LaZoom Bus Tour: Forty Feet of Rolling Artistes
Asheville, a tiny town nestled between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina, has a lively social and political history. Yet the artistic history of the town is often glossed over, or even ignored. Literary greats such as Thomas Wolfe, O. Henry, and F. Scott Fitzgerald have written in Asheville or visited. European craftsman and architects of great renown built the town.
Asheville was inhabited by artists, intellectuals, wealthy families, a working class derived mainly from Appalachian Mountain farm culture, and a strong black community in the Teens and Nineteen Twenties. With the recent revival of downtown Asheville, the demographics are much the same today.
A Bus Tour Filled with Faery Tricks
Feeding the mythology, legends, and true stories about Asheville, LaZoom Bus Tour owners Jim and Jenn Lazoun keep the artistic tradition in Asheville alive. Their performance tour includes some faery tricks that will leave the visitor or local Ashevillan on board in stitches.
LaZoom has a hand crafted interior with echoes of roaring twenties fabric and décor. The emphasis on this one of a kind bus tour is the art deco architecture of Asheville’s early 20th Century boom, the history of artists who have lived and worked in Asheville, and the zany antics of Asheville’s residents. There’s a staging area in the front of the bus, as well as drums and an ‘electronic suitcase.’ A stage curtain can be drawn to heighten crowd anticipation of performances.
The tour is a fun filled day of surprises. Jen Lazoun, aka ‘Babs’ is the tour director with an attitude and a quick and sometimes sarcastic sense of humor. Her comedic approach to the local stories and places is original and often -- unpredictable. Babs weaves her funny stories with real facts from different periods in Asheville’s illustrious history. She takes especial pleasure in poking fun at Edwin Grove, the millionaire who built Grove Park Inn and the Grove Arcade, and made his money on Chill Tonic.
Jim, on the other hand, is busy running around town, changing costumes like a madman. He pops up on street corners downtown, near homes in Montford, on the way downtown from UNCA, at the Grove Arcade, and even in the River Arts District. In each case, he’s in a different costume, playing a cameo part with a healthy dose of lunacy. These bit parts are designed to highlight some of the major things Asheville is known for, such as healers, bears, corrupt politicians, and the everyday street weirdo looking for an ear to bend.
In essence the two monkey heads that adorn the threshold of the window of the LaZoom Bus say it all: these two are monkeying around, and their humor is contagious.
About the Author: Elizabeth Kirwin is a professional writer, website developer, and website promotion specialist. She has been immersed in American paganism, and the faery movement in the United States, for the past 10 years. Visit http://www.fairiesinamerica.com to find out more about faery lifestyles, art, writing, music, gender, sexuality, and spiritual practices. Or visit http://www.lazoomtours.com for more information about the rolling bus tour.
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Print Article | Download PDF | 41 views | Jul 10 2008
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