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Today’s Email Announcements

What’s Happening This Week at Lost Province Brewing

Wednesday December 5

7pm-9pm Trivia Night: Beginning at 7pm, Lost Province will be hosting Trivia Night. Compete on your own or on a team! The competition gets started at 7pm so come a little early for a pizza and a pint and get your seat!

Thursday December 6

$3.00 Thursday and College Night-$3.00 pints on all Lost Province brewed beers (except high gravity).

7:30-Closing College Night and Live Music with ASU Jazz Combs. Appalachian State jazz combos I and II bring to life the repertoire they’ve been preparing all semester long. The combos perform a variety of music, from revamped standards, to cutting edge fusion. Both groups are coached by Dr. Adam Booker. Combo I includes Aaron West, Matt Guard, Chandler Bell, Will Whitehurst, Rob McCormac, Zach Mcrary and Joe Karmazyn. Combo II includes Isaiah Whitfield, Austin Bowling, Sergio Grossi, Ingrid Nora, Kitty Amaral, Marcus Clonts and Jacob Smith.

Friday December 7

7:30pm-Closing Live Music: Holden Bare. Holden Bare has been creating good times for over 3 decades playing the music you remember. His one-man show can transport you back to the 60’s and 70’s with songs from your favorite artists that will always touch you. Holden’s vocals, along with either piano or guitar, can add just the right touch to make your dining experience a memorable one. Years of entertaining coupled with an extensive song list will ensure that you will have a good time with plenty of smiles and memories to take with you.

Saturday December 8

7:30pm-Closing Live Music: Bryan Toney and Friends. Bryan Toney is alternative folk rock singer songwriter with a distinctive sound that combines sweet and energetic vocals with hard-driving, toe-tapping guitar riffs evoking a wide range of influences from 60’s and 70’s pop/rock/folk to more recent Americana. With catchy melodies and intensely personal lyrics loaded with vibrant, emotive imagery, his music appeals to everyone from millennials to baby boomers at breweries and listening rooms all across America from Charleston to Salt Lake City, drawing comparisons to Ryan Adams, Wilco, America, Bread, Jack Johnson, Nick Lowe, R.E.M. and many more. In 2017, he released his debut solo album, “With a Y” and is currently recording a new album to be released in early 2019.

Campus Emergency Siren Test to be Conducted December 5

Appalachian State University will test its campus siren warning system at 11:55 a.m., Wednesday, Dec. 5.

Examples of the tones that are used in an emergency or during tests can be heard online at https://emergency.appstate.edu/siren-warning-system.

Appalachian uses the hi/low tone for emergencies, discontinuous air horn for tests of the system and the alert tone for all-clear signal.

For more information about the university’s AppState ALERT voice/text/email notification system, visit https://emergency.appstate.edu.

Campus siren tests are normally conducted on the first Wednesday of each month. Scheduled dates for Appalachian’s upcoming tests are Jan. 2 and Feb. 6, 2019.

Blowing Rock Town Council Holding Special Meeting on December 5

The Town of Blowing Rock Town Council will hold a special meeting/work session to meet with Interim Town Manager Jim Freeman and to hear a presentation from the Mercer Group Inc. on Wednesday, December 5, 2018 beginning at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will be held at Town Hall located at 1036 Main Street, Blowing Rock. Action may be taken.

Upcoming Events at BRAHM 

December has a trio of special events happening at the Blowing Rock Art & History Museum.

North Carolina Heritage Award Recipient Glenn Bolick Performs Songs and Stories of His Youth

On Saturday, December 8 at 2 p.m. North Carolina living treasure and former National Hollering Champion Glenn Bolick will lead visitors on a tour of his musical history.

Glenn Bolick grew up in Caldwell County surrounded by sawmilling, storytelling, and music, and today he carries on these three traditions. Glenn’s early musical influence came from hearing his grandparents and aunt sing unaccompanied shape-note gospel hymns in three-part harmony. He also had a battery-powered radio and would listen to the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday nights, and to storytelling programs for children. Part of his storytelling repertoire comes from these programs. Some stories he tells are ones he heard from his father and other relatives and community members when they returned from sawmilling camp. 

Glenn has played banjo and guitar most of his life. He plays banjo in the same style as his grandmother, two-finger up-picking style and tuned to drop-C. He learned to play guitar from his wife’s family. When Glenn and Lula moved to Seagrove to work for her family’s pottery business, Glenn not only learned how to throw pots in the Owens family tradition, he also became immersed in the family’s musical traditions. 

Glenn has won numerous awards, these include recognition for his banjo and harmonica playing, hollering, and folk singing. He is also a recipient of the Bascom Lamar Lunsford award from the Raleigh State Fair. In 2018 Glenn and Lula, received the Brown Hudson award from the North Carolina Folklore Society.

The performance is free but limited to an audience of 60. There will be light refreshments served after the performance. Parking is available on site. Please RSVP with Willard Watson, BRAHM’s Program and Outreach Director at 828-295-9099 ext. 3006 or by email at programs@blowingrockmuseum.org.

Ashe County Author Presents on Local Country Music Pioneers

Join us at the Blowing Rock Art & History Museum (BRAHM) for a Thursday Art and Culture (TAC) Talk with Ashe County native and author Josh Beckworth as he discusses his book entitled Always Been a Rambler: G.B. Grayson and Henry Whitter, Country Music Pioneers of Southern Appalachia. The talk will be on Thursday, December 13th from 6-7:00 pm. Tickets are free for museum members and $5 for non-members.

Josh Beckworth has devoted the majority of his adult life to the study of local music. He has written extensively on traditional bluegrass musicians in Ashe County in his recently published a book on G.B. Grayson and Henry Whitter entitled Always Been a Rambler: G.B. Grayson and Henry Whitter, Country Music Pioneers of Southern Appalachia.

G.B. Grayson and Henry Whitter were one of the most influential musical duos in the history of traditional music. Together they popularized songs you can still hear today, like “Little Maggie,” “Handsome Molly,” “Train 45,” and “Nine Pound Hammer.” Although their lives were both cut tragically short, their enduring legacy continues to resonate today. Their lives and music, which were strongly tied to Southwest Virginia, Northeast Tennessee and Ashe and Watauga counties, provide a fascinating insight into life in the Appalachian Mountains at the turn of the 20th century.

In addition to being a music historian, Josh Beckworth is a high school English teacher at Ashe County High School. He has received the W. Amos Abrams prize from the North Carolina Folklore Society and was published in the North Carolina Folklore Journal. He lives in Crumpler, North Carolina.

Thursday Art and Culture (TAC) Talks bring collegiate level lectures to your museum. Featuring scholars from around the country, the lectures are selected to provide supplemental information on our current exhibits, or highlight the history and heritage of the mountains.

Beginning at 6 p.m. these events have an hour-long lecture with audience question and answer session at the end. Unless otherwise posted, all TAC talks are free for members and $5 for non-members.

Boone Native Kip Hutchins Brings the Horse-Head Fiddle From Mongolia and into the Holler

Boone native Kip Hutchins Raised in a musical family in the Blue Ridge, he is
interested in rural fiddling traditions and their connections with the landscape around the world and has been working with traditional musicians in Mongolia since 2010.

In Mongolia, the heart of traditional music is the morin khuur or “horse-head fiddle,” a two-stringed, bowed instrument with a sound that is in some ways very similar to Appalachian fiddles and in other ways quite distinct. An integral part of the horse-head fiddle’s music is its close relationship with the nomadic lifestyle, livestock, and rural landscapes in the steppe.

Through a combination of oral presentation and musical performance, Kip Hutchins will give an overview of Mongolian traditional fiddling, with a focus on how the music draws upon nomadic approaches to relating with animals and the environment.

Hutchins is a Ph.D. candidate in cultural anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, currently writing his dissertation on the relationships between cultural heritage and environment in Mongolia and he recently conducted two years of research for his dissertation funded by the Fulbright-Hays and the American Center for Mongolian Studies Cultural Heritage fellowships.

Thursday Art and Culture (TAC) Talks bring collegiate level lectures to your museum. Featuring scholars from around the country, the lectures are selected to provide supplemental information on our current exhibits, or highlight the history and heritage of the mountains.

Beginning at 6 p.m. these events have an hour-long lecture with audience question and answer session at the end. Unless otherwise posted, all TAC talks are free for members and $5 for non-members.

Lessons and Carols at St. Mary of the Hills December 9 

Organist Joby Bell joins the choir of St. Mary of the Hills Episcopal Church to present a traditional Advent Lessons and Carols service on Sunday afternoon, December 9th at 2:00 pm. The service will be held in the church, and everyone is truly welcome.  

Familiar to Christians everywhere through BBC broadcasts from King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, the service tells the story of the fall of Adam, the promise of the Messiah, and the birth of Jesus through short Bible readings interspersed with carols and hymns. Based on the medieval vigil service, and sung in Anglican churches all over the world since the 1880’s, the service is a lovely part of the preparation for Christmas and the celebration of the miracle of God’s love as expressed by the birth of the Christ child.

Music for this Lessons and Carols includes – Adam lay ybounden by Boris Ord, a traditional African-American spiritual I Wanna Be Ready, Healey Willan’s gentle paean to Mary – I beheld her, the old German tune, The Linden Tree Carol, and a lush setting of Ave Maria by Rachmaninoff.  Mr. Bell adds to the service with two organ voluntaries – the Partita on Comfort, comfort ye my people by Georg Böhm, and theOverture to Messiah by Handel (transcribed for organ by Mr. Bell himself).

Escape from the commercialization of Christmas and come immerse yourself in the story and music of Advent – the season of preparation for the birth of Christ.  St. Mary of the Hills is located on Main Street in Blowing Rock.  For more information, please call the church office at (828) 295-7323, or follow us on Facebook @ Music from St Mary of the Hills.

Christmas Caroling set for December 10

Women in the High Country are invited to join in a four-part harmony Christmas Caroling event for area retirement homes on Monday, December 10.

Interested carolers should meet in the lobby of the music building at Appalachian State to review music and carpool to singing locations. The evening should finish up by 7 p.m.

For more information, call Barbara at 828-264-8811.

The Art Cellar is Hosting a Holiday Open House on December 15

The Art Cellar in Banner Elk will be hosting a special Holiday Open House from 3-5 p.m. on Thursday, December 15.

The Art Cellar is located at 920 Shawneehaw Avenue in Banner Elk.

The gallery invites you to come by and finish up your holiday shopping with locally made pottery, glass, woodworks and paintings.

For more information, call 828-898-5175.

Three-Day Blood Drive Happening at Holiday Inn Express December 17-19

A special three-day blood drive will be taking place in Boone December 17-19 at the Holiday Inn Express.

Schedule:

Monday, December 17 – Noon until 6 p.m.

Tuesday, December 18 – 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.

Wednesday, December 19 – 11 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Tuesday will also mark the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce’s Day of Giving. For each donor, a donation of $10 will benefit Santa’s Toy Box.

To make an appointment, please call 828-442-4058 or online at www.thebloodconnection.org.

Grandfather Mountain Hosts New Year’s Sunrise 

There are sunrises, and then there are Grandfather Mountain sunrises. And then there are Grandfather Mountain New Year’s Day sunrises.

Ring in an epic New Year on Tuesday, Jan. 1, for the first sunrise of 2019 — atop Grandfather Mountain.

This special event will allow guests the rare opportunity to visit Grandfather Mountain outside of regular operating hours.

“These events are popular among nature lovers, photographers of all skill levels and anyone hoping to see the Blue Ridge Mountains in a new light,” said Frank Ruggiero, director of marketing and communications for the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation, the nonprofit organization that owns and operates the Linville, N.C., nature park. “Sunrise on Grandfather Mountain is nothing short of magnificent.”

Sunrise is at 7:38 a.m. Jan. 1, 2019, and Grandfather’s gates will open at 6:30 a.m. Due to safety regulations, participants may only visit the Mile High Swinging Bridge area, including the Top Shop, during the event. To help warm up on a likely cold winter’s morning, the mountain will offer complimentary coffee, cocoa and bearclaws for sunrise guests.

Participants are encouraged to bring a flashlight and to wear heavy winter jackets, hats, gloves and rubber-soled shoes, as there may be slick surfaces on the mountain. The event may be cancelled upon short in notice in case of inclement weather.

Admission to the New Year’s sunrise event costs $15, in addition to general admission, meaning $35 for adults and $24 for children. Guests are free to remain in the park all day, but those who leave before 9:30 a.m. will have their general admission charge refunded. Bridge Club members, who receive free admission to the mountain, will only pay $10 for the sunrise event.

The event is open to no more than 100 participants, and registration is required. To register, contact Judi Sawyer at judi@grandfather.com or (828) 733-2013.

The not-for-profit Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation strives to inspire conservation of the natural world by helping guests explore, understand and value the wonders of Grandfather Mountain. For more information, call (800) 468-7325, or visit www.grandfather.com.

Foxx to Lead Committee Republicans in the 116th Congress

Yesterday, the House Republican Conference approved Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) to lead Committee on Education and the Workforce Republicans in the 116th Congress. Upon the announcement, Chairwoman Foxx released the following statement:

“The question on everyone’s mind used to be: ‘Where are the jobs?’ Today we have 7 million job opportunities waiting for workers to fill them. We have 4.5 million more jobs than we had two years ago, and a quarter of a million more jobs than we had just over a month ago. The members of the Education and Workforce Committee have worked incredibly hard during the 115th Congress to make this new era of opportunity a reality. It is an honor to have the trust and confidence of my colleagues to help lead all of us to uncovering and implementing more ways to empower Americans to build successful lives.”