Asheville Shopping News: Compleat Naturalist STOREWIDE Winter Sale

January 30 - February 1 The Compleat Naturalist, 2 Brook Street, Historic Biltmore Village in Asheville NC - Storewide Winter Sale. Everything has been reduced: books, binoculars, telescopes, hand lenses, microscopes, clothing, gifts-- yes all of it. The store is cleaning house and getting ready for spring. Sale prices will be offered in-store as well as for phone orders.

FREE event on January 30 -  Dr. Hal Mahan: Lucy after 40 Years.  An informal evening with zoologist, Dr. Hal Mahan presentating on the fossil hominid known as Lucy, Australopithecus afarensis. Dr. Mahan, former director of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, hired physical anthropologist Dr. Donald Johanson, who discovered Lucy in Ethiopia on November 24, 1974. At the time, Mahan was leading a zoological research team at Mt. Elgon, Kenya. Johanson cabled Mahan about a significant discovery, and Mahan immediately traveled to the Lucy site. Join the Naturalist as Dr. Mahan recounts the thrill of witnessing one of the most significant scientific discoveries of our time.

The Compleat Naturalist nature store and wildlife art gallery was founded in 1992 in Historic Biltmore Village, Asheville NC, by Hal and Laura Mahan. Both are professional naturalists with extensive backgrounds in natural history museums and science education. The store carries merchandise relating to all fields of nature study: birds, botany, astronomy, entomology, geology, mineralogy, anthropology, and paleontology. In addition to the retail activities, The Compleat Naturalist offers a variety of classes and field trips.

 

Asheville Airport Hosts Record Number of Passengers in 2014

More people than ever took to the skies at AVL (Asheville Regional Airport) during 2014, airport officials announced this week. The number of passengers climbed 11.6 percent, to 756,425, in 2014 compared to 2013, when 678,023 people flew, according to recently released figures.

The previous record was set in 2010. An AVL official identified two reasons for the increase in fliers: maintaining connections to airline hubs and attracting new low-cost service to Florida.

Get a link for AVL and other local information on the Asheville NC Visitor Guide. 

Asheville Craft Brewers "Can It"

submitted by Asheville Travel Blog

During the recent Beer Can Appreciation Day (January 24) a variety of Asheville NC area brewers dispelled the old belief that any beer in a can was a poor substitute for the rich and robust brews poured from bottles and taps.

Oskar Blues Brewery, which recently opened its East Coast location in nearby Brevard, was one such operation at the forefront of craft beer canning. They started putting their Dale's Pale Ale and Mama's Little Yella Pils in aluminum back in 2002 and never looked back.

Cans offer certain advantages over the traditional bottles - quick cooling, protection against breakage and the ability to tote them to beaches and pools, among others. So it's no surprise that over the past decade, more craft brewers have hopped on board.

Cans from local brewers like Asheville Brewing Company, French Broad Brewing Company, Pisgah Brewing Company and Catawba Brewing Company are readily available both in grocery stores and some area bars. Cans from Frog Level Brewing, located in nearby Waynesville, have started showing up at local specialty shops. And big names in craft brewing like Sierra Nevada and New Belgium are arriving in Asheville with a solid canning program already in place.

And those who love Beer City beers should expect to see more cans in the future, especially as a new mobile canning operator makes waves locally. Check out this article by local beer expert Tony Kiss for more information about what's on the horizon.

And in the meantime, grab a can of your favorite beer, pop it open, and appreciate.

Get links for local Asheville Area Breweries and beer on the 

Asheville NC Visitor Guide

2015 All the Jazz Weekend at the Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville

January 23 - 25, 2015  Annual All That Jazz Weekend at the Omni Grove Park Inn. Another spectacular weekend of "All Things Jazz". This year Billy the Kid plays alongside Rockell Scott on Friday and Grammy Nominated Jazz Artist, Gerald Albright takes the stage on Saturday. 

This event has earned national recognition as one of the premiere jazz festivals of the Southeast. Evening and afternoon concerts in the Grand Ballroom along with fun activities and live music throughout the rest of the resort make this a weekend that will satisfy even the most discriminating jazz enthusiast. 

The Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa - Renowned spa, scenic golf course, sports complex with pool, tennis, racquetball, training. Onsite restaurants, lounge, bars. A large variety of rooms and suites, varying stages of updates with some original Inn antiques.     Get current rates, availability or book online.

 

Asheville Fringe Arts Festival this Weekend

January 11 - 25, 2014 - Asheville's Fringe Art Festival  serves patrons of art from Asheville and beyond by facilitating the creation and production of avant garde work that may otherwise not find a venue. In past years the artistic mix has included actors, dancers, singers, videographers, painters and musicians, presenting a varied range of interesting work including cross-genre improvisation, Butoh dance, sketch theatre, modern dance, and multi-media performance art. 

The Fringe 2015 schedule is packed with new voices and new work by local and imported artists. All the artists have been confirmed and the Fringe organizers, through the Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre, are proud to share some of the highlights for the upcoming 2015 incarnation of the Fringe.

With so many shows to choose from, it is essential to plan ahead. Most shows will be performed at least twice during the four days of the festival. The full schedule of shows is on the website and in the program guide. Tickets are available online.

Annual Martin Luther King Peace March and Rally in Asheville

January 19, 2015 Annual Peace March and Rally celebrating Martin Luther King Jr Day will take place beginning at St. James AME Church at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Hildebrand Street and continuing to City-County Plaza in Pack Square Park. 

There will be a Candlelight Service at 6:00 PM at Nazareth First Baptist Church. All the days events are FREE and open to the public.

Shana Tucker Performs at Diana Wortham Theatre this Weekend

January 17, 8 PM at the Diana Wortham Theatre, 2 S Pack Square, Asheville NC - Shana Tucker and her Band Perform.

When she's not performing as the cellist and mezzo-soprano for Cirque du Soleil's KÁ in Las Vegas, Shana is touring the country with her own music as an indie artist. Shana and her band bring their distinct jazz-folk-soul sound to Diana Wortham Theatre this Saturday with a special pre-performance discussion for ticket holders at 7:00 p.m. in The Forum.

A classically trained musician who studied at Howard University and the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, Shana will often stand and pluck her cello like a string bass. "I can’t deny the classical training; it inspires my cello sensibilities," she says. "But I like the thump of walking blues and old-timey bass lines. It’s like a delicious coffee blend, bold and robust, with subtle undertones of bittersweet."

This Saturday, Asheville audiences can expect an eclectic blend of Shana's own original music with original covers and jazz standards that veer from acoustic pop to funk, folk and R&B.

FREE Oskar Blues Tasting at Asheville's Brusin' Ales

January 15 from 5-7 PM at Brusin' Ales, 66 Broadway Street in downtown Asheville NC - Oskar Blues Tasting.  The first tasting at Brusin' Ales of 2015 is with Amy Rubin of Oskar Blues. Come to the wee tasting room from 5:00-7:00 for a free beer flight:

Pinner Throwback IPA: "How do you cram as much hop & malt flavor and aroma as possible into a beer but make it crushable too? That's the challenge we answered with PINNER Throwback IPA. At 4.9% ABV and 35 IBUs, this drinkable IPA uses several varieties of hops to target the ever-evolving flavor. With tropical fruits, citrus juices, pineapple and spice berry up front in the aroma and flavor, the biscuit & toasted bread at the back balance out all the hops and make a great finish to go on to your next can of PINNER. It's the perfect beer for a little sip, sip, give."

G'Knight: "Our 'Velvet M-80' is a hefty, dry hopped double-red ipa with a nose full of aroma, a sticky mouthfeel, a malty middle and unctuous hop flavors. G'Knight sports a surprisingly sensuous finish for a beer of its size (8.7% ABV, 60 IBUs). It's brewed in tribute to a fellow Colorado craft beer pioneer and Vietnam vet who died fighting a 2002 wild fire outside of our Lyons hometown.

Deviant Dale's: "Deviant Dale's IPA (8 percent ABV, 85 IBUs) was born at the crossroads, in a juke joint, as if Dale's Pale Ale sold its soul to balance Deviant's foreboding aromas of citrus, grapefruit rind and piney resins, its copper ball-of-fire color and inscrutable flavor-intense finish. Deviant is the Devil incarnate with untold amounts of malt and hedonistic Columbus dry-hopping. Oskar Blues delivers this boundary-buster in the brewery's first 16-ounce tallboy can."

Ten Fidy: "This titanic, immensely viscous stout is loaded with inimitable flavors of chocolate-covered caramel and coffee and hides a hefty 98 IBUs underneath the smooth blanket of malt. Ten FIDY (10.5% ABV) is made with enormous amounts of two-row malt, chocolate malt, roasted barley, flaked oats and hops. Ten FIDY is the ultimate celebration of dark malts and boundary-stretching beer."

Annual State of Downtown Asheville Luncheon

January 15 from 12-1:30 PM in the Banquet Hall of the U.S. Cellular Center - Annual State of Downtown Luncheon. The State of Downtown Luncheon is an opportunity for Asheville Downtown Association members, elected officials, and key stakeholders to gather for focused discussion on the state of downtown. Hear about the Asheville Downtown Association's program of work, recent achievements and priorities going into 2015. 

The event will also honor the 2014 Downtown Heroes.