Why you should be SHOPPING LOCAL
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ARE YOUR DOLLARS STAYING
HERE? March 2011
Whatever happened to the Audiophile?
Preserving the American Chestnut Tree
Gluten Free - The Latest Catch Phrase
ENERGY PAINTINGS The Artwork of James
Ryder Murphy IV
Free PressSMOKY MOUNTAIN
THE REAL STORY OF THE SMOKIES
AARDVARK SATELLITE & TV, LLC 27 YEARS Still Serving the Community
Under New Ownership
ALL TV’s, STEREOS, & SURROUND SOUND SYSTEMS
ON SALE! Open Monday - Saturday9 AM - 5 PM
Closed on Sunday
828.837.9232Aardvark Satellite & TV, LLC
3190 US Hwy. 64 WestMurphy, NC 28906
Your Listen and Win StationToll Free Request Line: 1-866-500-9511
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EDITORIALPublisher / Editor: Bryan Hughes
WRITERSRonda Birtha
[email protected] Schofield
COLUMNISTSPaul Schofield - ION the Sky
Mike Miracle - Words On NotesLenora Hughes - Healthwise
CONTRIBUTORSMichael Elrod - Movie Reviews
Phil Juliano - Cartoons
ADVERTISINGAdvertising Manager - Josh Hughes
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I N T H I S I S S U E :
6 - Preserving the American Chestnut Tree
8 - Watching the Region
Yes, there will be Broadband access in Andrews
12 - It’s spring Ephemeral Time
14 - The Work of Artist Jimmy Murphy
20 - Whatever Happened to the Audiophile?
22 - Music Review of Neutral Milk Hotel
24 - Gluten Free - The New Catch Phrase
Find out what Gluten sensitivity is all about
25 - Pushing Ahead
Asheville design firm is pushing the limits of Green Building
26 - The Pleiades Star Cluster
ION the Sky - Astronomy
28 - Restaurant Review of Antica Roma Cafe
30 - This months recipe
12
14
25
28
Why it’s important to buy local
Page 16
E D I T O R ’ S N O T E :
We’re BackAfter a two month break to regroup - we’re proud to say that the Smoky Mountain Free Press is
back and better than ever. We hope you will enjoy our new glossy format as much as we do. It’s our hope that every time you open an issue of the Smoky Mountain Free Press you will be treated to a reading experience unlike any other. The main goal of the Smoky Mountain Free Press is to break down county and even state lines so that we will one day see this area as a region and not just for our respective towns. Having said that - we are making new format changes to aggregate content from all across the region and as we grow we hope to have every county represented in the pages of this magazine.
Since we are still new, we welcome any and all feedback from our readers. If you have an idea, a story concept, a media concept, or even just want to say hello - we’d love to hear from you. We are in the pursuit of true Journalistic excellence and we want to bring you content that you won’t find from any other source - so let us know what we can do to serve you better. Our lines are always open. Thanks for reading the Smoky Mountain Free Press
~Bryan Hughes , Publisher / Editor Smoky Mountain Free Press
4 | March 2011 | MountanFreePress.com
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LegendPreserving a
CONSERVATIONThe Facts:• The American chestnut was once a keystone spe-cies, that is, one of the most important tree species in the eastern United States, making up one out of every four hardwood trees in the forest. The trees could grow upwards of 80 feet and were known as the “redwood of the East.”
• Nearly four billion trees were destroyed by an ac-cidentally imported fungus from Asia called chestnut blight by the end of the 1950s.
• For the last 26 years, The American Chestnut Founda-tion (TACF) has conducted a breeding program to cross the American chestnut with the Chinese chestnut to produce a blight-resistant tree that has the physi-cal appearance of a pure American chestnut.
• A traditional back-cross breeding method was used to create blight-resistant American chestnut seed-lings, which are on average 94 percent American chest-nut and 6 percent Chinese chestnut.
• In early 2009, project partners planted Ameri-can chestnut seedlings in three national forests in Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina (the names of the national forests are being withheld in an effort to protect the trees). A total of 1,200 American chestnut seedlings were planted, 500 are from the blight resistant generation.
• In 2010, partners planted an additional 900-1000 seedlings of the Ameri-can chestnut on National Forests in Tennessee and Virginia. Most of these will be from the blight resistant generation.
• On August 26, 2009, project partners unveiled a website, www.fs.fed.us/r8/chestnut featuring photos, video, and more information about the project.
The American Chestnut once stood as the “Redwood of the East.” Now, you would be hard pressed to find one anywhere. This legendary tree was wiped out by the Chestnut Blight of the Mid 1900’s. Half a century later, efforts are being made to bring back this symbolic and truly amazing piece of timber.
Q & A on American Chestnut Trees1. Q: What is the current test-planting about?
A: The test plantings represent the first field tests of blight resistant seedlings of the American chestnut, developed through a backcross-breeding program. The test planting includes 7th generation trees resulting from six successive generations of selection and breeding led by The American Chestnut Foundation in cooperation with several partners. The Southern Research Station of the United States Forest Service is leading the effort to field test the seedlings. More information, photos, and video of the planting project is posted online at: http://www.fs.fed.us/ r8/chestnut/.2. Q: How does the restoration of the American chestnut create healthy forests?
A: The eventual restoration of the American chestnut to its former range benefits all plant and animal species that were historically associated with it, as well as those that exist today. The seeds from the American chestnut are highly nutri-tional and also provide a more reliable food source for wildlife because the tree blooms later in the year than many other species, rendering it less susceptible to late freezes.
Reintroducing the species promotes the growth of the complementary species such as chestnut oak. The American chestnut was a long-lived tree that was historically susceptible to few insect or disease prob-lems and its wood was also decay resistant. The restoration of this tree will contribute to a healthy forest by increasing species di-versity and thus the overall diversity of the forest ecosystem. Biodiversity of keystonetree species, i.e. a species maintaining a significant place in determining the composition of a biological community, is indicative of a healthy forest.
This photo taken in the early 1900’s shows three men sitting comfortably in the wedge of an Ameri-can Chestnut Tree. (Contributed Photo)
Get InvolvedTo find out what you can do to help bring back this amazing landmark go online to the American Chestnut Foundation’s website at www.acf.org. For those who are liv-ing in Cherokee County NC contact the Andrews Valley Initiative to find out about a planned planting. Go to www.andrewsvalley.org
Words and Photos Contributed by The American Chestnut Foundation
6 | March 2011 | MountanFreePress.com
Legend“This... could represent one of the most successful conservation success stories in the history of the Forest Service...”3. Q: How are the blight resistant Ameri-can chestnuts different than historic American chestnuts?
A: The blight resistant American chestnuts have Chinese chestnuts in their pedigree, exactly six generations back. It is from these Chinese ancestors that the blight resistance genes have been passed down to the current generation. In ratios or percentages we can say that on average the trees produced by this backcross method are 15/16ths or 94% American. At each generation, selection has been practiced for blight resistance derived from the Chinese ancestors and for all other traits derived from the American ancestors, resulting in the current blight resistant American chestnut with the same look and ecological function as the historic American chestnut.
4. Q: Who is involved in the test plant-ings of the blight resistant seeds?
A: Many individuals and organizations have been involved in the effort to restore the American chestnut. The American Chest-nut Foundation (TACF) has led the effort to breed a blight resistant American chestnut tree for restoration to its native range in the eastern United States over the past 26 years. The Southern Research Station (SRS) of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has led the research planning for field imple-mentation of the first forest planting of blight resistant trees. The National Forest System (NFS) of the USFS has written and is directing the Memorandum of Understand-ing document with TACF. SRS Silvicultur-ist and the NFS Regional Geneticist have worked with partners to determine which National Forests and specific sites would be best suited to plant the blight resistant seedlings. Since 2003, the USFS State & Pri-vate Forestry’s Health & Protection group has provided funding to TACF’s breeding program.
5. Q: What is the significance of these restoration efforts?
A: The hardwood forests comprise 28 per-cent of the Eastern U.S. land base. Referred to as the “Mighty Giant,” they often grew to heights approaching 130’ and a diameter
of five feet or more. The American chest-nut was once one of the most important tree species in the eastern United States, making up 1 out of every 4 trees or 25 per-cent of the hardwood canopy. The benefits to be restored by this effort include food for wildlife and people, restoration of an integral part of the historical culture of the Appalachians, exceptional timber and the ability of this tree to sequester carbon and reduce the effects of global climate change. For these reasons, the American chestnut was and is hoped to once again be an important component of the ecol-ogy and historical culture of the Southern Appalachians. If successful, this chestnut restoration project could represent one of the most important conservation success stories in the history of the Forest Service, and can provide hope for restoration of other tree species decimated by exotic pests.
6. Q: How and when were the test trees planted?
A: The plantings were established using carefully crafted experimental design so that in future years, scientists can gain the
most valuable scientific information from these plantings. This design protocol was developed in order to test and compare the differences in survival and growth of both pure American and Chinese chestnuts, as well as several generations of American x Chinese chestnuts. The data collected will be used to help guide future restoration ef-forts and to help TACF’s breeding program by identifying superior genetic families. The planting includes all generations of material produced in the TACF’s breeding program, from pure American and pure Chinese chestnuts to all generations in between. The first seedlings were planted in the early 2009 on three National Forests in North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Two additional plantings will be estab-lished in 2010 in Tennessee and Virginia.
7. Q: How are the test plots chosen?
A: The selection process includes looking at a variety of site conditions in keeping with the original range and habitat re-quirements of the American chestnut. All test plots are within National Forests in the eastern part of the U.S., the original home range of the American chestnut. Exact locations of the test plantings are not being announced to ensure the trees grow undis-turbed during these critical early years. 8. Q: What is the next step in the Ameri-can chestnut restoration effort?
A: In 2010, the Southern Research Sta-tion, the University of Tennessee, and the National Forests in Tennessee and Virginia will establish two additional test plantings that comprise approximately 1200 seed-lings. Plantings will test all generations of the American chestnut produced from TACF, including approximately 500 of the blight resistant seedlings.
CONSERVATION
MountanFreePress.com | March 2011 | 7
Another photo taken in the early 1900’s depicting a woman standing at the base of
a mighty American Chestnut. (Contributed Photo)
ONLINE RESOURCESMore information can be found at the following websites:The American Chestnut Foundation - www.acf.orgUS Forest Service, Southern Region - www.fs.fed.us/r8/Southern Research Station - http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/uplandhardwood/americanchestnut.htmUniversity of Tennessee, Tree Improvement Program - http://treeimprovement.utk.edu
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WATCHING THE REGION | WNC
Western North Carolina’s green econ-omy is growing — and getting cleaner. A coalition of leaders from the economic development, education and government sectors is creating a business strategy to generate jobs and entrepreneurial start-ups, attract public and private investment and position the region as a global leader in clean energy innovation.
The initiative brings together repre-sentatives from across Western North Carolina to develop a cohesive approach to grow and market the region’s potential in energy efficiency, renewable energy and clean vehicles industries. Led by Asheville-based Land-of-Sky Regional Council, part-ners in the project include AdvantageWest, the economic development partnership serving Western North Carolina, and the five other westernmost Regional Councils of Government: the High Country Coun-cil of Governments, based in Boone; the Isothermal Planning and Development Commission, based in Rutherfordton; the Northwest Piedmont Council of Govern-ments, based in Winston-Salem; the South-western Commission, based in Sylva; and the Western Piedmont Council of Govern-ments, based in Hickory.
“The pressures and threats that are driving the clean energy economy are clear,” said Joe McKinney, executive direc-tor of the Land-of-Sky Regional Council. “Environmental, economic and national security concerns relating to energy pro-duction and use are driving the growth of clean energy industries. As a region, we should be positioning ourselves to capital-ize on the tremendous growth potential of the emerging economy of clean energy.”
More than 100 representatives of busi-nesses, governments, colleges and univer-sities, nonprofits and other organizations around the region met recently with An-gelouEconomics, a nationally recognized consulting firm specializing in renewable
energy and economic development. Over the next several weeks, the firm will assess the region’s existing clean energy business cluster and identify trends, niche strengths and opportunities in the clean energy economy. It will also explore links to the global energy marketplace and recom-mend supportive public policies.
The firm’s findings, due in June, will lead to targeted implementation strate-gies throughout the 31-county project area and the full launch of the project. This will include the development of a regional clean energy brand as well as marketing, business outreach and recruitment efforts.
The project team has formed a lead-ership group that represents business, government, education, the public policy sector, economic development organiza-tions, utilities and related groups. (NOTE: See attached for list of leadership group members.) Other core components of the initiative include establishing an online networking platform and resource direc-tory for clean energy businesses (www.advantagegreennetwork.org).
“In assessing our region’s clean energy assets and opportunities, we are being responsive to the needs of our growing base of clean energy companies and ensur-ing that our region makes the most of its unique position in this industry to create quality jobs for the citizens of Western North Carolina,” said AdvantageWest CEO Scott Hamilton.
The initiative builds on other clean energy efforts led by Land-of-Sky and AdvantageWest. The project is funded with grants from the N.C. Rural Center, the U.S. Dept. of Commerce and the Appalachian Regional Commission.
For more information, visit the project website at www.cleanenergywnc.org or contact Land-of-Sky Clean Energy Regional Planner Patrick Harper at [email protected] or (828) 251-6622.
Project aims to create jobs across 31 counties of Western North Carolina
Effort aimed at growing and marketing the region’s potential in energy efficiency,
renewable energy and clean vehicles industries
8 | March 2011 | MountanFreePress.com
The Finest Mountain Homes Choose...
Rustic & Elegant Home Furnishings66 Tennessee St Historic Downtown Murphy 828.837.4940Mu ch More Than A Furniture Store - Its A Destination
F i n e b u i l t H ome s • Th e R i d g e s
R o c k y Mo u n t a i n L o g H ome sTre e H o u s e At L a k e S a n t e e t l ah
F i n e b u i l t H ome s • Th e R i d g e s
WATCHING THE REGION | WNC
WATCHING THE REGION | ANDREWS
I heard that rumor, you know, the one about the town of Andrews having broadband. It’s not just a rumor anymore. After more than a year of re-search, development, and a lot of sweat and tears…it’s finally happening!
What is broadband? Wireless broadband is high-speed internet service via wireless technology. The advantage of wireless broadband is that the com-puter receiving the Internet signal does not need to tethered by an Ethernet or network cable to the broadband modem or router. A wireless broadband modem receives the services and transmits via ra-dio waves to the immediate and surrounding area. To be able to receive broadband service to your home or business you will need a small antenna (about 11 inches tall by 4 inches wide) and a wire-less modem.
The Mayor John Brown, Town Manager Bill Green and Aldermen Jim Bristol have been instrumental, working diligently to bring broadband to the town of Andrews and the surrounding communities.
Andrews Broadband Network will be owned and operated by the town of Andrews. The infrastruc-ture will be built beginning with the downtown area of Andrews and spread outward towards the communities of Marble, Murphy, throughout Cher-okee County, Clay County and into Graham County, and Robbinsville. Andrews Broadband Network also plans to spread out as much as possible to reach other rural communities in North Carolina such as the Nantahala Communities.
The towns’ leaders should be commended for having the vision and initiative to research, imple-ment and proceed despite all the challenges and hang-ups with the state and governmental proce-dures.
Currently the town is awaiting approval of a loan through the U.S. Department of Agriculture designed to assist municipalities in rural develop-ment. Town Manager Bill Green is confident the loan will be approved. Mayor John Brown echoes the frustration of all of us waiting for things to happen “We wanted this up and running more than a year ago”. However, the town is far from being
stalled on this project. They are proceeding with Pre-Development, Marketing, and Pre-Registra-tion of customers in order to bring broadband to Andrews and the surrounding communities at the earliest opportunity.
Another champion that has worked many hours implementing Andrews Broadband Network is Bob Ferreira Executive Director of Andrews Valley Initiative (AVI). AVI is involved in many projects for the betterment of and common good for all Western North Carolina and other regional com-munities. “Broadband is important to Andrews and its surrounding communities not just because Andrews Broadband is a better, more robust service for less money than any of its competitors but because it makes all of these communities a more attractive place to live in.
Andrews Broadband is all about an outreach to global networks while working from the comfort and safety of a rural small town in the beauty of the mountains. Talk about having your cake and eating it too!
Andrews Broadband is an enterprise fund of the Town of Andrews. Subscribing to Andrews Broad-band not only puts money back in your pocket, it puts a bit in your town’s pocket. Broadband may not be so important to all of our neighbors but it is vital to all their children and grandchildren. The internet is the first piece that Andrews Broadband is offering. It gets more exciting as the package expands to include telephone and then television. Andrews Broadband is about people who live here, servicing people who live here.”
Arrowhead Network Solutions (ANS) is the com-pany contracted to set up the infrastructure, put-ting equipment on surrounding towers, setting up customer accounts, and providing customer service locally in a downtown Andrews’ office. Andrews Broadband Network Office located at 1065 Main St., downtown Andrews is open Monday - Friday for pre-registration sign up 10:00 am - 12:00 Noon and 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm. Phone 828-321-9813.
Despite the delays, Arrowhead Network Solu-tions will be hosting broadband demonstrations, and pre- registration for broadband customers is in full swing. This pre-registration allows custom-ers to choose a service plan, and provides ANS with information to map out the network, and will help technicians know ahead of time the best options for placing equipment for optimal service.
Every attempt will be made to bring service to those who want it. The important thing is – there are plans for the future, and yes, there really is broadband!
Yes, There Really is Broadband!By: DONNA MAYTON
“Broadband is important to Andrews
and its surrounding communities...
because it makes all of these communities
a more attractive place to live.”
- Bob Ferreira, Executive Director of the Andrews
Valley Initiative
10 | March 2011 | MountanFreePress.com
DON’T MISS OUT ON THESE AMAZING DEALS!
EXIT REALTY MOUNTAIN VIEW PROPERTIESIndependently Owned & Operated
Toll Free: 877-837-22881900 Hwy. 64 West • Murphy, NC 28906
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Kathy & Corky Vetten Owners / Brokers / CRS
828.361.0360 or 828.361.0358
112042 – Rustic Lincoln log 3BD/2BA home with beautiful long range mountain views. The kitchen has custom cabinets and a large eat-at counter. The flooring is custom Costa Rica pin wood . There is a stacked stone masonry fireplace. All this bordering United States Forest Service. $249,900.
112014 – Private estate with amazing view all around. Upscale 3BD/3BA home with 5.58+/- acres of pasture and woods. Home has a gourmet kitchen with hickory cabinets, open din-ing area that opens to the sunroom. There is a beautiful open great room and hardwood floors. $399,900.
112007 – This private 3BD/3BA mountain home in the Unaka area is just a must see! On the main floors there is a master suite and guest bedroom along with the kitchen, living and dining room. The interior is wood and there is a gas log fireplace in the living room. $139,000.
111996 – Riverfront 3BD/3BA home with gorgeous dream kitchen with custom cabinets and quartz countertops. The home offers hardwood floors, stacked stone fireplace, formal dining room, office and large bonus room. The outside deck and screened porch overlook the river. $399,900.
111462 – Beautiful 2BD/2BA ranch style home. The views from the fully covered porch are excellent. The home has a covered entry, a masonry wood burning fireplace and combo kitchen and dining. This home is close to town but it feels like you are in the country. $150,000.
111728 – Creek front log sided 2BD/3BA home in gated com-munity. Interior oak floors with custom oak kitchen cabinets. Great room has a large open room featuring lots of glass and a masonry wood fireplace. There are two covered porches to enjoy the creek. $274,900.
111983 – This 3BD/2BA home is very private and located in an upscale community. This home offers spacious living with a family room, living room, dining room kitchen and workshop in the finished basement. End of the road privacy with great views from the deck. $245,000.
111740 – Riverfront 3BD/3BA custom designed timber frame log home. Private riverfront setting with dock. Master suite has his and hers walk in closets. Custom kitchen with exceptional island for the chef. There is a hot tub on the open deck to enjoy the river and relax. $374,900.
111783 – This 2BD/2BA home offers beautiful pine wood floors and tongue/groove ceilings with crafted beams. There is a gas log fireplace in the great room and a large country kitchen. The master suite is upstairs and private. The finished basement offers another bedroom and bathroom. $209,000.
The Smoky Mountains are home to a spe-cial group of wildflowers known as spring ephemerals. True to the meaning of their name (short-lived, momentary, brief, of short duration), these beauties emerge from the ground from February to April, becom-ing dormant again by May or June. How do they do it? Adapted to the rhythm of the overstory trees, they appear before the de-ciduous trees leaf out, when full sunlight is streaming to the forest floor, soil moisture is high, and soil nutrients are plentiful due to the decomposition of tree leaves that fell the previous autumn.
I’ve spotted a few when walking in the woods near my home in springs past, always with a touch of surprise and a sense of won-derment at their fragile beauty. This year, though, after learning that the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is sometimes referred to as the ‘Wildflower National Park’ due to its over 1,660 varieties of flowering plants, I’ve decided that a visit is in order. Of the spring ephemerals, the Park’s web-site boasts “10 different species of trillium, lady slipper orchids, showy orchids, crested dwarf iris, fire pink, columbine, bleeding heart, phacelia, jack-in-the-pulpit, little brown jugs, and violets, to name just a few.”
They also provide a helpful list of suggest-ed wildflower walks along with a trail map, making it easy for those living in proxim-ity to the Park to find a walk close to them. www.nps.gov/grsm/naturescience/wild-flowers. The Park also sponsors the Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage each year, featuring a variety of wildflower, fauna, and natural history walks, motorcades, photographic tours, art classes, and indoor seminars. This year, the 61st Pilgrimage will be held from April 26-May 1. More information can be found at: www.springwildflowerpilgrimage.org.
According to the website, Karen’s Garden Tips.com, it’s even possible to cultivate spring ephemerals. However, they should always be purchased from reputable nurs-eries that propagate their own plants, as harvesting them from the wild may endan-ger them and damage the environment. She suggests checking with our county exten-sion service or local native plant society for sources of wild flowers. Further advice is to pick a site that has deciduous trees to pro-vide the proper amount of sun and shade, prepare the soil so that it resembles good, rich forest soil by adding 4”-6” of compost to the top “4-6” of soil. Karen says that the pH should be about neutral or slightly acid or slightly alkaline and water should be available to keep the soil moist(but well drained). Plant in late summer or early spring and mulch with compost every spring before the plants emerge.
It’s Spring Ephemerals TimeWords By: ELLEN SCHOFIELD | Photos Courtesy: RALPH PRESTON
Curiosity ShopYour Full-Service Bookstore!
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English Riders Wanted!
The goal of the Equestrian Club in Murphy, NC is to unite English Riders in the community and surrounding areas. It will be a great opportunity to meet others with the same interest and who share the love of English riding!
We will start out meeting together once a month at Hawk Hill Farms in Andrews, NC. Bring your equine friend and plan on an afternoon of riding. Come join us in Fun Clinics held once a month. The Riding Clinics will be combined Training in all Levels of Dressage, Jump-ers, Cross Country, Fox Hunting, Hunter Paces, Flat work and Groundwork.
If any of these interest you then please come join us ! Beginners welcome! You will receive Professional Training and techniques. This will be done in a friendly and relaxed Group setting. Private Lessons can be arranged ahead of time as well. Please email in advance.
Requirements are as follows: Negative Coggins, Riding Helmet when mounted, Signed wavers, and Lots of FUN!
Equestrian Club
For More Info : Call Amanda Silver - 828.361.4760
12 | March 2011 | MountanFreePress.com
Loren Routhier Photography{ Atlanta • Asheville • Charleston • Tampa }
w w w . l o r e n r o u t h i e r p h o t o g r a p h y . c o m • 7 0 6 . 8 3 5 . 8 5 9 2
ART | ARTIST PROFILE
The Work of James Ryder Murphy IV
ART | ARTIST PROFILE
ENERGY PAINTINGS
To be in the company of Jimmy Murphy while looking at his paintings, you can’t help but feel you are standing with a living legend. The mag-nificence of his paintings surrounds you, and as he gives commentary on their inspiration you are left simply awe struck, dazed by the variety of emotions held within each brush stroke.
Impressionism is the first word that comes to mind when viewing Jimmy’s work, but he describes it in a different way: “I don’t really know what style to call them, I call them energy paintings.” Unfortunately, the pages of this magazine can hardly do the work justice. You can only truly appreciate his paintings by seeing them up close, letting your eyes scour over every labored, energetic stroke.
One thing that definitely doesn’t translate is Jimmy’s use of color. From red to violet, the colors are all there. Personally, I have trouble coordinating more than 3 colors, while Jimmy effortlessly uses upwards of 30 different shades in each painting, and it works beautifully - like an orchestra of color playing a personal master-piece for each viewer.
Now, I have had the pleasure of getting to know Jimmy over the past few weeks and his talents don’t end with paint and brush. It was surprising to find that Jimmy is an exceptional golfer and avid bike rider. Having played 9 holes with Jimmy I can say that he definitely plays in a truly creative fashion - not being burdened by
the set structure of Cherokee Hills Golf Course - Jimmy can artfully re-engineer the course and create his own holes - squeezing out new chal-lenges in an otherwise static landscape.
I have no doubt that Jimmy is one of the great-est artists in this region and his work can defi-nitely speak for itself. To see more samples of his work you can check out his online portfolio at http://www.jamesrydermurphyiv.com
A brief Autobiography of Jimmy: I inherited a lot of my artistic abilities from
my parents. My father was a very accomplished landscape and seascape artist and a virtual ge-nius at mixing colors.
As a child in the Bahamas in the 60’s I would spend hours painting by his side and he would give me glimpses into the magic and beauty of mixing color and their powerful presence.
My mother is a retired art teacher with her masters and a stron love for sculpture and three dimensional forms. My work has evolved over time from a strong graphic influence to where I am today. I am exploring the endless combina-tions of color with Graphic undertones. I paint what I love and have a spiritual connection within my work achieving a strong feeling of movement and emotion in my own unique style, capturing presence of light - color, and universal life force. To make an appointment with Jimmy send an email to [email protected]
INTRO BY: BRYAN HUGHES
MountanFreePress.com | March 2011 | 15
Why should I
Shop Local?
In a sea of bumper stickers and advertisements touting the phrase - “BUY LOCAL,” the would be consumer is left unimpacted because the only cited reason is to help the economy. It’s a phrase that gets tossed around a lot and for many, the notion seems nice but unless you know the reasons for it’s benefit you probably won’t give it much more thought.
So the question still remains...
LOCAL ECONOMICS
(It does much more than just help the economy)
Commentary By: BRYAN HUGHES
16 | March 2011 | MountanFreePress.com
LOCAL ECONOMICS
In order to get a firm grasp on why choosing to buy local can help the commu-nity, we should first define what a commu-nity is and how it functions.
A community is a group of interacting organ-isms sharing an environment. In human com-munities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks, and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness. A community has been defined as a group of interacting people living in a common location. The word is often used to refer to a group that is organized around common values and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household. The word can also refer to the national commu-nity or global community. The word "community" is derived from the Old French communité which is derived from the Latin communitas (cum, "with/together" + munus, "gift"), a broad term for fel-lowship or organized society.
A sense of community refers to people's per-ception of interconnection and interdependence, shared responsibility, and common goals.
Understanding a community entails having knowledge of community needs and resources, having respect for community members, and involving key community members in programs.
Author Robert Putnam refers to the value which comes from social networks as social capital in his book “Bowling Alone: The collapse and Revival of American Community.” He writes that social capital “makes an enormous differ-ence in our lives”, that “a society characterized by generalized reciprocity is more efficient than
a distrustful society” and that economic sociolo-gists have shown a minimized economic wealth if social capital is lacking.
Those tangible substances that count for most in the daily lives of people: namely good will, fellowship, sympathy, and social intercourse among individuals and families who make up a social unit…. The individual is helpless socially, if left to himself…. If he comes into contact with neighbor, and they with other neighbors, there will be an accumulation of social capital, which may immediately satisfy his social needs and
which may bear a social potentiality sufficient to the substantial improvement of living conditions in the whole community. The commu-nity as a whole will benefit by the cooperation of all its parts, while the individual will find in his associations the advantages of the help, sympathy, and fellowship of his neighbors.
EmploymentPutnam reported that
many studies have shown that the highest predic-tor of job satisfaction is the
presence of social connection in the workplace. He writes that “people with friends at work are happier at work.” And that “social networks provide people with advice, a bonus, a promo-tion, and other strategic information, and letters of recommendation.”
Community engagement has been proven to counteract the most negative attributes of poverty and a high amount of social capital has been shown to reduce crime.
Local Community and Health“Social connectedness matters to our lives in
the most profound way.” -Robert Putnam.Robert Putnam reports, in the chapter Health
and Happiness from his book Bowling Alone, that recent public research shows social con-
nection impacts all areas of human health, this includes psychological and physical aspects of human health. Putnam say’s “…beyond a doubt that social connectedness is one of the most powerful determinates of our well being.” In particular it is face to face connections which have been shown to have greater impacts then non-face to face relationships.
Specific health benefits of strong social relationships are a decrease in the likelihood of: seasonal viruses, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, depression, and premature death of all sorts.
So after reading all of this rambling on community research and its effects you are probably thinking - how does this even ap-ply to the concept of buying local.
Really this has everything to do with the subject - when we start looking at our com-munities for the people that live within and not just at dollars and cents, the impor-tance of buying local becomes very clear.
A community is in itself a living breath-ing organism that needs sustenance. A community grows stronger and healthier the more connected it becomes. So in effect when we buy local, we are forming human connections within our own com-munity, and what’s more we are helping the community to prosper.
The success of a community comes not from how much money each person can acquire for oneself, (because let’s face it we’re all just shoveling it around from one place to another) but true communal suc-cess comes from the amount of happiness gained as a whole.
So instead of looking at local economics in terms of gross product, shouldn’t we be viewing the community in terms of gross happiness?
The fact that the regional economy gets better is merely a byproduct of a prosper-ous, connected, and most importantly - happy community.
“So instead of looking at
local economics in terms of
gross product, shouldn’t we
be viewing the community
in terms of gross happiness?
The fact that the regional
economy gets better is
merely a byproduct of a
prosperous, connected, and
most importantly - happy
community.”
A happy local farmer cultivates fresh
local produce, which is then purchased
at a fair price by happy local consum-
ers to be taken home and prepared for
their families who are happy to not be
eating food that was flown in from South
America. The overall effect on everyone
was not profit - but happiness.
LOCAL ECONOMICS
The Top Ten Reasons to BUY LOCAL1 To strengthen local economy:
Studies have shown that buying from an independent, locally owned business, significantly raises the number of times your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers and farms—continuing to strengthen the economic base of the community.
2 Increase Jobs:
Small local businesses are the largest employer nationally in the United Sates of America.
3 Encourage Local Prosperity
A growing body of economic research shows that in an increasingly homogenized world, entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in com-munities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character.
5 Reduce Environmental Impact
Locally owned businesses can make more local pur-chases requiring less transportation and generally set up shop in town or city centers as opposed to developing on the fringe. This means contributing less to greenhouse gas emissions, sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollu-tion.
6 Support community groups
Non-profit organizations receive an average 250% more support from smaller business owners than they do from large businesses.
7 Keep Your Community Unique
Where we shop, where we eat and have fun—all of it makes our community home.
4 Get Better Service
Local businesses often hire people with a better understanding of the products they are selling and take more time to get to know customers.
8 Invest in Community
Local businesses are owned by people who live in the community, are less likely to leave, and are more invested in the community’s future. 9 Put your taxes to good use
Local businesses in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure investment and make more efficient use of public services as compared to nationally owned stores entering the community.
10 Buy what you want not what someone wants you to buy
A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term. A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based not on a national sales plan but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices
18 | March 2011 | MountanFreePress.com
Are you a card carrying local?
The Local Card is the easiest most convenient way to SHOP LOCAL and save!
Current Participating Businesses: Cherokee County, NC
• Blue Moon Elise • Persimmon Creek Campground• Curiosity Shop Bookstore• Party Outlet• The Daily Grind & Wine Murphy• Loren Routhier Photography• Murphy’s Chophouse• Rumors Clothing Loft & Accessories• Sophisticated Lady Boutique• Mountain Spirit Essentials• Crossfit Murphy• China Town• Twice Upon A Time Used Books
• King’s Leathercraft, Inc• New Happy Garden• Murphy Nails & Toes• El Manzanillo• TNT Pawn• Classic Swan• Stucco House Coffee• George’s Butcher Shop• Spring Rain Custom Framing• Chestnuts Cafe• Downtown Pizza Co
Swain County, NC
• The Chocolate Shoppe
Union County, GA
• Home PC Services Inc.• Loren Routhier Photography• Rumors Clothing Loft & Accessories• No. 1 Chinese Restaurant• Rachel’s Avon & More• Downtown Pizza Co
Towns County, GA
• Dent Paramedics Inc.• Loren Routhier Photography
The List Gets Bigger Every DayBrought to you by:
Free PressSMOKY MOUNTAINFP
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You may remember the type: Laid-back in an easy chair, soaking in Rachmaninoff, Re-inhardt or the Rolling Stones, enveloped by the very best, primo, top-of-the-line stereo equipment an aficionado could afford.
In robot-like, 1980s cadence, the audio-phile could rattle off favorite components, which might include an all-tube Premier One power amp by conrad-johnson, a Sota Sapphire turntable, an Ortofon MC-2000 car-tridge and a pair of Magneplanar speakers.
Geeky? Mos def.But the audiophile was a symbol of the
Golden Age of Audiophonics, a time when certain people worshiped at the altar of expensive high-fidelity, two-channel stereo equipment. They were knights errant on an eternal quest for audio perfection — the exact replication of an original performance.
Here is the way one New York Times writer described a Holy Grail system in 1980: "There is a greater transparency of orchestral textures, giving each instrument an almost tactile presence." The theologi-cal debates pitted vacuum-tube amplifica-tion
advocates against those preferring solid state, or transistorized, amplification. The sacred texts were magazines such as Stereo Review and High Fidelity. Stereo stores were the holy shrines.
Then came the barbaric revolution. The boombox, the Walkman and other hand-held devices made music more portable. Digital sound enabled listeners to store scads of compressed, easy-to-download music files — first on computers, then on miniature de-vices and cell phones. Quality in recordings was sacrificed for speed and convenience. Loudness became more important than clar-ity. The richness and warmth of a recording was replaced by tinniness and splash.
Now it's 2011. And amid all the earbudded iPods, smart phones and MP3 players, one can't help but wonder: Whatever happened to the audiophile?
The Soundscape Has Changed"There are still people who passionately
pursue the highest possible sound quality in their playback equipment, and are willing to spend large portions of their income to the best speakers, amplifiers or turntables," says Mark Katz, an associate professor of music at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill,
and author of Capturing Sound: How Tech-nology Has Changed Music. "That said,
the landscape — or perhaps soundscape — has changed."
- Mark Katz, associate profes-sor of music at the University of
North Carolina, Chapel HillSound quality is rarely
brought up in music conversa-tions these days, Katz says, and for
many listeners high-fidelity is a non-is-sue, "especially given that people often listen
to music in noisy environments."Listening to music used to be a plop-down,
stay-still event. Now it's something people do while doing something else, like eating while driving or chatting on a phone while walking. The experience of listening to music these days, says Timothy Doyle of the Con-sumer Electronics Association, is "not unlike personal computing: It's a 24/7 multilocation proposition; people are taking their music with them, and as a whole, the world has changed so that there are simply fewer and fewer 'old school' proponents of sitting down and listening to music."
Cue up the statistics: In 1998, The New York Times estimated that high-end audio sales totaled approximately $500 million a year. In 2010, the CEA says, sales were around $200 million.
Defining high-end audio is a tricky task, says Doyle. And "it's not entirely a matter of declined sales so much as sales being spread out across a wider spectrum of products and companies." He points out that price defla-tion and international competition also affect the sales numbers.
But "the key takeaway here," says Doyle, "is that the market has shrunk not grown."
And maybe, Doyle and others suggest, the audio market is moving into a metamorpho-sis — stereo-style.
On one channel: While the sales of high-end devices that deliver high-quality sound may have decreased, the sales of low-end devices that deliver better and better audio quality — such as those sold at big-box stores — is on the upswing.
On the other channel: Some media con-sumers who in the past would have been known as audiophiles have turned their pas-
Aud ioph i l e?
Whatever happened to the
LINTON WEEKS
BY: LINTON WEEKS
MUSIC
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20 | March 2011 | MountanFreePress.com
sions — and paychecks — to other delivery systems, including Brobdingnagian flat-panel TVs, home theaters and multiroom audio-visual contraptions.
No Longer Locked Into A FormatTo Jon Iverson of the Stereophile website,
audiophiles are forever moving in direct rhythm with — and in syncopation to — mainstream music lovers.
"The mass-market selects and audiophiles perfect," he says. "Vinyl playback was first a mass market success, and audiophiles set about perfecting it and still do. CD was next and audiophiles and high-end audio companies spent the last several decades perfecting disc-based audio technology. This will always be so."
The optimistic upshot, Iverson says, is that the online/download digital world is, in fact, "the biggest opportunity for audiophiles so far." And, as audiophiles push companies to perfect how good music can sound via the Internet, the Second Golden Age of Audiophonics might be dawning.
"It started out a bit rough with compressed MP3 and iTunes files that, quite frank-ly, sound OK but not that great," Iverson says. "But the mass market has clearly accepted online music. And we'll see these formats push to higher reso-lution as bandwidth allows. We are already seeing this with iTunes and websites like HDTracks.com."
There is also a vast underground online community of high-resolution file traders who demand better and better transfer technology for all types of music, Iverson says. "It's fascinating to see the discussions of which mastering of a classic title is best. There are first release, remasterings, special editions, Japanese versions, et cetera, and then quite a few ways to transfer these titles in full resolution to a hard drive from disc."
Iverson gets jazzed at the possibility that Apple will introduce higher-resolution iTunes. "But here's the point," he says. "Since we are no longer locked to a physical format like LP or CD, there is far more flexi-blity in introducing higher resolution audio formats in an online world. So the potential for audiophiles is greater than ever before to have a format aimed at them that coincides with the mass market."
And maybe even high-quality audio equipment you can buy at a big box store.
Surrounded By SoundOn the home-theater front, Mike Mettler,
editor-in-chief of Sound + Vision magazine, sees many audiophiles becoming video-philes. "As the home theater boom truly began to explode over a decade ago," he says, "audiophiles dove into it relatively willingly, as we also appreciate the benefits of watching a great picture on a great screen or TV. But it all ties back to enhancing our inherent passion for great sound."
To Mettler, great sound these days is found "by hooking up high-definition TVs to
surround-sound sys-tems." Also known as 5.1 systems, the six-speaker configu-ration is made up of left and right front speakers; a center channel, mostly for dialogue; left and right rear channels and a subwoofer — the 1 in the equation — for the low-end of the audio spectrum. You can also buy 7.1 and 11.1 systems.
Such conglomera-tions, Mettler says, "mirror the 360 degrees of audio that we deal with in
everyday life, and they serve to enhance the overall audio-visual experience. Think of the excitement of feeling like you're in the middle of a roaring stadium crowd while watching football in high-def. Or hearing a car literally drive across the soundstage and into the distance behind you to correspond exactly with what you see that car doing onscreen."
Surround sound "makes you feel like you are there," Mettler says, and "that's one ma-jor way the audiophile world intersects with video. When the A and the V are working in tandem, it's a beautiful thing indeed."
'Totally Obsessed With Sound'
Parts of the debate are just so much noise to Laurie Monblatt, a Northern Virginia painter and sculp-tor and unapologetic audiophile.
"I guess I am what
you might describe as totally obsessed with sound," Monblatt says. "I have had this disease for over 30 years. My adventures in sonics began when I was 15; I am now 56. I grew up in Northern New Jersey and could be found at the Fillmore East or The Bottom Line, as well as many other venues, most weekends."
She adds, "My passion for music was tre-mendous and remains so to this day."
Let's let Monblatt describe her system: "I have a dedicated two-channel listening room. My passion is for vacuum tubes and this set up consists of a KT88 based tube amp, tube preamp, tubed CD player, tubed digital-to-analog converter that is partnered with an iMac for digital files and wonderful pair of very efficient speakers. Power to the room is on dedicated lines."
Over the years, "many components have come and gone — both solid state and tubed," she says, "but as my obsession grew it became obvious to my ears that tubes give me more of the 'real thing' regarding texture, bloom, soundstage and tone. I could go on and on ..."
Every single component in her listening room is strategically placed to make the sound perfect. The walls are acoustically tuned to ensure a more accurate listening environment.
When she sits on a comfortable sofa, in exactly the one spot where all the sound comes together, and she listens to Paul Mc-Cartney singing Blackbird, she can hear it so perfectly that she can discern McCartney slapping his thigh — against blue jeans. It's a really distinctive slap sound, she says, and quite different than if Sir Paul wore wool pants.
There is no video equipment in the listen-ing room at all. And when Monblatt settles onto the sofa, she doesn't read or text or talk.
So if you ever want to ask Laurie Monblatt where all the audiophiles have gone, that's where you will probably find her. In her sanctum sanctorum of sound. Just her and her music.
NPR editor Marilyn Geewax and several audiophilic friends of NPR contributed to this report.
BY: LINTON WEEKS
“There are still people
who passionately pursue
the highest possible sound
quality in their playback
equipment, and are willing
to spend large portions of
their income to the best
speakers, amplifiers or turn-
tables. That said, the land-
scape — or perhaps sound-
scape — has changed.”
- Mark Katz, associate professor
of music at the University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill
MUSIC
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MountanFreePress.com | March 2011 | 21
Consider me late to the boat on this one. I just got into NMH with a record they released over a decade ago and I’ve only now been clued in. Maybe considering me “late” is an understate-ment. Maybe it’s like the boat’s long since departed, then re-turned and re-docked to pickup any latecomers and feet shufflers until leaving again only to come back a third and fourth time to scoop up the confused and nomadic and generally lost; and, thinking its job’s done, traveled the world thrice, stopping in central beaching locations to “chill” and listen to the waves and drink fruity colored drinks until one day deciding to travel back to its original dock to reminisce and check out the old ‘hood only to see me: wide-eyed and mumbling “where have you been? I’ve been waiting, searching for this ride my whole life…” to which a collective “Seriously??” is exasperatingly replied.
MUSIC | WORDS ON NOTES
By: MIKE MIRACLE, WACF 95.1
Yes, NMH have been around for some time. Though, more accu-rately, they’ve been and conquered and already done gone, for crying out loud, never to be seen again and heard except now only in rec-ollections and on record. They’ve been talked about and interviewed and dissected outside in yet still remain relevant and held, still, as a benchmark for the success, musically, of one’s work: their work showing what can be done with unfettered creative energy (interesting interviews abound with insightful quotes from lead singer Jeff Mangum concerning stuff like “active imagination” and the mental state between sleep and cognizant thought and just float-ing down this “in between” level of thought as if it were a river, letting it take your imagination , succumbing to its tow and him pulling lyrics from all this; he also says that he’s constantly embroiled in musical melody and rhythm, like constantly swirling around his brain, and he’s often with some sort of musical tune playing in his head). And this, NMH’s final prod-
uct, has been held in such high esteem ever since its relase in the late 90’s because it was unpreten-tious and honest and, as one critic put it, “uncool”…like it wasn’t try-ing to do anything but express the feelings of Mangum and Co. and assumed nothing else. It didn’t try to be anything to anyone but the artists who created it, and through that it became great. They made the record they wanted to make and with its lyrics and a really game-changing approach and tech-nique, this record’s still discussed and still held as a standard, even though they’ve not made anything new as NMH in years and years.
And much is written about both (lyrics and musical technique). We’ll, of course, hit on the former for the “On Lyrics” theme (which, for newcomers, we’ve clumsily discussed for a few columns here) and the lyrics on ITAOTS are liquid-y, dreamlike, lucid; like wax falling from long-since-burning candles and as the wax creeps, its fall it fluid and constant, at times, then sometimes quickly oozing towards earth with maybe a quick
A Decade Late Neutral Milk Hotel Reviewed
NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL
ALBUM ART FROM AEROPLANE OVER THE SEA
22 | March 2011 | MountanFreePress.com
hitch and pit stop before ferociously flowing to its demise at the bottom, atop a warm, gooey mess. It’s linear only in direction, but its path is impossibly timed; who knows when it will end, or when even it’ll start its descent; or when it started, and who knows how it will flow, where exactly it’ll will go. Such are the lyrics of Jeff Mangun: fluid and complex; surreal. And the stuff here’s intense and graphic and heart wrenching/sometimes warming and emotional and so so so damn good.
And it’s so damn raw. As a whole, its edges are uncut and ripped, torn and ragged; edges sharp and unforgiving; edges frayed, incongruent and loose but still surrounding, almost suffocating like barbed wire. It’s a blotch of paint, several maybe; No, a bucket emptied from an air balloon thousands of feet up; paint landing on cracked, uneven sidewalk; filling some holes and crevices while missing com-pletely others, even
grazing passersby who are oblivious to the paint rain drops that drip from their chins and cheeks and sporting coats and spaghetti strapped dresses. The whole record’s so emotionally taught and rabidly gut wrenching that some have admitted to crying during and after their first listen. Me? I found myself listening over and over; deci-phering lyrics and getting absolutely lost in everything about this record from start to dreaded finish and back again; constantly going back to the lyrics about love and sex and burning buildings and two-headed boys and car-rot flowers and fingers down notched spines and memo-ries from death and cremated ashes and…and their deliv-ery is met, by me, with intense thought and a screeched stop. In. My. Tracks. While I contemplate the existence of these words and what they mean to me. Right. Now.
The lyrics make the record because as good as the mu-sic alone is; with its trumpets and strings and drums and bagpipes (BONUS) and all else, it’s Mangum’s lyrics and pure, unadulterated voicing of such that makes this thing coalesce. Finding records like this make me stop and think about everything within it and outside myself and drives my purchase of that next record. NMH is the rea-son I listen to music. I just never knew that until now… oh and if you don’t have their “latest” (their second of only two LP’s) consider yourself humbly invited to take a trip and jump from this Aeroplane Over The Sea.
MUSIC
“I found myself listening
over and over; deciphering
lyrics and getting absolutely
lost in everything about this
record from start to dread-
ed finish and back again.”
BAND: Neutral Milk Hotel
ALBUM: In the Aeroplane
over the Sea
LABEL: Merge Records
RELEASE: 10 Febraury, 1998
TRACKS: 11
RUN TIME: 39 Mins. 41 Seconds
Album Releases:
See it Live:
One of the most infectious releases of 2010, Bro-ken Bells perfectly pairs The Shins frontman James Mercer’s falsetto with the elegant but quirky sonic sensibilities of über-producer Danger Mouse (Brian Burton).
Fortunately we don’t have to wait long for more new music from the duo. The two plan to release a new, four-track EP on March 29 called Meyrin Fields. It includes the strutting, spaghetti-western-electro–rock-and-pop romp “Windows.”
BROKEN BELLSMARCH 29
REM MARCH 04
THE DODOS MARCH 15
THE JOY FORMIDABLE MARCH 15
LUCINDA WILLIAMS MARCH 1
THE FLAMING LIPS MAY 19 & 20 - ATLANTA, GA
LUCINDA WILLIAMS MARCH 16, ASHEVILLE
COLD WAR KIDS MARCH 29, ATLANTA
CAGE THE ELEPHANT APRIL 4, ASHEVILLE
UNWRITTEN LAW APRIL 26, ATLANTA
A Flaming Lips live show is a glorious thing. Even if you think you’ll be immune to all the billowing con-fetti and costumed dancers and giant-bubble crowd-walks, it’s pretty overwhelming to actually stand there and let this massive spectacle swallow you up. And this spring and summer, the band will give audi-ences a few more chances to get swept up in all of it. They’ve announced North American and European live shows, including sets at festivals like Primavera and Sasquatch. At a few of those shows, they’ll play their 1999 masterpiece The Soft Bulletin in full.
MountanFreePress.com | March 2011 | 23
Have you noticed the words “Gluten Free” splashed across the many packages of foodstuffs at the grocery store as well as on the menu’s of many popular restaurants? Is this a new fad diet you ask? What is gluten and is it something I should be concerned with? Yes, possibly, because nearly 3 million Americans have Celiac disease or some de-gree of gluten sensitivity and 95% of people are undiagnosed.The incidence of Celiac Dis-ease has quadrupled since the 1950’s. What is gluten and what is Celiac Disease? Gluten is the protein part of certain grains that gives bread dough its elasticity and makes bagels chewy. It is found in wheat,barley, rye,spelt,& kamut. Celiac disease is a perma-nent genetic intolerance to gluten. If you have Celiac disease gluten must be eliminat-ed from the diet. Many people may have a gluten sensitivity without having full blown Celiac disease. In either case, the gluten causes inflammation in the small intestine. The intestine become inflamed and swollen which will prevent important nutrients from being absorbed. As a result, vitamin and mineral deficiencies are common as well as yeast and fungal infections.
If you have some of the following symp-toms you just might have gluten sensitivity or Celiac disease: chronic problems with the digestive system, stomach bloating & discomfort, diarrhea & or constipation, lack of energy,tired, sluggish, low or suppressed immune system, anemia, depression, and headaches. If you have these symptoms and suspect gluten is the culprit, discuss this with your doctor. There is a blood test that can measure the levels of autoantibodies to gluten but you must be ingesting gluten at the time of testing to prevent a false read-ing. This test is used more as a screening tool rather than diagnostic. A true diag-nosis will come from a biopsy of the small intestine.
A gluten free diet is based on eliminat-ing all products containing wheat, barley, rye, spelt, & kamut. Most prepared and packaged foods contain some form of wheat or gluten so care must be taken when shop-ping. All ingredient lists should be checked on packages to be safe.
I will continue a discussion of gluten free diet in the next issue of this maga-zine. It will include living with gluten sen-sitivity & diet tips as well as recipes that are easy and very tasty. Living gluten free does not mean being sentenced to a diet of boring cardboard like food. There are many great options available.
Gluten Free
HEALTH
By: LENORA HUGHES, RN
Gluten \glü-ten\ :a tenacious elastic protein
substance especially of wheat flour
that gives cohesiveness to dough
The New Catch Phrase
Are you Gluten Sensitive?
If you think you may be gluten sensi-tive talk to your doctor about having a blood test performed to check your autoantibodies for Celiac disease.
Resources on the Web
Check out these websites for more gluten free info:
www.CeliacCentral.org www.glutenfreeinfo.com
www.livingwithout.com/glutenfree.
Innovative Asheville-Based Design Company Builds Chemical and Toxin Free Residential Homes
24 | March 2011 | MountanFreePress.com
HEALTH
Asheville’s Push Design is running against convention in standards of traditional green building. Unlike any other designer or builder, the company, led by Founder / Lead Designer Anthony Brenner and Managing Partner David Mosrie is Focused on chemical - and toxin free, healthy built environments that are cost effective, stylish and energy - efficient.
Push Design believes that many traditional and green construction methods unnecessar-ily use materials that contain formaldehyde and other toxic chemicals. Additionally, the prevailing strategy in the industry is so to seal the house as tightly as possible, creating a potentially dangerous scenario in terms of indoor air quality. People with chemical sen-sitivities have long been aware of these con-cerns and desperately sought viable alterna-tives, but awareness is increasing around the country as to potential health consequences for all homeowners and residents who live in such conditions. By not only using natural and toxin - free materials in their projects, but by advocating breathable walls systems, the team is able to not only assure that dan-gerous chemicals are not introduced to the indoor living environment, but that the walls will be able to “breathe” allowing potential pollutants to escape and also preventing mold and mildew growth. Push Design has selected materials and techniques from
around the globe to build toxin-free environ-ments that are beautiful, energy efficient and can be molded to any budget.
Push Design recently completed the Push House, which received national attention for the hemp based material used to build it: “Hempcrete” - a breathable, mold resistant, and natural material used for the external walls that filters out toxins before they enter
the home. The company is now working country’s first toxin free home and job site, the Wilson House. Owner Carol Wilson had a difficult time finding a permanent place to live with her sensitivity to chemicals and wood dust. The interior of the home will con-tain no wood. Furniture and cabinets will be made with Purepanel, a precision engineered core panel material made with 100% land-fill recycled paper. The company is in the planning stages of several other residential homes and small developments.
PUSHING AHEADInnovative Asheville-Based Design Company Builds
Chemical and Toxin Free Residential Homes
The Push House is the first of its kind. It has recieved national attention for being the first house to be made with Hempcrete - a breathable, natural hempbased material designed to filter out toxins before they enter the home.
“Our building practices are as,
if not more, energy efficient than
current green building practices
with no risk of toxicity and negative
health effects.”
- David Mosrie, Managing Partner -
Push Design
MountanFreePress.com | March 2011 | 25
Wintertime brings the greatest number of bright stars and if you’re brave enough to venture out into the cold and dark your efforts will be reward-ed. One of these rewards appears as a fuzzy patch of stars about the size of the moon directly above us in the early evening. This is the star cluster M45, The Pleiades (PLEE-ah-deez), located in the constellation of Taurus. Most often called the “Seven Sisters” it’s also referred to as The Starry Seven, the Net of Stars, the Seven Virgins, as well as many other names in ancient cultures, and it is probably the Biblical constellation referred to as Kimah. It’s shaped like a tiny short-handled dipper and is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the Little Dipper. The Little Dipper, Ursa Minor, is connected to the North Star and is much bigger and fainter. I guess if we were to call the Pleiades a dipper it would have to be the teeny-tiny, itsy-bitsy dipper. The Pleiades or Seven Sisters is much easier to say.
ION THE SKY
The Pleiades
Star Cluster
The average person can see six or seven stars grouped together in a tight knot, but under very steady and dark sky condi-tions someone with sharp vision could see eleven or twelve stars. The best views of the Pleiades are seen with binoculars or very low power on a telescope (20x-30x). This will reveal a few dozen to over a hundred stars depending on the size of the instrument used. The nine brightest stars are B-type giants, each about ten times as big as our sun and a thousand times more luminous. Their icy blue-white color shows them to be among the hottest of stars and quite young by galactic stan-dards … twenty million years old accord-ing to astronomers. The Pleiades is one of the nearest open star clusters. The light we see from them started towards us some four hundred and ten years ago. Although it appears small in the sky it is about seven light-years across. This glorious star clus-ter lies close to the ecliptic, the imaginary line that the sun and moon follow across the sky. As a result, sometimes the moon
will pass in front of the cluster gradually blocking the stars from sight. It’s exciting to see the stars reemerge from behind the moon in about an hour.
Myths and stories about the Pleiades are common to every culture on earth, past and present. Volumes have been written about its history. Here is one example taken from “Burnam’s Celestial Hand-book”, volume III:
“In American Indian legend the Pleiades are connected with the Mateo Tepe or Devil’s Tower, that curious and wonder-fully impressive rock formation which rises like a colossal petrified tree-stump to a height of 1300 feet above the plains of northeastern Wyoming. According to the lore of the Kiowa, the Tower was raised up by the Great Spirit to protect seven Indian maidens who were pursued by giant bears; the maidens were afterwards placed in the sky as the Pleiades cluster, and the marks of the bears’ claws may be seen in the vertical striations on the sides of the Tower unto this day. The Cheyenne had a
similar legend.”You might remember Devil’s Tower
from the sci-fi movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. Well, now you can have a close encounter of the first kind with some of the beautiful sparkling diamonds of the winter night sky. Even in the daytime you will be reminded of this glorious star cluster when you see the nameplate on a Subaru driving by.
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By: Paul M. Schofield
About the Author:The writer is an amateur astronomer and au-
thor of the new science fiction action-adventure novel, TROPHY. For additional information, please go to: www.paulmschofield.com
26 | March 2011 | MountanFreePress.com
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Living in rural NC can often be very try-ing when it comes to finding exceptional culinary taste. However, there are a few gems scattered from here and there, and one such gem came to us by the name of Antica Roma Caffe. Being half Sicilian, I can say with no uncertainty that you will not find an Italian Cafe more authentic than Antica Roma in all of the Tri-State Area. Each and every dessert baked, coffee brewed, and sandwich prepared is simply amazing. The moment you step in the door you are greeted by the redolent scents of fresh coffee and pastry. For lunch, the
paninis are truly exquisite. Freshly sliced prosciutto, salami, and other various cured meats paired with fresh mozzarella and Italian cheeses make for an out of this world sandwich experience. As for the desserts, if the pictures don’t speak for themselves I will go ahead and tell you.
You must try them all - each one is a confectionery masterpiece. The Tiramisu melts in your mouth and drips across your taste buds with perfect notes of espresso to accent this already flawless dessert. The Cannoli are prepared so classically Italian you would think they were flown in fresh
daily from Rome. And the cookies - tell Marco to fill up
two boxes with one of each so after you finish the first box on your car ride home - you’ll have some left over for sharing.
So If you can’t manage to find a quick flight to Italy on your lunch hour I would highly recommend stopping in at Antica Roma Caffe - it’s so authentic you may want to bring your passport just in case.
Antica Roma Caffe is on Tennessee Street in Downtown Murphy. Tell them Bryan sent you.
Un Autentico Caffè ItalianoAn unbelievably authentic Italian cafe in Downtown Murphy
RESTAURANT REVIEW
By: Bryan Hughes
Join us every Wednesday nightFrom 5-9 pm forSUSHI NIGHT
Offering assorted rolls, nigiri and Hand rolled varietiesAlso
Join us nightly from 5-6 pm for ourEARLY BIRD MENU
Choice of soup or salad, 5 entrees, Vegetable and one side dish.Bring in this ad and receive a
Complementary dessert.We look forward to welcoming you!
For reservations &More information. please call (828) 488-28269400 US Hwy 19 W • Bryson City, NC 28713
www.nvnc.com
Owned and Operated by Chef James Reaux of Murphy’s Chophouse
Not valid with any other offer
451 US Hwy 64 W.Murphy NC 28906
828-837-9999
One CouponPer Customer
451 US Hwy 64 W. 20% Off Breakfast Sandwich
19 Tennessee St. Murphy, NC 28906
Phone 828-837-5300 • Fax 828-837-5333Espresso • Cappuccino • Gelati •Dolci• Panini
Beer & Wine
Hours: Mon- Thurs 9a - 6p • Fri & Sat: 9a - 9p
forging elite f itness
OUT LIFT A RUNNEROUT RUN A LIFTER
www.CrossF i tMurphy.com
828.361.2289
RECIPE
Linguine with Herb Broth and Clams
The pasta is extra flavorful because it’s cooked in the herb broth. Serve with warm rustic bread.
Cook Time: 60 MinsYield: Serves 4
Ingredients
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter2 tablespoons olive oil2 onions, chopped6 garlic cloves, peeled, smashed2 medium tomatoes, cored, chopped3 cups dry white wine1 cup (or more) water3 pounds Manila clams or small little-
neck clams, scrubbed1/3 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
leaves1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano2 pinches of dried crushed red pep-
per8 ounces linguine
Preparation
Melt butter with olive oil in heavy large pot over medium heat. Add on-ions and cook until soft, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and stir 1
minute. Add tomatoes and cook until beginning to soften, stirring often, about 2 minutes. Add white wine and 1 cup water and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 min-utes to blend flavors. DO AHEAD: Broth can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly, then cover and refrigerate.
Bring broth to boil. Add clams, cover, and cook until clams open, 3 to 5 minutes (discard any clams that do not open). Transfer clams to large bowl; tent with foil to keep warm.
Stir basil, parsley, oregano, and crushed red pepper into broth in pot. Add linguine. Boil until pasta is almost tender but still very firm to bite, stir-ring often and adding water by table-spoonfuls if too dry. Return clams with any accumulated juices to pot. Cover and simmer until clams are heated through and pasta is tender but still firm to bite, about 3 minutes longer. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Transfer linguine and clam mixture to large shallow platter and serve.
Wine Pairing
This pasta and seafood dish would pair well with a dryer Pinot Grigio.
30 | March 2011 | MountanFreePress.com
The Club ShoppeCustom Fitted and Custom Made Golf Clubs
• Repairs
• Golf Simulator
• We carry most major Brands
3090 US Hwy 64 W. #105Murphy, NC 28906 828.837.0505
SILVER SKID-STEER SERVICE
GradingDrivewaysHomesitesHole AugerTrenching
Underbrushing & ClearingNC Certified Septic Installer
DAN SILVER828-837-5226828-361-7160Free EstimatesNew Homes
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ON YOUR PROPERTY OR IN ONE OF OUR DEVELOPMENTS
Auto ~ Home ~ Life ~ Health ~ BusinessFarley Insurance Services
P.O. Box 6401004 HWY 64 West
Murphy, NC
Rodney L. Brown
Murphy (828) 8377447Fax (828) 837-9105Cell (828) 361-1556
email: [email protected]
Free Consultation
5731 Hwy 64 E, Murphy NC 28906828.837.3999 n 866.656.3999
www.HearthsofFire.com
Fireplace ShopQuality Indoor & Outdoor Heating Solutions
MountanFreePress.com | March 2011 | 31
THE DIFFERENCE IS CLEAR
THE DIFFERENCE IS CLEAR
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pool liner and swimsuits. Convert your pool in less than 24 hours to a chlorine-free BAQUACIL® pool and start feeling the difference.
Visit www.baquacil for pool care tips, advice and more.
Hughes Pool & Stone The areas only Baquacil Dealer
37 N. Church StreetMurphy, NC 28906
828.837.6222Stop in for a free computerized pool water test!
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