Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
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Some of whats going around:
Damn fine holiday shindig:Meadows Dry Goods Shop and its neighboring artists located next door and upstairs from each other on Haywood Road will hold an open house on Dec. 11. From the Dry Goods Shop blog:
So, on Saturday December 11th from 3-8pm we are gonna open up the building for a damn fine holiday shindig! All of us in the building will have our places open, along with some special cheery stuff like bake sales and booze. Here in the shop we will be having a tree trimming party. We will show you how to make some different types of ornaments that you can then take home and teach your children slaves to make.
– Sandwich shop: The Lion’s Den has opened in the Grove Arcade’s stall market, in the space formerly occupied by Red Bike Delivery, the Asheville Citizen-Timesreports.
-Meet-and-greet: The Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce has a new president and CEO, and you’ll have a chance to meet her Tuesday from 5:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. Kit Cramer was most recently head of the International Downtown Association based in Washington, D.C.
-Wintry weather: Snow flurries and bone-chilling temps over the weekend translated into closed schools in Asheville and around WNC today. High temperatures will stay in the 30s for the next couple of days. A friend called the past couple of days “snow globe” days, which is just about right.
-Art event: From a press release – this annual gathering is not to be missed:
On the evening of Friday, December 10th at Harvest Records, the Newsworthy Drawing Club will debut their third annual handbound and illustrated book, Newsworthy. These limited edition books are composed of drawings loosely based upon factual news reports gathered from various sources throughout the year of 2010. The show is a retrospective of the most macabre and bizarre events of the year. Local singer and songwriter, Matt Evans has written songs based upon some of the factual events that are profiled in the book. He will perform the original ballads live at the artist’s reception, which starts at 7:00pm.
-Christmas Jam: The annual Christmas Jam rolls into town this weekend. Here’s the Beer Guy’s report on community happenings built around the jam.
-Speaking of jams: This High Point player’s dunk over a UNC Asheville player has been getting a lot of play. Ouch.
Jonas: Asheville artist Jonas Gerard has a bunch of his colorful paintings up on display at Fiore’s restaurant. Gerard was busy hanging the show on Sunday. Check it out.
Benefit: The Asheville Citizen-Timesreports that local photographer Asher Collie, the founder of the nonprofit Sole Hope, is selling photos from a recent trip to Zambia to benefit her organization, which provides shoes to Zambian children through a manufacturing business that employs jobless Zambian women. The Wine Studio on Charlotte hosted the fundraiser Sunday.
Building a downtown: The Citizen-Times has a detailed story about the town of Woodfin’s efforts – in conjunction with a local developer – to create a new downtown.
Pay freeze: The federal employees’ pay freeze announced last week hits home, reports the Citizen-Times:
Buncombe County, for example, has 2,400 federal employees. Of those, 271 made six figures in 2009.
Doctors and nurses at the Veterans Administration hospital in Oteen topped the list.
Others could be considered surprising, like the two dozen U.S. Forest Service employees earning more than $100,000 each and the six working for the Blue Ridge Parkway making the same.
Outrageous?
“Yeah, that would be the word for it,” said Bob Mulligan, associate professor of economics at Western Carolina University.
Federal government workers and some in private industry would disagree. But the issue has touched a nerve nationwide as many Americans have endured layoffs, furloughs and pay cuts and as a wave of Republicans prepares to move into Congress with promises to cut the size of government.
Obama has called for freezing cost-of-living raises for 2 million federal employees, saying the move is the first of many difficult decisions that must be made to slash the nation’s $1 trillion-plus budget deficit.
The two-year freeze would apply to all civilian federal employees, including those working at the Department of Defense, but would not affect military personnel.
great! i'll make the correction.
Actually, the Sole Hope art show was yesterday, but it went very well!