Asheville Citizen-Times from Asheville, North Carolina • Page 85

ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES via Ad Fine arts, books travel Th weatherand beyond 9 Area weathermen prove that commitment to forecasting can be just one interest among many 4v FILE PHOTO Tony Dale, morning weatherman at Spartanburg's WSPAChannel 7, also works as a singer-songwriter and guitarist. Dale spent years working as a rock musician before moving into broadcasting. I 1 i 1 I By Tony Kiss ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR SHEVILLE The last few days, local TV weather men have been moving faster than an upper level disturbance as they've tried to figure the forecast. But none have been busier than Bob Child, weekend weather guy at WLOSChannel 13. Along with his Saturday-Sunday duties at Channel 13, Child is a professional photographer with an exhibit at the Tryon Fine Arts Center, an actor who's worked on stage, screen and television and a singer.

And he's got a high-profile national gig on The Weather Channel, filling in for full-timers. "I'm a little too involved," he said the other day. "I love performing. I love the weather but I don't eat, live and sleep it." Child isn't alone. Down in Spar VIIS tanburg, S.C., WSPAChannel 7 morning weatherman Tony Dale is a successful singer-songwriter-guitarist who plays area music venues.

And veteran Channel 13 morning weatherman Bob Caldwell spent 20 years as a professional musician, though he now plays just for himself for fun. He also teaches fly fishing on the side. Longtime locals also remember Caldwell as Bumbo the Clown, the lovable sidekick on Channel 13's old "Mr Bill and Bumbo" children's show. While today's TV weather anchors are dead serious about their jobs, some are natural-born entertainers. Unlike other parts of a TV news show, the weather isn't scripted in advance.

"You have to talk off the top of your head for four or five minutes," Dale said. "It's like doing an oral book report," said Caldwell. Bob Caldwell has been doing weather And it's crucial to have "a personality that shows through" said Child. "You can't be a fake. I do the same stupid jokes" on TV and in person.

Still, "when I give the weather, it's not just to hear myself talk," he said. Caldwell agrees. "What you see from me on the air is what you get" off the air, he said. "I don't know how to be anyone else." Caldwell, a fixture on Channel 13 since 1966, is the longest-running television personality in the Asheville--Greenyille-Spartan-burg-Anderson market. He started in the days when weather maps were just big boards, covered with "high" or "low" stickers.

"The biggest difference now is all the dependency on computer graphics," he said. While many of today's TV weathermen have weather- Bob Child's in Tryon include of a hot air "n.f mm I i Tony Kiss THAT'S SHOWBIZ Fact-finding frustrations lead to plays on 28 Days' The things you learn in this business. The other day, I asked the Citizen-Times all-knowing, all-seeing library computer to tell me about "28 Days," the Sandra Bullock comedy-drama shot around here last year. Bullock plays a writer who likes to party too much, so she has to spend 28 days drying out in a rehab hospital. The movie was filmed at the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly at Black Mountain and will be released by Columbia Pictures April 14.

I wrote several stories about "28 Days," but couldn't remember just when Bullock and company were in town. So I punched a few computer buttons, figuring on a fast, easy answer. There's plenty of information on "28 Days" in our computer from last year. But many stories had nothing to do with the movie. Dig these weird but true facts: Remember Rae Carruth, the Carolina Panther football player accused of involvement in the death of his girlfriend? She died 28 days after being struck in the neck by bullets from a passing car.

My pal Susan Reinhardt wrote a moving column about a woman who had been in a coma for 28 days. The average menstrual cycle is 28 days. A computer company had a 28-day supply of machines. Twenty-eight days were added to the end of raccoon and opossum hunting season in the western district of North Carolina. Not good news for those critters.

The move of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse was scheduled to be finished in (gasp!) 28 days. The first 28 days of pregnancy "really, really count" in having a healthy child, according to Liz Ward, a registered dietician and expert on such things. The rabies vaccination consists of six shots over you guessed it 28 days. A U.S. Navy petty officer, convicted of domestic assault, was sentenced to 70 days, but only served 28 days.

And here's where it gets unbelievable. As of last Sunday, there had been 28 mentions of the phrase "28 days" in the Citizen-Times, one way or another since Jan. 1, 1998. But I broke the curse with this column, which is mention number 29. Oh yeah, the movie was shot here in May.

Now all that was bizarre enough. But then I turned to the Internet for information on Janet McTeer, star of the movie "Song Catcher," which was also shot here last year. Couldn't find a lick on "Song Catcher," but among the weird Web sites for McTeer was an ode to the actress' feet and a pronouncement that she should be president of the United States. The author, whose name escapes me, also expressed extreme frustration at not being able to find enough stories on McTeer. I know the feeling.

Call Tony Kiss at 232-5855 or e-mail BOB CHILD PHOTO photographs this shot balloon. related degrees, Caldwell and Child aren't trained meteorologists. "I use my own instincts a lot and fly my own course," Caldwell said. "It has served me well over the years." Dale, who was a rock musician in the 1960s before moving into broadcasting, landed his first weather job in 1978 when "you didn't have to be a meteorologist," he said. "But I got more serious and started studying Bob Child, weekend weatherman at WLOSChannel 13, stays busy with a Channel and also works as a singer, actor and photographer.

A collection through Tuesday at the Tryon Fine Arts Center. DEBBIE CHASE-JENNINGSCITIZEN-TIMES at WLOS Channel 1 3 since 1 966. and got a certification seal from the National Weather Association," he said. "Technology has come along so fast and people have been exposed to it for so long, they are weather literate. It's important that you know the science of it, and not everyone does." While Child doesn't hold a full-time weather job anywhere, he's got the most exposure of anyone on local TV, thanks to his fill-in job at The Weather Chan nel, Dasea in Atlanta.

He works on an "on-call basis," reporting whenever there's a need. "Some weeks, I could work every day," he said. The set-up gives Child time to pursue his other projects. He's appeared in the movies "Guarding Tess" and "Love Field," and done lots of commercials and training films. He works as a singer and starred as Professor Harold Hill in a version of "The Music Man" at Tryon Little Theater.

And he's passionate about photography. Today "cameras do everything," he said. "Anyone can take a picture but very few people can take a photograph." Call Tony Kiss at 232-5855 or e-mail Several campus events will be held in conjunction with the exhibits. All events are free and open to the public: Historian and author Rickie Solinger, a visiting scholar in American Studies at the University of Colorado, will give a gallery talk at 6:30 p.m. Friday, followed by an opening reception at 7:30 p.m.

At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Solinger will give a public lecture, "Nine Ways of Looking at a Poor Woman" in UNCA's Owen Conference Center. In this lecture, Solinger will discuss how poor women are defined by American society, how these definitions shape welfare policy, and the relationships between welfare, pover- ty and single-parent families. Concepts and contemporary issues presented in the exhibit will be explored in two panel discussions led by UNCA faculty, at 7 p.m. Feb.

8 and Feb. 10 in Owen Conference Center. The panels will explore political, racial and economic aspects of reproductive rights; political art as a method to influence public policy and its protection under the First Amendment; and the history of the modem women's rights movement. exhibit explores issues of reproductive rights STEVE DIXONCITIZEN TIMES part-time job on The Weather of his photographs is on exhibit i I I -f ill i Whit I I I 1 if 'A oxM 1 It 3T- UNCA art SPECIAL TO THE CITIZEN-TIMES Evolving sexual politics of the 20th century and art come together to form dual exhibits at UNCA in February with "Wake Up Little Susie" and "Warnings," opening Feb. 4 in UNCA's University Gallery.

The artwork tackles issues surrounding women's reproductive rights. A collaboration by artists Kathy Hutton, Cathleen Meadows and Kay Obering, "Wake Up Little Susie" is based on an award-winning book by historian Rickie Solinger. "Warnings" is a series of photomontage posters by Lisa Link created in response to statements made by anti-abortion activists. Both exhibits have toured nationally. Lectures and panel discussion groups are scheduled at UNCA to coincide with the exhibits.

"Susie" focuses on the differing treatment of White and Black unwed mothers. The three-dimensional life-size chess board, with pieces representing unwed mothers, a social worker, psychiatrist, judge, journalists and others, illustrates the social and political context of the 1950s. Wall placards provide a richly packed history of the era, highlighting the conditions that preceded the modern women's rights movement. "The (chess) metaphor is particularly apt, in that chess itself is a symbolic war game with a readily adapt- l. -iUmZZ.

viP Little Susie" at UNCA's University Gallery illustrates the racial and political The exhibit opens Friday and runs through Feb. 22. 1 IT. i University Gallery is located on the first floor of Owen Hall. Regular gallery hours are 9 a.m.-6 p.m.

Monday-Friday. In addition, the gallery will be open from 1-4 p.m. Saturday, the day after the exhibit's opening. For more information about the dual exhibits, call the UNCA Art Department at 251 -6559. 5 Sculpture in the exhibit "Wake Up tensions affecting unwed mothers.

able cast of characters," according to a review of "Susie" in the New York Times. The review continues: "Moreover, the black-white division of the board illustrates the story's racial overtones. The overall impact of words, images and objects is powerful, reminding us of the backlog of injustice behind Roe v. Wade." "Those who come to learn go away with an aesthetic experience and an understanding of how art can illuminate social issues," art critic Lucy Lippard said of "Susie." Since 1992, "Wake Up Little Susie" has been shown on more than 40 college campuses, including the University of Wisconsin, Evergreen State College, the University of Colorado, the University of Texas-Austin, Carleton College, West Virginia Wesleyan, University of Memphis, Duke University, UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC-Greensboro. Now on its southern tour, it is also scheduled to appear at Wake Forest University, UNC-Charlotte and Vanderbilt University..