BEIJING – Dennis Rodman sang Happy Birthday to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un on Wednesday before leading a team of former NBA stars for a game of “basketball diplomacy” that has been criticized by rights groups.

Rodman took on a North Korean team in the capital Pyongyang in an exhibition game that excited a capacity crowd of around 14,000 at the Pyongyang Indoor Stadium.

Kim watched the game from a special seating area along with his wife and other senior officials and their wives.

Rodman sang Happy Birthday before the start of the game in which the North Korean team scored 47 points to 39 for the Americans before the teams were mixed for the second half. Rodman played in the first half and then sat next to Kim during the second half.

Rodman, 52, a former star for the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons, insists he is trying to forge a bridge between the West and his “good friend” Kim. But Amnesty International, the NBA and the family of an American missionary jailed in North Korea have accused him of giving an image boost to a despot whose regime has starved millions of its people, imprisoned tens of thousands of citizens and

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The beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway is still mostly shrouded in a nice sheet – or several inches thick – of ice, snow and other winter offerings, but the 11-mile stretch known affectionately as the Asheville Corridor, or Asheville Commuter Zone, is open for vehicle traffic now.

That is the section from South Asheville near the Arboretum at Milepost 393 at N.C. 191/Brevard Road, up north through the Folk Art Center at MP 382 at U.S. 70/Tunnel Road.

The Visitor Center at MP 384 and the Folk Art Center are open regular hours. There is lots to see and do there, as well as flush toilets (yay!) and trailheads to the Mountains-To-Sea Trail, so take advantage.

The Park Service does allow pedestrians and cyclists to park safely along the side of the road near closed gates – as long as you’re not blocking the gates – and walk or ride your bike behind the gate. If you’ve got snowshoes or cross-country skis, even better!

But seriously bundle up every bit of skin you have. It’s still only about 14 degrees in Asheville today and brutally cold. Frostbite can set in on fingers and toes, even those

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   BOX SCORE (PDF)

BOILING SPRINGS – Jaron Lane scored 19 of his game-high 26 points in the second half and UNC Asheville held off Gardner-Webb, 81-77, Wednesday in both teams’ league opener.

Gardner-Webb (7-9, 0-1 Big South) jumped out to a 23-9 lead in the early going and had a stranglehold on momentum, but Asheville (7-8, 1-0 Big South) went on a 10-0 run to get back in the game – and closed the half on a 27-7 blitz that gave the visitors a 36-30 lead at the half.

Asheville then came out of the locker room on fire, making their first six shots to push the lead to 45-33 less than two minutes in. Gardner-Webb was able to get the lead back to single digits, but Asheville kept its shooting at a high level the rest of the way.

A layup with 12:43 from Tyler Strange cut the lead to 51-46, but a 3-pointer from lane and a layup from center D.J. Cunningham got the advantage back into double digits. With just under seven minutes to play, Gardner-Webb was finally able to force errors and get back into contention.

Tyrell Nelson drained a jumper with 6:57 left, sparking a 12-2

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A slightly bigger chunk of the Blue Ridge Parkway is open to vehicular traffic today, aka Polar Vortex Day, in Asheville. The parkway is open to driving from Milepost 382 at the Folk Art Center just north of the U.S. 70 entrance, to Milepost 393.6 at N.C. 191/Brevard Road. The Visitor Center and Folk Art Center are open.

The rest of the parkway in North Carolina, which contains the most mountains section of the 469-mile roadway, is closed for snow and icy conditions.

It’s a good time to think about what the parkway means to our community, economically, aesthetically, recreationally, all of those things. The parkway has certainly been through its share of turmoil over the past year, with the sequester cuts, the government shutdown and road failures and closures. Check out the upcoming presentation on the parkway this Thursday:

Environment North Carolina Research and Policy Center will release a new analysis, “Death by a Thousand Cuts,” exposing the impacts of funding cuts to the Blue Ridge Parkway– and to North Carolinians’ enjoyment of “America’s Favorite Drive.”

The analysis comes as President Obama readies his proposed budget for fiscal year 2015 and final Congressional budget negotiations get underway.

WHEN: 10 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 9

WHO: Liz

Article source: http://blogs2.citizen-times.com/outdoors/2014/01/07/budget-cuts-threatening-blue-ridge-parkway-theme-of-thursday-talk/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

Painter’s first solo gallery show brings quirky characters to life

 

The curious characters that populate Julie Armbruster‘s paintings don’t start as gestating seeds — they sprout from her mind fully formed. Potato Boy, the WoodChucks, Elmore, the Golden Unicorn and Professor Wunderbar “just came out of the surface of the painting,” said Armbruster in her Wedge studio in the River Arts District.

Her adventurous, intuitive approach to drawing and painting accounts for Armbruster’s signature far-out, fairytale style. “It is such a dynamic way of painting because I don’t have a plan that I am following the whole time,” said the 34-year-old full-time artist. “It is fun.”

For her solo show, opening Sept. 6 at The Satellite Gallery, this cast of characters on canvas, so to speak, is more than lively. They come to life.

With the help of longtime collaborator and friend designer R. Brooke Priddy, Armbruster created a massive window installation featuring sculptural rendering of her characters. “The technical aspect of (the nine panels in the show) is to the point that you feel like you can pull the characters out of the painting,” she said. “And I just thought that I would love for that to happen, so I’ve been

Article source: http://blogs2.citizen-times.com/carol/2014/01/07/be-brave-eat-ice-cream-see-art-support-brother-wolf-tonight/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com

I hope all the skunks, otters and wolves are warm today. They have quite an adoring public waiting to see them when it warms up a bit.

Otters are a popular exhibit at the WNC Nature Center.

The WNC Nature Center, aka Asheville’s own little natural habitat zoo, again reached record-breaking attendance in 2013. According to the Friends of the WNC Nature Center , the Nature Center off Gashes Creek Road in East Asheville  finished out the year with 107,949 visitors.

2013 by the numbers:

•              Eight out of 12 months in 2013 had the highest attendance numbers in five years.

•              July 2013 was the second-highest single month for attendance in five years (the first-highest was July 2009)

•              In 2013, the Center had 29 days with 600 or more guests, up from 15 such days in 2012 and 7 in 2010.

•              Since 2010, the Center has experienced a 20 percent increase in guest attendance. In 2013, 20,342 more people visited the Center than in 2010.  

Last year saw the completion of several projects and developments at the Nature Center, including a new Red Wolf boardwalk

Article source: http://blogs2.citizen-times.com/outdoors/2014/01/07/ashevilles-wnc-nature-center-has-record-attendance-year/ If you need a cheap air ticket, hotel or rental car please visit http://www.airticket.com