Asheville Mardi Gras Parade

(Photos taken from http://www.ashevillemardigras.org)

Sunday, February 19, 2012 | 2:00pm until 10:00pm

Come one and all to the most fabulous funky glittery parade to hit the streets of Asheville!

Asheville Mardi Gras is an all volunteer community based organization made up of New Orleans ex-pats, aficionados of that culture, and — okay, some folks who just LOVE a good party!

Feel free to put together your own Krewe if you would like to participate.

See the Krewes Page for details!


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Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are in Asheville per Ashvegas reader

Just wanted everyone to know that Tim Burton is staying at Hotel Indigo (from someone who works there) and Johnny Depp is in town as well. Busy time for stars in AVL!

Link  Keep checking this link for more updates.  Their people are more out and about and informed about this than I but we're all checking sources re: JD and Tim Burton.

Lots of famous people visit with us. From what I've gathered through the years, they can keep their privacy quite well here.

Asheville, NC, is one of the world's best kept secret spots where visitors exclaim soon after they come here that they're moving here permanently as soon as they can make it happen.

We are a big blue dot surrounded by a red state and we have almost a communal vibe with all the friendly musicians, street performers, concerts, protests and other fun gatherings. We're also very gay-friendly.

Drive towards downtown, park your car, get out and mingle to the sights, scents, and sounds of Asheville, Johnny. I'll be looking out for ya!


UPDATE: they're scouting locations for the impending Dark Shadows movie,a Gothic soap opera, where Johnny Depp plays Vampire Barnabus Collins.  Tim has to be in LA today, May 28th, so don't know if he'll come back or if they're through.

Asheville Mardi Gras Parade and Ball

This year's theme-"Homegrown, Fancy, and Free"
Sunday, March 6 · 3:00pm - 10:00pm
Downtown Asheville, and Pack's Tavern's Century Room

Everyone is invited to participate in, or simply spectate this family friendly spectacle. Asheville's Mardi Gras celebration is rapidly growing as more and more sparkles, feathers, and beads show up each year to march in our annual parade. The parade, led by this year's King and Queen, will be full of dancers, roller skaters, drummers and krewe's of colorful characters. The parade will line up in Pack's Square, NOT Walnut Street at 2:00 pm and will step off at 3:00 pm sharp, RAIN OR SHINE. We will then dance and march our way towards Walnut St, then to Lexington Ave, making a left on to Lexington, and then a right on to College St. Next, the parade will loop around Pritchard Park and up Patton Avenue to Pack Square. This is where the parade ends and the Mardi Gras Ball begins.

Interested in being a part of the parade? Gather your krewe of friends, family, classmates or co-workers or just yourself and come be a part of this great event. Feel free to get creative! Art cars and homemade floats are always welcome. Please register them on the Asheville Mardi Gras Facebook groups page. Remember that Asheville's Mardi Gras is a family friendly event and is “Homegrown, Fancy and Free”. Another great way to enjoy this event is to gather your friends and family, pull up a chair, sit back and watch the show! Bring a camera and be ready to catch beads.

After the parade is over around 4:00 pm, continue the fun and revelry at the Mardi Gras Ball in Pack's Tavern's elegant Century Room. Costumes are not required to enter the ball. This is a free event for the entire community to enjoy. There will be festive libations and extraordinary live music performed by Sirius B to keep us dancing all night long. For more information on the Parade or Ball, and for Mardi Gras events leading up to the parade day, check in with the groups page on Facebook under Asheville Mardi Gras.

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Grand Krewe at the Parade
Sunday at 12:00pm
Pack Square, Vance Monument/fountain area

Your Chariot Awaits

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Downtown Asheville Flavor

From the website:

"Here is a little bit of the Asheville streetlife right across from Pritchard Park and Wachovia Bank in downtown Asheville. CVS has just recently moved out and this store remains vacant with nothing covering the windows. Some musicians are playing in the entryway and some others talking on the side, one dressed as Santa."

2008 Pritchard Park 8

2008 Pritchard Park 8
Originally uploaded by anoldent

PERFORMANCE & INSTRUCTION IN THE PARK - just a few more weeks! Join Baraka Mundi from 5:30-7pm on Wednesdays at Pritchard Park on Patton & College. To see some beautiful shots from last week, visit www.flickr.com/photos/anoldent.

Wednesday - Asheville, NC
at Pritchard Park in Downtown Asheville

Summer 2008

Happy 30th, Bele Chere! We're watching you LIVE

Mountain Xpress also has a Live Cam during the festival and tons of good information.

link | Bele Chere | Flickr

Haywood Street Cello Player

Haywood Street Chello Player
Originally uploaded by mogmismo

Part of a nice set of photos by Michael Tracey all taken within the same day in Asheville.

Faces of Asheville: Community and Individuality are Sacred

I originally posted a blurb on ephemera about the Faces of Asheville project, but I think this portrait documentary project deserves further recognition and comment. For those who haven’t heard, Jenny G. Bowen, an Asheville-based professional photographer, is the creative force behind Faces of Asheville. She’s in the midst of taking hundreds of pictures of Ashevillians—between now and April 1, 2008—with the intent “to visually document the eclectic and outstanding friends and neighbors who make up the core...as well as the zeitgeist of Asheville.”

I recently had the pleasure of sitting for a Faces of Asheville portrait. During my half-hour photo session, Jen said she hopes to exhibit the photograph in early 2009. She still needs a few hundred more participants, so I encourage everyone in Asheville (and the surrounding area) to schedule a photo shoot with Jen as soon as possible. For more details on becoming part of this worthwhile and exciting project, visit Jen’s Web site.

When I left the photo session, Jen handed me a note with further instructions. Her note included the following thought, which I believe drives home the significance and importance of this project: “My wish is that through voicing the ideas, hopes, dreams, and fears of a wide variety of citizens we can gain a greater understanding of our city’s current status, and develop a conscious design of our future. When this documentary is looked at a century from now—people will not only see your unique portrait of individually—but they will also examine how we as a community came together during this period in Asheville history to develop the future in which we will reside. There is a great change happening in the world on so many various levels, and this is our moment to be mindful of how our city and our lives will transform and take shape during this momentous time of decision.”

Save Asheville's Magnolia Tree

Please show up at Asheville City Hall on August 2 at 7 PM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Local Witches to Publicly Spell to Save Asheville's Magnolia Tree

Asheville, NC -- Spiritual activist group Coven Oldenwilde has issued an open call for area Nature-lovers, Pagans, and Wiccans to join them in publicly casting magic spells to stop a developer from destroying one of Asheville's most beloved flourishing icons — the majestic Magnolia tree in front of City Hall.

Buncombe County Commissioners have drawn much ire from residents when the media recently revealed that they sold the public park land the grand old tree calls home to a developer with plans to cut it down or remove it to an undisclosed location.

Led by High Priestess Lady Passion (Dixie Deerman) and High Priest *Diuvei (Steven Rasmussen), the group will encircle the area, give the tree offerings to reinforce its resistance to perishing by chaimsaw, and chant Barbarous Words of Power to thwart the developer.

"The tree clearly thrives where it is, and could be mortally injured if yanked up by its roots," notes Lady Passion.

"Everyone loves this august Magnolia," *Diuvei adds. "It's a vibrant part of our lives, from seeking shelter from the sun and rain beneath it, to dancing around it during Shindig on the Green."

"The merit of any society rests in how it protects its defenseless -- the young, the old, and the natural," Lady Passion states.

The rite is slated to take place near the Wiccan Sabbat of Lammas, Friday, August 3rd at 7 PM in front of the Asheville's city hall. All reverent folk are invited to participate.

WHEN: Friday August 2nd (the Lammas Sabbat) at 7 PM
WHERE: Downtown Asheville by the Courthouse
CONTACT: Coven Oldenwilde, Asheville, NC 828-251-0343 oldenwilde@aol.com


* UPDATED: Photo Credit

Asheville

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 at right, 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

NAKED BIKE RIDE in Asheville

I keep forgetting to post this...

Asheville Naked Bike Ride, part of the global World Naked Bike Ride began today in Asheville at 1:00 PM at the French Broad Food Co-Op on Biltmore Avenue. Ride naked, or not.

There is an Asheville Yahoo Group. There wasn't a bike ride last year, but 2004 and 2005 held them.

**Here we go. Updated June 9 @ 10:00p

PHOTO: Asheville Yahoo Group.

Global photos I saw on Flickr.

DILO - 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.

Silver Drummer Girl & Andie MacD

Movie star and Asheville resident Andie MacDowell (left) enjoys a street performer who plays drums briefly and bows each time someone tosses money into the basket in front of her. The action occurred on a balmy afternoon last Friday on Haywood Street across from the Flying Frog Café. The day after Thanksgiving brought numerous shoppers to downtown Asheville. Staff Photo by KYM LUTZ

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Pritchard Park

People watching April 25, 2006, at Pritchard Park in downtown Asheville. (I found this photo at Flickr.)Sometimes there are bands playing, street musicians, jugglers, and on Friday nights a drum circle until 11:00.

Mellow Mushroom

There is a popular restaurant in the middle of downtown Asheville, called the
Mellow Mushroom.

It's main attraction besides their delicious pizza is their sidewalk cafe. A prime spot for people watching and meeting friends for a leisurely lunch or a few tasty beers. Here is a picture of the restaurant. Longtime residents will know this as the old Stone Soup.

This wall surrounds the courtyard and was found at Zen's Flickr website, who's always got good local photos.