carolina Sierra Club and Southern Environmental Law Center have filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency for allowing air pollution from other states to continue to pollute the air North Carolinians breathe.
By Michael Beadle
You’ll have to excuse Greg Duff if he greets you out of breath.
If he’s not in the middle of coordinating the upcoming Bele Chere 5K, the Inaugural Lake Logan Triathlon, Jackson County’s Tour de Tuck bike race or the Asheville Citizen-Times Half-Marathon/5K, he’s busy training for his next triathlon.
The All Taxa Biological Inventory hit the 5,000 species milestone this summer in an ongoing effort to document every species in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
By Ed Kelley
If you spend much time in the outdoors, you will eventually have an encounter with wildlife. I am always on the lookout for signs of animal activity. Tracks, scat, scrapings, digging, paths through the leaves or grass, clipped-off leaves or twigs are indicators that some animal has been through the area. Some folks are afraid of going into the woods because of the possibility of meeting a wild animal. These fears are usually unfounded, as most denizens of the forest are fearful of humans.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Sylva town board members’ minds are unchanged about cutting the Downtown Sylva Association’s funding from $20,000 to $2,000 after a heated public comment session pitted local merchants against budgetary conservatives.
When Louis and Talitha Mes put up a 100-foot windmill two weeks ago in the Crabtree community of Haywood County to generate electricity, which will go along with the solar panels that heat their home and water, their plan was simple: to reduce their impact on the environment. In the world as it should be, that’s a goal we all would abide by.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is inviting kids and their families to participate in a selection of summer programs that offers more than a dozen hands-on fun activities through a new and expanded Junior Ranger Program.
Rebel records, the venerable bluegrass-only imprint that’s as much a home to royalty like Ralph Stanley as it is young upstarts like Steep Canyon Rangers, has issued a slew of fine CDs in the last few months.
By Michael Beadle
Dee Dee Triplett is a woman of the cloth. Her husband, Robert, is a man of strong metal.
Instant Sociology
Ever had one of those days where nobody, I mean nobody, made much sense? Baffling behaviors everywhere? Here’s my solution: research!
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Macon County residents have the opportunity to help design the first New Urbanist traditional neighborhood in Western North Carolina — a neighborhood that will rely on mixed use and smart growth development practices to create a 22-acre housing complex just outside downtown Franklin.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
As the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hones its final recommendations for the mitigation Duke Power should provide in exchange for using the region’s waterways to produce hydroelectric power, local officials are asking for one thing — more time.
By Chris Cooper
Hold one of your hands up, left or right, whichever you prefer. With your palm facing outward, curl your middle and ring fingers, as well as your thumb, into the palm of your hand, leaving the index and pinky fully extended. You are now making the universal “metal’ sign, similar to the Vulcan “live long and prosper” sign. You may use this particular gesture either in lieu of (or as a precursor to) clapping after a song. If you wish, it can be used to indicate the “metallitude” of someone or something, as well.
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, Bruce Springsteen
When my brother-in-law sent me this CD, I couldn’t wait to get it in the player. Although I love the raw, unpolished edge to the disc, other listeners say they can’t get past Bruce’s screaming with a banjo in the background. I disagree totally.
The first negative campaign ad hit the airwaves last week in the close-heat Congressional race between U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor, R-Brevard, and Heath Shuler, his Democratic challenger.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Preliminary master plans and architectural designs for Franklin’s new mixed-use, smart growth style development were presented last Thursday night (July 17). It was the first chance local residents and government officials had to see what the future looks like for the 23-acre housing complex to be located just outside downtown.
The race between U.S. Rep. Charles Taylor, R-Brevard, and challenger Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, was reclassified from “Leans Republican” to “Toss Up” by the Cook Political Report in late June. The Cook Political Report is a respected national non-partisan political analysis and polling newsletter.
Men between the ages of 45 and 65 who visit the 25-county Blue Ridge National Heritage Area are most interested in outdoor recreation. Women, on the other hand, are more interested in craft activities.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Macon County’s trash is a growing problem, says Chris Stahl, director of the Macon County Solid Waste Department.
The concern of our group is that Swain County appears to have no control of development to inside and outside interests.
One of this year’s Folkmoot groups, Bleuniadur, hails from northern France in the region known as Brittany. SMN’s Michael Beadle conducted an email interview with Fabrice David, executive director of the all-volunteer Breton folk music and dance group.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Folkmoot USA’s Gala Preview will celebrate its first year in its new home at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 20 at Eaglenest Entertainment in Maggie Valley.
Canada – Zephyr
Zephyr, a French Canadian dance company from Edmonton, Alberta, in Western Canada was founded in 2002 through Edmonton’s Francophone Dance School “L’Association la Girandole.” This summer, Zephyr includes Folkmoot as part of the group’s first international tour. The group will participate in Folkmoot immediately following its performance in the well-known festival “Mondial des Cultures” in Drummondville, Quebec.
When a room full of elected officials pleaded with a U.S. senator and a congressman last week to step into the fray over Duke Power’s plan to manage waterways in three western North Carolina counties, they were arguing for the regular folks who use these waterways but often don’t take part in politics. We hope those politicians were listening.
The Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project and WNC Alliance are opposing a logging proposal in the vicinity of Looking Glass Rock, a popular hiking and rock-climbing destination in the Pisgah National Forest.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
A warm mid-morning sun beats down on the back parking lot of the Family Resource Center in Webster where cups of color and paintbrushes await hands eager to put the finishing touches on a small mural that now graces a concrete, stairway wall.
Yes, this is another of those pesky “music you may want to check out” articles. The “canvas stretcher” opening refers to a few artists that, in my opinion, took a relatively comfortable, recognizable form of music (the canvas, if you will) and pushed it (stretched) somewhere a bit further outside the standard boundaries.
To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever, by Will Blythe
For those who enjoy reading about the rise and fall of empires, epic battles and heroic warriors, go and read Blythe’s masterpiece on one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports — Duke vs. UNC.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Franklin voters cast their ballots Tuesday on a referendum on whether to allow malt beverage and mixed drink sales.
The ballot separated the two alcoholic beverages, with voters casting a vote “for” or “against” on-premise malt beverage sales at hotel, motels and restaurants, and off-premises sales by other permitted businesses; and for or against sales of mixed beverages at hotels, restaurants, private clubs, community theaters and convention centers.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s final decision on Duke Power’s relicensing applications for its Western North Carolina hydropower plants heavily favors the proposals developed by the utility in a multi-year stakeholder process.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
In an effort to heal wounded relationships in the downtown Sylva community, local residents and leaders are uniting to develop an underused area of downtown into an attractive, accessible and functional public park.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
A group of Jackson County residents has banded together in protest of a proposed rock crushing operation and quarry to be located in the Tuckasegee community on N.C. 281. County planning official, however, say there’s nothing to worry about — at least for now.
By Marian Larson • Contributing Writer
So you’ve been to several of the performances, shopped for souvenirs, even hung out with some of the dancers? Here are a few things you still may not know about the behind-the-scenes side to Folkmoot USA.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
The 2006 Folkmoot USA international dance festival marks an important first for new executive director Jamye Cooper. This year will be the first year that she has organized the festival from start to finish, and thereby the first real test of her skills.
By Marian Larson • Contributing Writer
Not even a broken limb could keep one die-hard fan from missing a Folkmoot performance.
But then, “Folkmoot-fanaticism” seems to run in Karen Ford’s family.
By Marian Larson • Contributing Writer
They are part camp counselor, part dorm parent, and part U.N. ambassador.
As Folkmoot arrives in Waynesville this week, the visiting dancers must somehow orient to their temporary American life in the mountains. Someone must help them manage their strict daily routine and orchestrate the elements of their day from meal to shower to performance.
The effort to change the lottery funding formula so that counties in Western North Carolina get their fair share of proceeds is, for all intents and purposes, dead for this year. That’s too bad, but it also leaves voters with an important issue to discuss with candidates during the upcoming legislative election.
Dave Linn, a triathlete from Franklin, has been chosen for the United States triathlon team going to the World Championships in Switzerland at the end of August.
By Michael Beadle
It’s mid-morning at Cartoogechaye Creek just below the Macon County Recreation Park’s tennis courts in Franklin.
Bill McClarney, a veteran aquatic biologist, instructs a dozen volunteers to put on waders and descend into the cool, foot-high waters of the Cartoogechaye to see what’s living there.
Tasty, fish flavored morsels will be dropped from overhead aircraft along the North Carolina-Tennessee line in Haywood and Swain counties in coming weeks to be gobbled up by raccoons.
By Michael Beadle
Phil Smathers still vividly recalls those Saturdays as a kid when 25 cents bought a hot dog, sucker and a movie at the Colonial Theatre. He’d be there all day with his friends watching the latest Buck Rogers adventures, old cowboy Westerns, and exotic stories about Sinbad.
By Chris Cooper
Kate Campbell’s roots in southern storytelling and musical tradition run deep. Her earlier albums, specifically Songs From The Levee and Moonpie Dreams bridged the gaps between folk, country and pop in a manner not unlike Mary Chapin Carpenter’s mid-90’s work.
Books by Larry Brown
It’s probably a prejudice on my part, but it seems to me there are more good writers from the South than all the other regions in the country combined, and Brown, who died too young from a heart attack a few years ago, is among them.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Opposition to a proposed rock quarry near the intersection of N.C. 107 and N.C. 281 in Jackson County has prompted state officials to take an unusual step by calling for a public hearing on the company’s permit application before the written comment period has even closed.
