week of 1/7/04
 
 
 

A&E 2.0
By Sarah Kucharski

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to be the first to say — welcome. Welcome to the new and improved Arts & Entertainment section of the Smoky Mountain News.

Yes, indeed, changes have been made.

You see at the start of my tenure here, as I was out making introductions and doing the whole meet and greet kind of thing I mentioned that I would be heading up the paper’s arts desk.

It was at this point in the conversation that you, wide-eyed, hands outstretched and mouth slightly ajar, began an imploring speech about how, gosh-darn it, we live in Western North Carolina, not some bloody suburb of Asheville, and that there’s plenty of arts related stuff going on in what is truly Western North Carolina. We just don’t know much about it.

If only someone would pay attention to the artists, the venues, the lectures, the galleries, the whatnots and whohaveyous way out here, you said.

If only I knew about a show in Franklin or say Bryson City, rather than Black Mountain or Brevard, because sometimes I just really don’t feel like driving an hour or more to get some culture, you said.

You shouldn’t have to, was my reply.

After all, you were right. There is enough arts-related stuff going on west of Asheville to keep your weekends full and minds enriched. The problem is that you’d have to read every single community paper in the four counties we cover — Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain — to have a collective idea of what’s going on in the WNC world. And while you would most likely be highly informed, you’d also be too worn out to go do whatever it is you’d found to do and you’d be left with a hefty stack of recycling.

Here at the SMN we sure do like recycling, but we also are fans of making things nice and easy. Why go pick up a slew of papers when hey, you could just pick up one — ours.

With the new format comes increased content. We’ll have one section cover story, album reviews, movie reviews alternating with concert previews, slightly shortened, more Asheville-centric Jamboree, an A&E column, a quick hits/recommendations column for older, yet still fabulous albums, books and such, an expanded A&E calendar, news briefs and of course the formidable Gary Carden and Jeff Minick trading weeks on the book page.

The cover story is free game from kids’ theater to pottery guilds, whittling to stained glass, quilting to photography. Album reviews are aimed to span the generations, but you probably won’t find any heavy metal or hardcore rap amongst our pages — sorry. Movies will tend toward the foreign and the independent with an occasional foray into the Blockbuster genre. Concert previews exist primarily for local bands and any outside the quad-county area acts that particularly catch our eye. The Great Gordo remains at the Jamboree helm, bringing you the best of the Asheville scene, and takes the reigns for a new A&E column, which I’ll let him explain. The rest of it is pretty self-explanatory except: The Calendar.

The calendar is one of those strange, somewhat self-sustaining creations that waxes and wanes with incredible unpredictability. My general mantra is the bigger the better. The only setback therein is that I am not psychic. The only way I know what’s going on out there is you. You hold the power. You are the information giver. I am only the collector and distributor.

So make note, add the SMN to your lists, send us an email or a fax, let us know what’s going on. Calendar items are due by 9 a.m. the Monday before the issue in which you want them to run (note: we publish on Wednesdays). Remember to include the basic who, what, when and where, and as an added bonus, costs and contact information. Email listings to

sarah@smokymountainnews.com or fax them to 828.452.3585.

And while we’re at it, feel free to provide feedback. We like hearing from you. It helps keep us aware and ensures that you have a say-so in your investment. Spend your time with the SMN and we’ll try our darnedest to give you what you want.

WNC is what you asked for; WNC is what you’ve got.