Ashvegas Hot Sheet: Shuler in the spotlight; celebrating Cold Mountain Winter Ale; adventures of a U-Haul lesbian; and more

City Council members decided Nov. 4 to explore state legislation to change a law that now requires businesses to obtain a full liquor license even if they want to serve only beer. The move came after city staff in May began investigating the city’s laws on alcoholic beverages at the request of several businesses.

Businesses that want to serve beer in Hendersonville must now pay for a liquor license and a beer license, even if they never serve a mixed drink. The cost for a liquor license is $1,000 to apply and an annual renewal fee of $750, and businesses are required to have seating for 36 patrons. For a license to serve beer, they must shell out an additional $400 application fee and $200 annually.

-On Asheville’s Twitterati: It pays to track down those tweets, says Ashvegas.

-RIP Sparky: Hall-of-Famer Sparky Anderson passed away last Friday, but nobody in Asheville seems to remember that Anderson once managed the Asheville Tourists. At least somebody in Canada cares.

-Adventures of a U-Haul lesbian: From a Creative Loafing column:

I drove through the Smoky Mountains at 3 a.m. in torrential rain, screaming as truckers passed us, pulling their air horns loudly and spraying us with water, while marveling the entire time at the clouds hovering so low above us that I felt like I could reach out and grab them. We ate at a vegan restaurant in Asheville, NC, followed up by karaoke, where my friend channeled his best Phil Collins. We realized exactly how dirty Charlotte is, found what looked like part of a syringe in our motel toilet, and went to a folk music show in the only awesome neighborhood in that city. And we did a shot of whiskey at the border of Georgia and Florida. “To us,” we said, “to adventures and life in the South.”

-Shuler in spotlight: WLOSer Russ Bowen tweets that U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler will be on Meet the Press on Sunday to talk about the future of the Democratic Party, as well as his potential bid for House minority leader. Bowen reports that Shuler will appear Monday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

-Cold Mountain release party: Highland Brewing’s Friday night scene is always fun, but it will be extra special tonight as the brewery officially celebrates its seasonal Cold Mountain Winter Ale. Now You See Them will provide the music. Should be good times. If you haven’t seen Highland’s new tasting room, get out there and check it out.

-UNCA, not UNC: There’s a lot of talk on the Auburn campus about the men’s basketball team’s home opener, but al.com has a story that notes that it will be UNCA, and not UNC, that will be the opponent:

If (former UNC player) Jeff Lebo were still Auburn’s coach, the Tigers likely would be opening the season tonight against North Carolina.

Instead, Auburn will play its first regular-season game in Auburn Arena against UNC-Asheville, a far less imposing but still potentially dangerous debut for first-year coach Tony Barbee.

Lebo had asked North Carolina to open the building as a favor. When he was fired after last season, the chance of that happening disappeared.

-Noteworthy on the entertainment scene: Asheville Disclaimer Stand-Up Lounge gets noticed: Asheville musician Tyler Ramsey muses about an upcoming Grey Eagle solo show: Funnywoman Amy Sedaris will be doing a funky craft demo at Asheville Community Theater tonight; Toots & the Maytals bring their legendary reggae sound to town on Sunday; and Citizen-Times Entertainment Editor Tony Kiss offers a run-down of the biggest shows in Asheville over the last several decades – remember when Elvis, Baryshnikov and Bob Dylan came through?