Asheville Pagan Pride Day

There IS a Pagan Pride celebration here this weekend and it's being held at the university, UNC-Asheville. I had previsouly read the date wrong. Diotima Mantineia, associate editor of The Witches’ Voice (www.witchvox.com), will speak on “Confessions of a Dirt Worshipper: At the Interface of Science and Magic,” about how she reconciled her training as a scientist with her belief in magic.

Participants will also be talking about the 11th annual observation of Samhain, the pagan new year celebration Oct. 31, at the French Broad River Park.

Asheville’s 2005 Pagan Pride Day is being sponsored by CERES (Cosmic Connections and Ancient Journeys).

Link

OrganicFest

OrganicFest 2005 on September 10, is a celebration of everything organic! A FUNtastic day of live music, dancing, drawings for baskets of fabulous organic goodies and gift certificates, free organic samples and giveaways, an Organicfest Market on the Square featuring the finest organic: food and refreshments, clothing, herbs, flowers and natural arts and crafts. Informative conversation and help with organic living, organic gardening, and more. Fun activities for kids including the Organicfest Garden Parade at 1pm. Join the celebration on Saturday, September 10th from 10am to 6pm in Pack Square, downtown Asheville!

Link

POWWOW

The T.o.u.c.h. Samadhi
2nd Annual Arts and Music Festival

One Who Has Visions
Autumn Equinox - Sept. 23 - 25, 2005
Deerfields - Asheville, NC

www.touchsamadhi.com

Link

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.

Ceremony for Pack Square Park

Everyone is invited to the festive groundbreaking ceremony for Pack Square Park on Thursday, August 18 from 4 to 6 p.m. We’ll be set up in Park Square and City-County Plaza in the heart of downtown Asheville.

The groundbreaking will be a wonderful day to celebrate the beginning of construction on a park that will become a beautiful gathering space for generations to come. Join us for live music, refreshments, games, door prizes, actors in historic costume and a special bulldozer ballet. The park site will be decorated with hot-air balloons, weather permitting, and volunteers will be on hand to discuss park plans and special features such as original art, fountains, the park pavilion and the main stage.

It's such a magical spot now, I hope the 4.5 million renovation is able to keep some of the character is currently maintains.

[More...]

Hookah Joe's

ASHEVILLE - The scent of flowers and fruit floats in the air along Coxe Avenue. Where is this wave of blended aromas coming from?

Not from the dancing drummers at Pritchard Park or the patchouli-laden hippies padding the street. It's coming from around the corner at Hookah Joe's, a downtown nightspot Hookah Joe's is now located at 38 N French Broad Ave, Asheville NC 28801, (under Club Hairspray), the first Asheville club devoted to the hookah.

A hookah is a water pipe that originated in Turkey hundreds of years ago. It's not for traditional tobacco; instead, customers smoke a mixture of tobacco and molasses or shisha, that is available in various flavors.

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**UPDATE: address updated November 7, 2007 - thanks, Seanna!**

Chinese Acupuncture Clinic

The Chinese Acupuncture and Herbology Clinic has the largest and most comprehensive herbal apothecary in the South Eastern US.

Our practitioners provide formulas & teas specifically prepared for each patient.

Link

keep asheville weird bumper sticker

keep asheville weird bumper sticker
Originally uploaded by zen���.

seen @ flickr

The Artwork of John Lennon

In between transatlantic trips last week, Yoko Ono talked to Xpress about When I'm Sixty-Four: The Artwork of John Lennon will make a three-day stop at the Haywood Park Hotel in Asheville, NC.

His drawings are about peace, love and family. But the late singer's works – though not executed on gessoed canvases – are far from uninformed. In fact, before the former Beatle was a musician, he was an art student.

Link

Capricorn Full Moon Gathering

Capricorn Full Moon Gathering
This event will take place at Pumpkin Hollow in Tennessee.

The full moon will be the final evening of a week-long celebration of the longest day and shortest night, of the summer solstice and the full moon, of balancing the male and female and the in-between...

The festival, "Higher Fire", will be from Friday afternoon June 17 through Wednesday June 22, 2005. The Full Moon Gathering will take place Tuesday, June 21st - Wednesday, June 22nd.

Music, ritual, food, games, films, song, storytelling, mudpeople, lake swims, and more...more information coming soon.

Link

Out In Asheville

Out In Asheville
is a popular monthly newspaper is now online. It's a warm and comprehensive resource for the GLBT community and serves WNC, upstate SC, and the Southeast.

Some of the area nitelife is featured. Listen to jazz by the fireplace in a large comfy chair at or try out the Oxyben bar at Tressa's; visit all three dance floors at Scandals, sing karaoke at Club Hairspray; or visit the oldest gay bar in NC, O'Henry's, where they'll crown Miss Gay Asheville 2006 next month. Lots going on in this town.

Link

White Squirrel Festival

The 2nd Annual White Squirrel Festival
May 28th & 29th, 2005 Brevard, North Carolina

If you thought last year's White Squirrel Festival was nutty, wait until this years!

Link

Iraq Wall - A Peace Park

We are building a wall listing the names, ages, and hometowns of our young people dying in the Iraq War.

There is a ban on photographing their coffins when they arrive at Dover AFB, and no high officials attend their funerals. Politicians will not note their deaths, fearing the inevitable public backlash.

The American public opposes this war, but US policy is not determined by public opinion.

So, our young people die. The corporations profit. We sacrifice the youth of our nation in a pre-emptive war for oil, corporate greed, and world domination.

With every death, we will add another stone. It is our hope that public outrage grows along with the wall.

Peace Park Project

Asheville Poetry Review

Asheville Poetry Review is a biannual literary journal that publishes 160–200 pages of poems, interviews, translations, essays, historical perspectives and book reviews. Nicely done.

Asheville Goth Community

The 5th Circle
This is one of Asheville's online Gothic communities. Their forum is quite busy.