Pulse - Vol. 6, Issue 31

Whose Neighborhood Is It? A look at social equity and a changing city.

By Beverly A. Carroll

News, Views, Arts & Entertainment • July 30 - August 5, 2009 • Volume 6, Issue 31 • www.chattanoogapulse.com • pulse news 95.3 WPLZ

CONTENTS T H E P U L S E • C H AT TA N O O G A , T E N N E S S E E • J U LY 3 0 , 2 0 0 9 • V O L U M E 6 , I S S U E 3 0

COVER STORY

page 11

NEWS & VIEWS 6 BEYOND THE HEADLINES

19 ON THE BEAT

Fighting gangs in Dalton.

Combustion engines preferred.

9 SHRINK RAP

22 SHADES OF GREEN

The power of attitiude.

Getting past the greenwashing.

14 LIFE IN THE NOOG

29 ASK A MEXICAN

A Sunday in the life of Market Man.

Special Houston edition.

ARTS & FEATURES 16 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT By Ernie Paik A marching band is the epitome of conformity, its members often stripped of identity with matching uniforms, marching in lock step and playing in tight synchronization.

21 FILM FEATURE

By Damien Power Screw “Harry Potter”. It’s the only good movie that came out, and you’re either going to see it, or you’re not going to see it. I saw it. It’s great. Get over it.

24 MUSIC FEATURE

By Hellcat Let me start by saying that back in 1997, when I and everyone else on the planet, started hearing “Sex and Candy” by Marcy Playground, my little sophomoric mouth fell open. He totally said “sex”.

27 TABLE SERVICE

By Molly Iles Zaxby’s, Chick-fil-A, Bojangles…Guthrie’s? On June 24, Guthrie’s opened its doors in Chattanooga for the first time, with the goal of serving tasty, affordable meals in a clean, family-friendly environment.

Cover illustration by Rick Baldwin

WHOSE BACKYARD IS IT ANYWAY?

By Beverly A. Carroll As Chattanooga continues to grow at a slow and steady pace, many of our older neighborhoods are being reclaimed by developers and residents alike, leading to a bright new renaissance in the urban and suburban areas of the city. However, what is not being discussed (at least not nearly enough) is what happens to the former residents of the neighborhoods that have been reclaimed and reborn.

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EDITOON LETTERS TO THE EDITOR PULSE BEATS CITY COUNCILSCOPE THE LIST POLICE BLOTTER

17 20 25 26 28 28

A&E CALENDAR NEW IN THEATERS MUSIC CALENDAR NEW MUSIC REVIEWS FREE WILL ASTROLOGY JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

The entire contents of this publication are copyrighted and property of Brewer Media Group.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publishers. The Pulse utilizes freelance writers and the views expressed within this publication are not necessarily the views of the publishers or editors. The Pulse takes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, artwork or other materials.

The

Editoon

by Rick Baldwin

Publisher Zachary Cooper zcooper@chattanoogapulse.com Contributing Editor Janis Hashe jhashe@chattanoogapulse.com News Editor/Art Director Gary Poole gpoole@chattanoogapulse.com Advertising Sales Rick Leavell rleavell@chattanoogapulse.com Leif Sawyer leif@brewermediagroup.com Contributing Writers Gustavo Arellano Beverly A. Carroll Rob Brezsny Elizabeth Crenshaw Chuck Crowder Michael Crumb Hellcat Molly Iles Phillip Johnston Matt Jones Louis Lee Kelly Lockhart Ernie Paik Rick Pimental-Habib, Ph.D. Stephanie Smith Alex Teach Editorial Intern Molly Iles Editorial Cartoonist Rick Baldwin Art Department Sharon Chambers Kathryn Dunn Kelly Lockhart Damien Power Art Intern Megan Humble Staff Photographer Damien Power Contact Info: Phone (423) 648-7857 Fax (423) 648-7860 E-mail info@chattanoogapulse.com Advertising advertising@chattanoogapulse.com Calendar Listings calendar@chattanoogapulse.com The Pulse is published weekly and is distributed throughout the city of Chattanooga and surrounding communities. The Pulse is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. No person without written permission from the publishers may take more than one copy per weekly issue. The Pulse may be distributed only by authorized distributors.

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1305 Carter Street Chattanooga, Tennessee 37402 phone (423) 648-7857 fax (423) 648-7860 Letters to the editor must include name, address and daytime phone number for verification. The Pulse reserves the right to edit letters for space and clarity. Please keep letters within 500 words in length.

The Pulse covers a broad range of topics concentrating on culture, the arts, entertainment and local news.

Member

Letters to the Editor Cracked About Cracker As a huge fan of grunge-era one-hitwonders, I am deeply offended by the way you portray that dude from that one band [“Cracker and Cheese”].

That song they had was awesome and totally inspired me to, like, bang chicks and hammer back Coors Light with my bros. Hell, I don’t even know what “indie rock” means, but I’m sure that guy does. He’s in a band. A band that had a song people liked for a little while. That gives him credit above normal people. How dare you, I say.

This means that I will be partying extra hard in defiance of your slander of what’s-his-name from Sponge...I mean Seven Mary Three...I mean Cracker.

Tony Levi Chattanooga No Knocks On Knoxville I wanted to commend Damien Power for his excellent article about Knoxville [“Road Trippin’ To The New Knoxville”], and especially for the praise about my favorite beverage, Cheerwine. As a kid growing up in the Chattanooga area, I looked forward to trips to my grandparents in North Carolina, where we could find Cheerwine in the stores of Rutherford county. It is a most wonderful drink,

and I still look forward to buying it when in North Carolina. I am happy to find out that Cheerwine is in Knoxville, and will in the future adjust my travel plans accordingly.

Rev. Michael L. Feely Chattanooga Always Wondered About Chuck Thanks for the column [“The Ballad of Chuck Jennings”, Life In The Noog]. I always wondered what happened to Chuck Jennings.

Tim Siniard Chattanooga Why Climate Change is Divisive Elizabeth Crenshaw’s article is one of the reasons why the debate about Anthropogenic Global Warming is divisive, and should be [“Why Climate Change is Divisive—and Why It Shouldn’t Be”, Shades Of Green].

Basically, her entire article was written to say if you don’t believe in manmade global warming you are an idiot. The problem that I and my fellow skeptics have is simple: on every prediction the global warming crowd has made, they have been wrong, including lower temperatures, less hurricanes, less tornados, no rise in the level of the oceans, no rise in the temperature of

the oceans, more ice on the poles, etc., and they are very fast and loose with their facts. Ms. Crenshaw, you write that we should demand better, and you are correct. Unfortunately you are not talking about yourself, just the unwashed like me that don’t believe in the AGW god.

Gregg Juster Chattanooga Corrections & Apologies In our cover article, “Futbol Fever Heats Up Chattanooga” (July 2, 2009), our contributor inadvertently omitted crediting a source, the NPSLinsider blog, written by Ryan Knapp, the NPSL’s PR director. The paragraphs beginning, “Looking over their Facebook page, the value of social media and utilizing social networking sites for the club is clear” and ending with “as CFC goalie Richard Masters saved a penalty kick in the 95th minute to hold onto the draw, a play now affectionately referred to as ‘the save’”, should have been credited to Knapp and the blog, as they were clearly drawn from that source.

We apologize for the error, and a corrected version of the article will be available on our web site at chattanoogapulse.com.

Send all letters to the editor and questions to info@chattanoogapulse.com We reserve the right to edit letters for content and space. Please include your full name, city and contact information.

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Pulse Beats

Quote Of The Week: A rundown of the newsy, the notable, and the notorious...

“I’m not going to announce today, but if you all can find it in your hearts, I’d like to continue to work for this community for a little while longer.”

— Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey, making it fairly clear he intends to run for re-election in 2010.

The Future of Web Designers What if you went to college for four years, training for what you thought would be a top-flight job—then found you couldn’t get arrested?

The organizers behind the upcoming WE Rock Summit, happening here in Chattanooga August 5-8, want to make sure this does not happen to more graduates seeking to become web designers and developers.

Their immediate goal: creating and introducing “standards-based web education.”

According to Leslie Jensen-Inman, assistant professor of art, design and technology at UTC, and a charter member of conference organizers Open Web Education Alliance, far too many educational institutions in the US and abroad are training students using outdated methodology.

What that means, she says, is that although big employers such as Yahoo! might be willing to re-train a prospective employee, many smaller companies “are hiring the geek in the basement, who may have been a philosophy or theatre major but knows how to create what they need.”

At the summit, a group of internationally based collaborators will be working to create standards for web education. Ultimately, the group hopes to draft a white paper containing specific recommendations for ways in which colleges and universities can create courses that better prepare students for the workplace. The plan is to introduce the white paper at 2010’s South by Southwest in Austin.

In the meantime, Jensen-Inman points proudly to the role UTC is playing in the formation of standards. “We are a state-funded institution, but we are trend-setting in a way many private institutions are not,” she says. She notes that her own three-year position, funded by the Lyndhurst and Benwood foundations, was created from the perceived need to take leadership in this area— and UTC has.

In addition, although funding for the summit was only secured in June, nearly 30 local sponsors have come on board to support it, she says.

A panel discussion of web educa-

Here is one of the more interesting agenda items set to be discussed at the August 4 meeting of the Chattanooga City Council.

tion’s past, present and future will take place at 5:30, August 6, at the Hunter Museum, followed by a reception. The panel will be moderated

by John Allsopp, of Web Directions in Australia, and panel members include

Adobe’s Scott Fergette, Yahoo!’s Nick Fogler, MailChimp’s Aaron Walter, and Jensen-Inman. Admission is free, but reservations are recommended, which you can make by going to www.webeducationrocks.com

Chattanooga Stand Reaches A Monumental Milestone Chattanooga Stand is a community visioning effort with a very straightforward goal: ask 25,000 people what they want for the future of the Chattanooga region through a four-question survey. This past Saturday, Stand reached a monumental milestone with the collection of its 12,500th survey.

If momentum was slow to build during the two months following the campaign’s May 3 launch, Stand has surely found its stride during the month of July. For the past three weeks, staff and volunteers have averaged more than 1,600 survey responses per week.

Stand’s strategy is to find people where they are gathered, start conversations, and create the time and space for them to respond to the survey.

Stand’s presence at large-scale public events, neighborhood gatherings, churches, and businesses draws valuable input from residents across the region.

During the coming weeks, Stand will surge toward its initial goal of 25,000 responses from people in all walks of life. Upon reaching 19,000 responses, Chattanooga will succeed Calgary, Alberta, Canada as home of the world’s largest survey-based community visioning effort.

Upcoming events at which Stand will have a presence include Nightfall, Riverfront Nights, Chattanooga Parent magazine’s Back to School Boogie, National Night Out, and neighborhood parties sponsored by local councilmen Manuel Rico and Andraé McGary.

7. Resolutions: a) A resolution authorizing the Mayor to apply for and, if approved, accept a Climate Showcase Communities Grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in an amount up to and including $500,000.00 for the Warm Mix Asphalt Project, which grant requires a local match from the City in an amount up to and including $250,000.00.

European countries are using technologies that appear to allow a reduction in the temperatures at which asphalt mixes are produced and placed. These technologies have been labeled Warm Mix Asphalt (WMA).

The immediate benefit to producing WMA is the reduction in energy consumption required by burning fuels to heat traditional hot mix asphalt (HMA) to temperatures in excess of 300° F at the production plant. These high production temperatures are needed to allow the asphalt binder to become viscous enough to completely coat the aggregate in the HMA, have good workability during laying and compaction, and durability during traffic exposure.

With the decreased production temperature comes the additional benefit of reduced emissions from burning fuels, fumes, and odors generated at the plant and the paving site.

This technology could have a significant impact on transportation construction projects in and around non-attainment areas that have airquality restrictions.

The Chattanooga City Council meets each Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the City Council Building at 1000 Lindsay St. For more information on the agendas, visit www.Chattanooga.gov/City_ Council/110_Agenda.asp

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Beyond The Headlines

The Fight Against Gangs in Dalton

By Rebecca Cruz

August Holidays You’ve Likely Never Heard Of August is the only month of the year that does not have a “big” holiday, i.e. the kind where banks and post offices are closed, or most folks take the day off.

But to make up for the lack, there are a lot of secondary holidays. They won't give you the day off, but at least it'll give you something to celebrate.

Aug. 1 – National Mustard Day Aug. 5 – Work Like A Dog Day Aug. 11 – Presidential Joke Day Aug. 15 – National Relaxation Day Aug. 18 – Bad Poetry Day Aug. 22 – National Tooth Fairy Day Aug. 25 – Kiss and Make Up Day Aug. 29 – More Herbs, Less Salt Day Aug. 31 – National Trail Mix Day August is also Family Fun Month, National Catfish Month, National Golf Month, Romance Awareness Month, Water Quality Month and National Picnic Month.

So enjoy the dog days of August and find a special day to celebrate your own holiday in your own way.

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The signs have been here for years.

Graffiti. Gang-on-gang assaults and drive-by shootings. Stabbings. Yet not so very long ago, officials described self-proclaimed Chattanooga gangs as “wannabe gangs”, not “real gangs like they have in LA”. Though there had been whispers and rumors about increasing gang activity in Chattanooga for years, only recently has it become a part of conversation. With the seeming increase of violence on our city streets, “gang-related incident,” “drive-by shootings,” and “gang retaliation,” have now become a part of police discussion with the public.

However, we have only to look a short distance south for an example of how to deal with this problem. Dalton, Georgia officials have been dealing with similar issues for years, and have assertively taken action to reduce gang activity.

Officials began seeing signs of gangs forming, or relocating, to Dalton back in the mid-’90’s. Officers and detectives began studying gang signs and affiliations, started watching active gang members from afar, and created an anti-gang program officers took into schools, with the hope of steering kids away from gangs.

But it was a tragic incident that claimed the life of Dalton High School football star, Andre Johnson, in May of 2007, that seemed to spark a series of gang-on-gang assaults and retaliations, which forced the Dalton Police Department to re-evaluate the way it was dealing with local gangs.

Dalton Police Chief Jason Parker explains what could have once been considered “occasional gang activity” had at that point escalated dramatically, “After this homicide on Memorial Day, what we saw was almost a weekly or monthly situation where these gang members were shooting at one another, or, by getting in a fight with one another and stabbing each other.”

Parker’s approach was aggressive: Hit the problem head-on. Within months, the Dalton Police Department had instituted Operation A.B.L.E. (Aiding the community in identifying crime, Building partnerships in the community, Locking up offenders, Enforcing the law consistently and constitutionally), implementing several different strategies to reduce gang-related crime, especially aggravated assault cases.

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“We were aiming at people who were committing disorderly and dangerous behavior of all kinds...gang activity, street-level prostitution, drug operations, and so forth.”

Chief Parker first reorganized officers’ hours in order to place more patrols during overnight hours. Then, as Parker explains, it was time to start knocking on doors, “to identify individuals in Dalton who are associated with gangs. We visited over 450 houses in Dalton to try to find out just who of these individuals, that we had intelligence about, were really gang members and who were not.”

Officers made a round of initial arrests, and continued canvassing neighborhoods throughout Dalton. In visiting these homes, officers were surprised to find out that the majority of active gang members were between the ages of 12 and 21, many of them still living at home with parents or other guardians.

Many times, these parents or guardians had no idea of the activities of the juveniles under their care. So, as Parker explains, “getting them involved in the process was essential.”

Officers condensed the number of suspected gang members down to about 100, took note of where the prospects lived, and conducted GPS mapping of those areas of town. “We began what we refer to as ‘adopt these individuals’.

Each person on this list was assigned to an officer or detective that would make periodic visits to the house. We continued that, past this initial intelligence gathering, to continue that relationship,” Parker recounts.

These procedures and visits are still in place today, and continue to be a regular part of officers' routines and duties.

The results of these new strategies have

been dramatic. Though Dalton police officers saw 88 gang-related assaults between May 2007 and May 2008, there only 22 similar incidents during the same time period the following year. “Not only is gang-related crime down in Dalton, but, all part I crimes, which are the most serious… homicide, rape, robbery, arson, burglary, motor vehicle theft, and larceny, basically, are all down. In fact, each year, since Operation A.B.L.E., we’ve been down significantly... we’re probably at a 10-year low now,” Parker says.

In fact, Operation A.B.L.E. has been so successful; the Dalton Police Department has adopted the new strategies as permanent procedure. More recently, the DPD received statewide recognition by placing second in the Dr. Curtis McClung/Motorola Award of Excellence, which honors police departments demonstrating innovative training techniques and programs addressing a significant operational problem.

While Parker was reluctant to compare Dalton’s gang situation to Chattanooga’s, as he felt he’d only be speculating, the chief did agree that police and community-involvement would be essential in reducing the increasing gang activity and crime here.

“I think, if allowed to go unchecked, then, I think the gang issues perpetuate themselves. And, it’s difficult for a community to deal with that, it’s difficult to head that off at the pass,” Parker says.

The chief further predicts that, only when we, as a unified community, send a strong message to active gang members, and even those “wannabes,” will we be able to curb the escalating number of gangs forming in our own area, as well as the violent and other serious crimes that come along with them.

A weekly roundup of the newsworthy, notable and often head-scratching stories gleaned from police reports from the Chattanooga Police Department, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, the Bradley County Sheriff’s Department and the Dalton Police Department.

on the moving wrecker and begin punching the driver through an open window. Police responded quickly and arrested the obviously able-bodied man on charges of assault and reckless endangerment.

• It’s a pet peeve for many people, both handicapped and able bodied, to see people blithely ignoring the marked handicapped parking spaces.

So it was understandable when the manager of a local apartment complex called a wrecker company to tow a car parked in a handicapped space that did not have any visible placard or handicapped license plate.

However, the wrecker driver got a lot more involved than he anticipated when the owner of the car showed up as the car was being lifted onto the truck and proceeded to jump up

• Receiving a 911 call about someone being bitten by a dog is not all that uncommon. Being called by the owner of the dog, however, is something a bit more unusual. Police were called out to an Elder Mountain residence after a woman said that her nearly 90-pound English bulldog bit her. The dog was apparently not ready to come back in the house and expressed his reluctance rather forcefully. A neighbor, who is a nurse, was able to treat the woman on the scene. It is suggested that the woman either leave the dog outside, where it obviously prefers to be, or better yet, enroll it in obedience classes before anything worse happens.

• If you are a criminal on the run, walking around with your own wanted poster is far down the list of intelligent ways to pass the day. Yet that is exactly what a visibly intoxicated man was doing in the Lake Resort Terrace area. Police were called by

Chattanooga Street Scenes

several residents, who described the man, the sign and the vehicle he was in, which helped officers locate him quickly. It turned out he was indeed wanted on a variety of charges—and they were able to add a new charge of theft, as he was found to be in possession of a “No Guns Allowed” sign he had apparently taken from a local park, seemingly in some form of protest over the recent legislative controversy.

• Not every call that comes in to police turns out to be truthful. But police are bound to respond to any call that claims to involve murder and the disposal of dead bodies, even when the caller claims that the killer is God. Officers responded to just such a call from a resident on Boynton Drive, who told them that the Almighty had been killing people and hiding them behind a local building.

After a search of the area, officers were unable to find any bodies, nor were they able to find any other signs of violence caused by man or God. Photography by Kelly Lockhart

An American classic on two wheels.

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Shrink Rap

Beginnings, Endings, and the Power of Attitude

By Rick Pimental-Habib, Ph.D www.DrRPH.com

S

he woke at 7, annoyed at the alarm clock’s buzzing as she slapped the snooze button. She rolled out of bed and within a few steps managed to stub her toe on the dresser, eliciting a couple of pretty good curse words, sailor style. In the shower, the hot water seemed to take forever, which was not helping her mood one bit. The shampoo bottle was empty. When she was done, she reached out for her towel, only to discover she’d forgotten to put one on the hook. She glared at the cabinet across the way—the one with the towels—and knew it would be a drippy, slippery, cold walk across the tiles.

He woke when the alarm went off again 10 minutes later. He looked toward the bathroom, didn’t hear the water running, and said, “Hey sweetie, how was your shower?” No response. He smiled to himself and padded to the kitchen. He had the idea to surprise her with the smell of bacon, and happily began gathering ingredients, cracking eggs, and warming bagels.

Her belly was full with a great breakfast, but as she headed to work she noticed the gas gauge showed empty…running on fumes. No time to fill up before work. As she had an important meeting first thing this morning, she was understandably anxious about being on time. A few more colorful curses later, she shook her head, lamenting that this day was not starting out well.

After he showered, dressed, and arrived at his office, he saw a note from his secretary that said a good friend from college was in town and would be free for lunch. He had a ton of work to do, but was excited about seeing an old friend and thought how that would be a perfect way to break up a long day of meetings.

Two people, both with busy lives, starting out the day with two very different attitudes. One vacillating between grumpy and anxious; the

other focused on happiness and a glass that’s half full. Guess who had the better day?

We have so much more control over our attitudes and perspectives than we know, and the ways in which we start and end the day have great effect on our moods, our sense of well being, and our level of happiness.

As I’ve been thinking about how I begin and end each day myself, a friend brought to my attention—and you know how I love it when this happens!—some information on a new branch of psychology called Positive Psychology. The founder, Dr. Martin Seligman, directs a master’s program and is promoting this field through his teachings at the University of Pennsylvania. According to his web site, AuthenticHappiness.org, “his research has demonstrated that it is possible to be happier—to feel more satisfied, to be more engaged with life, find more meaning, have higher hopes, and perhaps even laugh and smile more, regardless of one’s circumstances.” Makes perfect sense to me.

When people are exploring this for themselves, I often suggest that they begin by keeping a paper and pencil handy by the bedside, to start and end each day with what I call an attitude of gratitude. The point is to list the things, people, events that come to mind for which you are grateful. (There’s some specific, quirky connection between the feeling of gratitude and brain chemistry.) So maybe you have money worries, but you have a roof over your head and a partner who loves you. Or you have concerns about family, friends, projects…but today the new puppy didn’t pee on the carpet and your kid got an excellent report from school. You know, often it’s the little things that we forget to notice that could make all the difference in our moods. So if you bookend your day with gratitude, you might sleep a little better at night, and feel a little brighter during the day.

Sure, we all have occasional days burdened with extra concerns or worries. That’s natural. And certainly if depression or anxiety enters the picture, the challenge to feel in the driver’s seat with your perspective on life can be much greater. But even

“We have so much more control over our attitudes and perspectives than we know, and the ways in which we start and end the day have great effect on our moods ... and our level of happiness.” under these conditions. it is possible to not only shape your day, but create your ongoing universe however you wish.

Look, anyone can be happy if they win the lottery or get a car from Oprah. But I don’t personally know anyone who has. It’s the hard times that test our mettle. Difficulties show us what we’re capable of. A favorite Chinese philosophy of mine states, “In Adversity Lies Opportunity.” So maybe our task is to take a breath, look around at what we have to be grateful for, take stock of what’s working—and not working—in our lives and our loves, and get to know what we’re capable of. Get to know the opportunity when it knocks. So what if you’re out of shampoo.

And just maybe it all begins with attitude.

Until next time: “There is no psychiatry in the world like a puppy licking your face.” — Bern Williams Dr. Rick Pimental-Habib, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist, minister, and educator, in private practice in Chattanooga, and is the author of “Empowering the Tribe” and “The Power of a Partner.” Visit his web site at www.DrRPH.com where you can email your questions and comments.

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Cover Story

Social Equity and

Chattanooga's Renewal As Chattanooga continues to grow at a slow and steady pace, many of our older neighborhoods are being reclaimed by developers and residents alike, leading to a bright new renaissance in the urban and suburban areas of the city. However, what is not being discussed (at least not nearly enough) is what happens to the former residents of the neighborhoods that have been reclaimed and reborn. In a special investigation by The Pulse, Beverly A. Carroll takes a look at the growing problem known as "social equity" in our community.

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Cover Story

Whose Backyard Is It Anyway?

By Beverly A. Carroll

U

rban gentrification can become the dark underbelly of neighborhood renewals, displacing low-income residents and renters out to poorer, more blighted homes.

In 1985, the realtor taking a young couple and their new baby to look for their first house avoided calling North Chattanooga by name. Out of the three neighborhoods she took them to, the most affordable house for their combined annual income of $33,280 was the two-bedroom, one-bathroom $28,000 bungalow in what the realtor referred to as “the Riverview area.”

Today that neighborhood goes proudly under its old and new names: North Chattanooga and North Shore. No longer a neighborhood of “starter” homes, home prices are equal to or surpass those in the established, wealthier neighborhood of Riverview it tried to impersonate decades ago.

Along with North Chattanooga, other urban neighborhoods that have experienced a similar surge in renewal—St. Elmo, Southside, Jefferson Heights, Highland Park, M.L.King Jr., downtown Chattanooga—are all in varying stages of transformation into trendy hot spots.

The proximity to a revitalized downtown area has fueled a movement drawing affluent people to these neighborhoods, transfusing new life into decaying, dilapidated communities.

But that boom, which has turned some property owners into landed gentry, has brought a dark lining along with the silver cloud. Many people who lived in those charming bungalows, cozy Victorians, and Mission-style homes received a bill for the neighborhood improvements that they found they could not pay.

“You are pushing the low-income folks out of where they have services and conveniences to some place where most likely those things don’t exist.”

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Despite a reluctance to openly discuss the topic, city leaders, builders and realtors and residents agree that gentrification—the name for the dislocation of residents pushed out of their neighborhoods by hikes in property tax and rents, or selling out too soon—has been a byproduct of revival in most of Chattanooga’s urban neighborhoods.

Though many public and private agencies have worked to avert the negative consequences of gentrification, residents are still being pushed out of communities where they grew up, raised their children, and planned to live out their lives.

“When development comes through, it tends to raise those property values and pushes out the lower-income folk,” says Steve Hasse, an architect with Franklin and Associates, and chairman of the steering committee responsible for bringing the American Institute of Architect’s Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) here. Awarded through a competitive process from AIA’s Communities by Design, the grant is in anticipation of the estimated 20,000 jobs and subsequent changes that will follow the $1 billion VW assembly plant set to open here in 2011.

“The impact of VW will be like absorbing a small town over a seven-county region,” Hasse says.

The role of the SDAT study is “to establish some guidelines as far what directions we need to move forward,” he says.

Comprised of a group of experts in environment, transportation, planning and regional cooperation, the team is designed to work as a “catalyst, convener, and source of information that helps AIA members work with citizens, businesses, public officials, and other stakeholders to envision and create more livable communities,” according to the AIA website.

“I don’t think it’s really going to address this issue [of gentrification] specifically,” Hasse says. But the final SDAT report will build on the city’s commitment to sustainable communities, a commitment to meet the needs of today’s citizens

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without sabotaging the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

As the region weighs how to face the challenges of social equity, the need to address the fallout from urban renewal will manifest itself, Hasse and others, say.

“You are pushing the low-income folks out of where they have services and conveniences to some place where most likely those things don’t exist,” Hasse says. “If they did exist, there would be more demand for the neighborhoods they are moving into.”

There goes the neighborhood Good as the news about urban renewal is, the ensuing hoopla has drowned out the voices of many original urban residents, who as recently as 10 years ago, lived in blighted areas where drug dealers and prostitutes patrolled the streets. Living on low- or fixed-incomes, some residents in the M.L. King, Main Street and Southside areas at first welcomed the interest in their neighborhoods.

“The neighborhood improved, they took the drugs and prostitution out and put up affordable apartments,” said Rodney Simpson, an 18-yearresident of Jefferson Heights, a jewel of a neighborhood tucked off East Main Street along Jefferson, Washington and 16th and 17th streets.

But the improvements turned into a runaway train that carried off elderly and poor residents, who sold their property with promises they would be given “first dibs” upon returning to the new and improved neighborhood—only to find their streets lined with $200,000-and-up houses when they returned. A recent drive through the cheerful community displayed tidy, new houses with oldfashioned “post” boxes at the end of walkways leading to new sidewalks. Around the corner from the newly landscaped park, which is surrounded by new two and three-story homes, a $350,000 house is under construction.

“When I moved here in 1991, the neighborhood had elderly people and middle-aged residents who

Cover Story were raising up grandkids,” Simpson, 55, says. “Most of them were on welfare or SSI. About 80 percent to 95 percent were renting and subject to landlords. When people started grabbing up the property, it left the people living there no choice but to move.”

A number of private not-for profit groups, such as Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, initially provided programs that helped residents secure mortgages to stay in the neighborhood, Simpson says. But for people on fixed incomes, or even making as much as $45,000, buying a $100,000 home was out of the question, he says.

Other urban communities undergoing renewal haven’t managed to escaped gentrification either. It’s a product of the private market and the American way of building personal wealth through homes, Chattanooga City Council member Manny Rico says.

“Some of that has happened in St. Elmo,” Rico says of his district. “It’s a Catch-22. They were there when (new residents) moved there. You don’t want to stop progress but what do you do with those people?”

Realtor Jim Lea, of Jim and Monique’s Team with Keller Williams Realty, says there is an upside to gentrification, a term he dislikes because of its negative connotations.

“Over and over, we’ve seen improvements to the overall community. The original residents, they want the same things you and I want,” he says.

When people are vested in their homes, they care about their surroundings, Lea says. Safety improves, crime drops, schools improve. “Residents will call the police, they go the council meetings to advocate for better conditions,” Lea says.

Building a solution Education is key, according to Lea. Some residents sold out too soon, not realizing enough profit on their property to improve their next living situation. Renters who were able to become homeowners failed for many reasons, including being unfamiliar with the responsibilities of homeownership. Lea cites Individual Development Accounts, a federally funded program as a model of what he thinks could work here.

“It’s to help long-term renters buy homes,” he says. “It needs someone with deep pockets and who is willing

to take on the administration of the program and apply for the federal dollars. But it’s a great program.”

The successful applicant commits to saving a specific amount of money every month for a set amount of time, ranging from one to three years. The program provides a match for the savings, from a oneto-one match up to a three-to-one match. During the time the renter is saving the down payment, he or she participates in a training program that covers everything from balancing a checkbook to understanding building warranties and why air filters need to be changed every three months.

“People who didn’t grow up in a home don’t have that sense of ownership,” Lea says. “They don’t know how to maintain their homes and they can become rundown.”

The Rev. Floyd Whiteside, pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church on 16th Street, says the city government should assume some responsibility for displaced persons. The programs currently in place are not working, he says.

“One of the things I see as far as the community goes, the city should be planning affordable housing,” Rev. Whiteside said. “We’ve had people in this neighborhood try to buy houses and they can’t do it. Not everybody can make $75,000 to $100,000 a year.”

Councilman Rico wants to see more people repeat the pioneer act that has improved St. Elmo, M.L. King, Main Street and other neighborhoods. He suggests displaced home buyers look in East Lake,

Ridgedale and other neighborhoods that are in the same condition today’s desirable neighborhoods were in years ago.

“It’s gonna take normal working people to say, ‘I can buy this fairly reasonable and I can fix it up,’” Rico says. “They are going to have to realize they can get more bang for their buck, they can get that starter home in East Lake. If people were smart like us older people, they would realize they can buy their first home and then move up. But everybody wants more house than they can afford.”

Simpson, who built his Jefferson Heights home in 1996, says he views gentrification as a cycle, fueled by money. Them that has, gets, he says.

“Used to be all the middle- and upper-income people wanted to leave the downtown and go to the suburbs,” Simpson says. “Now they want to push all the middle- and lowincome people out to the suburbs so all those people can come back into the city where it’s closer to everything.

It happened in Chicago, where I’m from. They tore down the housing projects where I lived and put up $450,000 houses.”

Builder David Jones, partner in TriCo. Services, owner of an apartment complex in Jefferson Heights, says builders should be conscious about the impact they have on a community.

“There’s no doubt some of these people have been displaced,” Jones said. “The market is amoral. But that’s where nonprofits can come in.

There needs to be some place for [the residents] to go.”

”One of the things I see as far as the community goes, the city should be planning affordable housing,” Rev. Whiteside said.

“We’ve had people in this neighborhood try to buy houses and they can’t do it. Not everybody can make $75,000 to $100,000 a year.”

95.3 Pulse News www.chattanoogapulse.com 7.30.09 The Pulse

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Life In The Noog

A Sunday in the Life of Market Man

By Chuck Crowder www.thenoog.com

E

very other Sunday you’ll generally find me peddling Chattacentric noogwear at the Chattanooga Market. And let me tell you, sitting there in a lawn chair for hours people watching might possibly be one of the highlights of my week.

For those of you who’ve never been to the Market, I'll set the stage. Held inside the First Horizon Pavilion down on the Southside next to the stadium, The Chattanooga Market is kind of a hip farmer’s market, complete with fresh, locally grown produce, plants and all kinds of other living things. There’s a stage for sangin’. But instead of “forever bluegrass,” this market has a revolving door of singer/songwriters trying desperately to be the next Jewel or Dave Matthews.

There’s food from several favorite locally owned eateries, like Lupi’s mobile pizza oven, one or two of the Main Street Mexican trailers and the Yellow Deli peace wagon.

There’s beer. Lots of people like to walk around with a beer. And the Market also has booth after booth of local artists and craftsman, selling everything from handmade jewelry and clothing to driftwood benches and custom-made Adirondack chairs.

Then there’s our booth. We don’t grow or make anything. We haven’t spent hours upon hours skillfully crafting our wares in hopes that a willing patron will gladly purchase something, gleefully anticipating cherishing it for years to come. No, we just sell T-shirts…and bumper stickers. Now, they’ve got funny Chattanooga slogans on them that we made up all by ourselves, but that’s about it.

Two buddies and I have been

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selling our swag for almost four years now. Mostly we’ve been in retail stores, like Winder Binder on Frasier Avenue (our “flagship” store), and online at thenoog.com.

But this year we decided to throw up a shingle at the Market just to see how it goes. And it’s been interesting so far.

I’ve discovered that The Chattanooga Market is THE place to be on Sunday if you are a hip Chattanoogan who likes a good ’mater. In fact, the people watching, friend-seeing and general “how ya doins?” run rampant at the Market.

And one thing I’ve noticed about everybody milling about is that people dress and act very differently when the mood is “ultra caaaash.”

First, there’s the swagger.

Marketgoers aren’t in any hurry to be anywhere so they shuffle their feet as if actual “stepping” would completely ruin the experience. This static-electricity-generating shuffling, however, is the perfect walking method for the preferred footwear of the Market: Birkenstocks, Keens, Chacos or just plain flip-flops.

Then there’s the clothing. There are two types of dress at the Market: to the nines, or on a dime. People are generally wearing either carefully matched, neatly pressed, designer ensembles with flipped collars, starched cuffs and gelled hair, or they dress as if it was pitch black when they grabbed whatever they could find off the bedroom floor.

Shaving is optional for each look, but sunglasses are required to do anything during the waking hours on a weekend day in the ’Noog, it seems.

Finally there are the tattoos. I used to wonder how we keep at least two tattoo parlors in business on Frazier Avenue alone—until I starting staring at Marketgoers from the lawn chair level. EVERYone has at least one tattoo. And the subject matter of the ink is as interesting as the choice of placement on the

“I used to wonder how we keep at least two tattoo parlors in business on Frazier Avenue alone—until I starting staring at Marketgoers from the lawn chair level.” body. Sharks and/or Buddhas on the calves, the “Look, my belly button makes a daisy,” and my favorite, the nondescript “tribal.” I’m sure there are tattoo artists secretly laughing coast-to-coast at the true meanings of these Celtic ceremonial designs that “look bad-ass!”

But, whatever, everyone who enters the Market MUST locate and purchase the featured fruit and/ or vegetable of the week and will shuffle around for hours until their craving is fulfilled. Maybe I’m fickle, but I don’t suddenly get a hankering for peaches just because they happen to be at their peak of ripeness— THIS week.

Just like the people, though, the produce is as fresh as the scenery.

Come on down next Sunday and you’ll see what I mean.

Chuck Crowder is a local writer and general man about town. His opinions are just that. Everything expressed is loosely based on fact, and crap he hears people talking about. Take what you just read with a grain of salt, but pepper it in your thoughts. And be sure to check out his wildly popular website www.thenoog.com

95.3 Pulse News www.chattanoogapulse.com 7.30.09 The Pulse

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Arts & Entertainment

Play That Funky Sousaphone

By Ernie Paik

A

marching band is the epitome of conformity, its members often stripped of identity with matching uniforms, marching in lock step and playing in tight synchronization. On the other musical side is punk rock, based on a completely different set of aesthetics and infused with a philosophy that encourages rebellion and nonconformity.

Smash the two together in your mind, and you’ll start to understand what the 19-piece Providence, Rhode Island group the What Cheer? Brigade (WC?B) is all about. However, simply calling the outfit a “punk marching band” is terribly inadequate. It’s a decked-out brass band, with multiple sousaphones and a formidable percussion section, and also a mobile dance party, compelling movement within their wake of onlookers and turning spectators into participants in their unusual parades.

Dan Schleifer, one of the sousaphone players in the WC?B, proffered by phone a snappy band explanation: “We have described our music as ‘Luddite Hardcore’, and what we mean by that is we make really loud, crazy party music but without having to plug anything in.”

Further confounding an easy description of the band is the fact that their repertoire contains music from just about every part of the globe. Schleifer continues, “Our sound draws pretty heavily from brass music traditions from all across the world, from the Balkans to Latin America, and a lot of Bollywood film music has inspired us. Any kind of good dance music that works on these instruments—we’ll try to make it happen.”

And it works. Trumpeter Cordey Lopez relates, “All of our songs get pretty good reactions in terms of dancing. I think the thing that varies from song to song is the kind of dancing involved…the usual dance of our audience might be coined something along the lines of ‘the hippie experiences full-body

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and spiritual takeover.’”

A key to the band’s effectiveness is having stirring arrangements, and Lopez described the different ways they come together. “Sometimes, a member will bring a fully-composed piece of music for everyone to learn. Other times, someone will bring in a partially composed piece, and the band figures the rest out from there. But, it is not uncommon for us to jam something out at a rehearsal with no sheet music in front of our faces.”

One notable example is the band’s must-beheard-to-be-believed arrangement of the theme song for the TV game show The $25,000 Pyramid, which reveals the song as a deep-funk number at its core; mid-song, the players make a seamless transition into Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It” before scrambling back to the original theme, played at double-speed. Other arrangements, like the Russian folk song heard in the video game Tetris or the whirlwind “Disco Bhangra” from the 1988 Bollywood film Gangaa Jamunaa Saraswathi, are just as astounding, but the band is moving toward including more original compositions in its sets while remaining as eclectic as ever.

After the group was formed in 2005, it eventually solidified into a relatively stable 19-piece configuration, with players whose ages currently range from 19 to 42 with a typical member being in the mid-twenties. The performers’ musical backgrounds vary, with some drawing from school band or orchestra experiences, others coming from punk rock backgrounds, and a few being music majors in college.

Actually, their planned Chattanooga appearance on July 31 came about partially because of the musical background of the Mohawk-haircutsporting baritone saxophonist Michael Jeffries, a former Chattanooga resident. Earlier this year, Jeffries had contacted the Shaking Ray Levi Society (disclosure: I’m on its board) to propose this show, some 16 or so years after being first exposed to improv music through the Society, and he related that one concert series in particular that was presented in 1995, “…pushed me into going more ‘out’ with everything I was into, and made me feel a lot more comfortable doing it.”

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On this tour, the WC?B is working its way down to New Orleans, and Jeffries mentioned how previous tours have brought the band to venues such as zoos, cemeteries, German bars, illegal warehouse parties, rooftops off Hollywood Boulevard, or organic farms in Oregon. Schleifer stated, “Crazily enough, our first ever tour was actually to Europe. We just decided we really wanted to get to this one particular festival in Serbia.” Despite being outsiders and a bit of an oddity at a festival concentrating on Balkan brass music, the group got, as Schleifer put it, “…the most enthusiastic response of any of the bands we saw perform on that stage.”

Although the group has a CD to its name, the band will tell you that it’s all about the live act. It’s rare enough to hear the kind of diverse music played by the WC?B, but the whole experience—cymbal players on roller skates, monkey masks, and other madness among the joyful onslaughts of sound— from this small army of globe-trotting misfits promises to be like none other.

The What Cheer? Brigade Free 7 p.m. parade begins at the south end of the Walnut St. Bridge 8 p.m. show, Friday, July 31 Outside Winder Binder Gallery of Folk Art, 40 Frazier Avenue. (423) 413-8999. www.winderbinder.wordpress.com

A&E Calendar

Send your calendar events to us at calendar@chattanoogapulse.com

Friday

Thursday Henry Cho 8 p.m. The Comedy Catch, 3224 Brainerd Rd. (423) 629-2233. www.thecomedycatch.com

Last Fridays on Main 5 p.m. Create Here, 55 East Main St. Ste. 105. (423) 648-2195.

Screwtape 7:30 p.m. Ripple Theater, 3264 Brainerd Road, (423) 475-5006. www.rippletheater.com

“Jellies: Living Art” Hunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View. (423) 266-0944. www.huntermuseum.org

Night Visions: The Art of Remington and Johnson

Works by Stephen Scott Young Shuptrine Fine Art and Framing, 2646 Broad St. (423) 266-4453.

Chief curator Ellen Simak explores nocturnes of Western artists.

HelloWorld.Show Create Here, 55 East Main St. Ste. 105. (423) 648-2195. www.createhere.org

Free with museum admission.

6 p.m.

Hunter Museum, 10 Bluff View.

(423) 267-0968. www.huntermuseum.org

“Discovery” River Gallery, 400 E. Second St. (423) 265-5033. www.river-gallery.com

What Cheer?

Brigade Raucous 19-piece street band parades across Walnut Street Bridge, then performs.

Free, but donations accepted.

7 p.m. parade begins on south side of bridge 8 p.m. performance Winder Binder Gallery, 40 Frazier Avenue. (423) 413-8999. www.winderbinder.wordpress.com

Saturday

Sweet Stories 10:30 a.m. Glenwood Rec Center, 2610 E. 3rd St. (423) 544-1597.

Art 'til Dark Noon. Frazier Avenue on the Northshore. (423) 413-8999. www.arttildark.com

Opening weekend of the always-heelarious farce. $10-$20 8 p.m.

Chattanooga Theatre Centre, Main Stage, 400 River Street.

(423) 267-8534. www.theatrecenter.com

Monday

Screwtape 7:30 p.m. Ripple Theater, 3264 Brainerd Road, (423) 475-5006. www.rippletheater.com

Fine Handmade Jewelry by Mary Helen Robert In-Town Gallery, 26A Frazier Ave. (423) 267-9214.

Rosemary Leaves 7:30 p.m. Chattanooga State Humanities Auditorium, 4501 Amnicola Hwy. (423) 697-4404.

“The Other Race in Chattanooga: Native Americans” Hunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View. (423) 266-0944. www.thehoustonmuseum.com

Tuesday

Wednesday “Coal Miners Health in Appalachia” Photo Exhibit Downtown Public Library, 1001 Broad St. (423) 757-1310.

“Accessing the Artist’s Brain: Drawing as Metaphor” Association for Visual Arts, 30 Frazier Ave. (423) 265-4282. www.avarts.org

“Discovery” River Gallery, 400 E. Second St. (423) 265-5033. www.river-gallery.com

“Windows on the West: Views From the American Frontier” Hunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View. (423) 266-0944.

Helen Roberts: “Leo the Lion” Watercolors and Photos from tour of Europe In-Town Gallery, 26A Frazier Ave. (423) 267-9214. www.intowngallery.com

“Cultural Fragments” Lookout Mountain Gallery, 3914 St. Elmo Ave. (423) 394-1071.

“A Barage of Butterflies” Houston Museum of Arts, 201 High St. (423) 267-7176. www.thehoustonmuseum.com

Fun Fridays Children’s Reading Hour 10:30 a.m. Rock Point Books, 401 Broad St. (423) 756-2855. www.rockpointbooks.com “Tying the Knot: Jewish Wedding Traditions” Jewish Cultural Center, 5461 North Terrace. (423) 493-0270. www.jcfgc.com

“The Other Race in Chattanooga: Native Americans” Hunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View. (423) 266-0944. www.thehoustonmuseum.com

Screwtape 2:30 p.m. Ripple Theater, 3264 Brainerd Road, (423) 475-5006. www.rippletheater.com Henry Cho 8 p.m. The Comedy Catch, 3224 Brainerd Rd. (423) 629-2233. www.thecomedycatch.com

Helen Roberts: “Leo the Lion” Watercolors and Photos from tour of Europe In-Town Gallery, 26A Frazier Ave. (423) 267-9214.

HelloWorld.Show Create Here, 55 East Main St. Ste. 105. (423) 648-2195. www.createhere.org

Works by Stephen Scott Young Shuptrine Fine Art and Framing, 2646 Broad St. (423) 266-4453.

Blue John 8 p.m. Delta Queen, Coolidge Park. (423) 468-4500. www.deltaqueenhotel.com

Faye Woodruff 7:30 & 10 p.m. The Comedy Catch & Giggles Grill, 3224 Brainerd Rd. (423) 629-2233. www.thecomedycatch.com

Geo-greenism 7:30 p.m. Jewish Cultural Center, 5461 North Terrace.

(423) 493-0270. www.jcfgc.com

“Jellies: Living Art” Hunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View. (423) 266-0944.

Rosemary Leaves 7:30 p.m. Chattanooga State Humanities Auditorium, 4501 Amnicola Hwy. (423) 697-4404.

Noises Off 8 p.m. Chattanooga Theatre Centre Main Stage, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534. www.theatrecentre.com

Sunday “Speak Easy” spoken word and poetry 8 p.m. Mudpie Restaurant, 12 Frazier Ave. (423) 267-9040.

Noises Off

Poetry Open Mic Night 7:30 p.m. Barnes & Noble, 2100 Hamilton Place Blvd.

(423) 893-0186.

Faye Woodruff 7:30 & 10 p.m. The Comedy Catch & Giggles Grill, 3224 Brainerd Rd. (423) 629-2233. www.thecomedycatch.com

Fine Handmade Jewelry by Mary Helen Robert In-Town Gallery, 26A Frazier Ave. (423) 267-9214.

Works by Stephen Scott Young Shuptrine Fine Art and Framing, 2646 Broad St. (423) 266-4453. www.goldleafdesigns.com

Mayfield Scoops It Up Day at the Chattanooga Market OK, we cannot get enough of that cow. And the ice cream.

Free.

11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

First Tennessee Pavilion, 1826 Carter Street. (423) 648-2496. www.chattanoogamarket.com

“Coal Miners Health in Appalachia” Photo Exhibit Downtown Public Library, 1001 Broad St. (423) 757-1310.

“Windows on the West: Views From the American Frontier” Hunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View. (423) 266-0944.

“Cultural Fragments” Lookout Mountain Gallery, 3914 St. Elmo Ave. (423) 394-1071.

Editor’s Pick: Featured Event Of The Week Sweet Stories Second Annual Storytelling Show Energetic local storyteller Vincent Phipps is joined by talespinning colleagues Finn Bille and Christyna Jensen for a morning of fables and histories.

Saturday, August 1 $7 10:30 a.m.

Glenwood Recreation Center, 2610 E. 3rd Street.

(423) 544-1597. www.vincentphipps.com

95.3 Pulse News www.chattanoogapulse.com 7.30.09 The Pulse

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On The Beat

Combustion Engines: The Preferred Method

By Alex Teach

I

was between episodes in a “SpongeBob” marathon when I spotted an article in a local paper about a “Prominent Local Bicyclist” being struck by a car. A bicyclist getting hit by a car wasn’t exactly a shock, but the title struck me as funny so I gave it a read and such was the comedic follow-up to this that I skipped “Truth or Square”, easily the finest episode in the show’s 10-season run. (You have to understand that aside from liquor and tobacco, I have no vices, so the show is my one “treat” for myself, whose therapeutic value may just be the entire subject of another column.)

Where was I? Ah, yes. Besides the title, the ensuing article went on to give up other gems such as describing the victim as an “up-and-coming member of the Chattanooga cycling community”, and stating that this was “another blow” to same. Really? I could fairly envision the wailing of widows and the gnashing of teeth as tear-filled bloodshot eyes looked skyward for answers with fists balled and raised above their heads. My grin turned to a full-out laugh.

First off…what is a “Prominent Bicyclist”? One that is particularly tall, or who prefers highly reflective clothing? Or is it someone who has pioneered something other than the century-old “pushing pedals around while holding on” methodology that I believe is still the gold standard?

By this definition are there also “Prominent Canoeists” or “Prominent Walkers”? You see, when I think of that word, I think of physicians who advance cancer (and liver) research, or ethical politicians, or local employers.

Not a guy who rides a bicycle.

Second…what is an “up-andcoming member” of a cycling community? Are there tiers of advancement? Did he, perhaps, just graduate from a single sprocket to a 10- or 12-speed, or learn to navigate stairs with his machine? I myself was

once an “up-and-coming member” of the bicycling community, but that’s because I was five years old and had just learned to ride without training wheels; I pretty much plateaued after that. This cat was a former professor, so I’m not sure what to assume his own skill level was, so I’ll leave it at the aforementioned sprocket count to play it safe.

Next is the animus towards the offending cars themselves. The vitriol that was barely contained toward the cars driving on the road—as if it were meant for them and not the cyclists themselves! “Who could imagine such a thing as someone on a bicycle on a roadway being struck by a car?!” the article cried out. Well, as it turns out (and color me crazy here), I could.

It’s not like a liger (look it up) leapt out of the wood line and savagely mauled him, or an asteroid pierced his helmet from the heavens above; he was sharing a road with cars, and got hit by one. Simple. It wasn’t a travesty; it was a statistical likelihood.

Ever wonder why interstates have minimum speed limits? It’s because mixing slow and fast traffic is dangerous, and that’s between evenly matched competitors. Change the variables to 150-pound cyclists traveling 15-to-20 mph and 2,000 pounds of steel travelling at 45-to-55 mph, and then the scores REALLY start to jump, Mr. Trebek. I mean, shit: The road is a cars’ “house”.

That’s where they go. If I go for a swim in the ocean and get bit by a shark or bonked in the head by a boat, is that a tragedy for which I should curse the shark, or just something I risk when I go to the shark’s “house”?

Neighborhoods, trails, designated paths, sure. All good and relatively safe. Thoroughfare used primarily by motorized vehicles in the age of cell phones, high-end audio, and recordlevel short attention spans? Do the math.

And finally…if this is the second incident in as many weeks and months, this isn’t a “blow” to a community: In law enforcement, we call it a “pattern” and avoid or alter such. How many hot-stove eyes or hands in the lawnmower do we need to experience before we stop doing something? Am I that alone in this world? Have we gone that far over

“I myself was once an ‘up and coming member’ of the bicycling community, but that’s because I was five years old and had just learned to ride without training wheels.” the edge? Don’t get me wrong: The guy who clipped the Good Professor and fled is clearly and indisputably an asshole of the highest order, but such contempt for cars on roadways and shock that such a thing could have happened…twice now? Really?

It’s not that I have a thing against bicycles, folks; I am aware of them in the same way the Chinese are aware of the advancement of the fork, but prefer not to use them. I respect that…I just have to draw a line in the sand from time to time when stupid things have the potential for being accepted as reasonable or acceptable.

(And in the event any other thickheaded bicyclists are reading this, “No.” You shouldn’t ride bicycles in the sand, either.)

Pardon me now; “SpongeBob” is about to resume, and I have yet to drive to check the mailbox. (Slowly.)

When officer Alexander D. Teach is not patrolling our fair city hot on the heels of the criminal element, he is an occasional student of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and in his spare time enjoys carpentry, auto mechanic work, boating, and working for the Boehm Birth Defects Center.

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New in Theaters Funny People Over the past few years, writer/ director Judd Apatow (The 40-YearOld Virgin, Knocked Up) has shown that nothing—not even losing your virginity or the miracle of childbirth—is sacred. George Simmons (Adam Sandler) is a very successful yet self-involved stand-up comedian who learns that he has an incurable blood disorder and is given less than a year to live. Ira Wright (Seth Rogen) is a struggling up-and-coming stand-up comedian who works at a deli and has yet to figure out his onstage persona.

One thing these different men have in common is that neither of them have any close friends. One night, George takes notice of Ira when they perform at the same club and he hires him to be his semi-personal assistant and opening act at his performances. George and Ira form a close bond as George teaches Ira how to win the crowd and Ira helps

the dying George find closure in his legacy.

Starring: Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill Director: Judd Apatow Rating: R

Also in Theaters Aliens in the Attic (New) A group of kids must fight off an alien attack when knee-high extraterrestrials invade the family vacation home.

The Collector (New) A would-be robber breaks into the home of his employer, only to become a reluctant hero confronted with a kidnapping situation.

Orphan A mourning couple decides to adopt a child, only to discover that the seemingly sweet angelic little girl is not what she appears to be.

The Ugly Truth Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler team up as TV morning show producers searching for the ugly truth on what makes men and women tick.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Daniel Radcliffe returns as the teen wizard, back at Hogwarts and facing his darkest threat yet.

(500) Days of Summer Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel star in the boy-meets-girl story

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of an unpredictable noholds-barred love affair.

Bruno Sacha Baron Cohen is a flamboyant Austrian fashionista who takes his show to the U.S., wreaking havoc on unsuspecting Americans.

I Love You, Beth Cooper A geeky high school valedictorian uses his graduation speech to declare his love for Hayden Panettiere, setting off a night he’ll never forget.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Megan Fox and Shia LaBeouf return to join with the Autobots’ battle against the evil Decepticons.

Public Enemies Johnny Depp stars as notorious Depression-era gangster John Dillinger, whose charismatic crime spree made him a folk hero to the masses.

The Proposal Sandra Bullock is a highpowered exec who fakes an engagement with her assistant to avoid deportation to her native Canada.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs Manny, Sid, Diego and the rest of the computeranimated critter crew are back for their third prehistoric adventure— this time in 3D! The Hangover Four friends go to Vegas for a blowout bachelor party, only to wake up the next morning with a baby, a tiger, no groom and no clue.

Up In Pixar’s latest, a twist of fate—and a persistent Junior Wilderness Explorer—send a 78-yearold man on an adventure beyond his wildest dreams.

My Sister’s Keeper A young girl, conceived to provide a donor match for her leukemia-stricken older sister, seeks to earn medical emancipation from her parents.

The Taking of Pelham 1 23 Denzel Washington is a civil servant who must outwit John Travolta, a criminal mastermind who hijacks a subway train.

Film Feature

Watching Light and Dark in Nochoi Dozor

By Damien Power

S

crew “Harry Potter”. It’s the only good movie that came out, and you’re either going to see it, or you’re not going to see it. I saw it. It’s great. Get over it.

Let’s instead talk about an unsung masterpiece.

Let’s venture to the rental store (or On Demand), and select a movie that was never released in theaters here, but should have been.

Nochnoi Dozor, or “Night Watch”, is a Russian film that takes the best parts of The Matrix and Underworld, and combines them with Russian dark humor, brilliant filmmaking, and the coolest subtitle treatment you have ever seen.

Under the direction of Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov, Night Watch was the highestbudgeted, highest-grossing Russian film in history.

Bekmambetov has since come stateside, and directed the better-than-expected Wanted.

The premise is simple. There are humans (known as Others), both good and bad, with extraordinary powers like shape shifting or vampirism. About 300 years ago, the forces of light and dark meet on a battlefield, effectively to commence Ragnarok. However, the generals of the two armies realize that they are evenly matched, and either armistice or mutually assured destruction awaits the end of the day. In order to

maintain this truce, the forces of light form the Night Watch, and the forces of dark form the Day Watch, to keep an eye on the other side and maintain balance between the two factions.

Of course, I couldn’t draw the Matrix comparison without a messiah figure, so there is a prophesy that there will one day be a “Chosen One” who chooses a side and tips the balance in their favor.

However the film centers around Anton Gorodetsky, who through a series of events discovers he is one of these Others, and joins the Night Watch. Those events include his attempt to force his ex-wife to have an abortion through magical means, in an attempt to get her back. It’s a horrible plan that thankfully fails, but it sets events in motion.

Those events follow Anton through the course of Night Watch and into Day Watch (Dnevnoy Dozor), the second of the trilogy. The young Chosen One has chosen a side, and he has chosen the dark. On his birthday, he will be gain the power he needs to unleash his power on

"These two movies are visually stunning, with amazing applications of slow motion, stop-animation and computer graphics combined with simply amazing photography."

the Light, and end the truce once and for all. Of course the Chosen One was Yegor, the unborn son that Anton attempted to kill in the womb.

Daddy issues ensue.

These two movies are visually stunning, with amazing applications of slow motion, stopanimation and computer graphics combined with simply amazing photography. Rent these two movies, and you will not be disappointed when the final installment Twilight Watch wraps production next year.

Finally, a movie with vampires and the word “Twilight” in the name that doesn’t suck.

Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor) Directed by Timur Bekmambetov Starring Konstantin Khabenskiy, Vladimir Menshov, Valeriy Zolotukhin, Mariya Poroshina Rated R Running time: 1 hours, 54 minutes

95.3 Pulse News www.chattanoogapulse.com 7.30.09 The Pulse

21

Shades Of Green

Getting Past the Greenwashing

By Elizabeth Crenshaw

B

eing green wasn’t always cool. When I was growing up in South Carolina in the late 1980’s and 1990’s, being ecoconscious was considered weird, and my family’s lifestyle was no exception. My father was active in local environmental community organizing, and our family car was plastered with bumper stickers that many people found strange.

One childhood friend, whose father owned a logging business and did not allow his children to watch Fern Gulley, the 1990s' Wall-E, told me repeatedly that there was no such thing as “organic” food, so supporting its farmers made no sense.

The daily Tofurkey sandwich in my lunchbox was the subject of curiosity and ridicule, as were the steamed organic veggies in lieu of chips. My backpacks were made of recycled content back when you had to hunt for that sort of thing, with cool color selection being secondary. Grocerystore clerks were surprised when you brought your own cloth bags. Not having a TV in my house hardly made my place a cool hang out after school, so I often found myself at other people’s houses, where—gasp—they may not recycle.

I am not sure exactly when “green” became synonymous with hip and cool. Typically, trends start out West and slowly make their way east in this county. Being green has been cool in California for decades, so maybe

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it just took a while for the lifestyle to migrate. Maybe it all happened about the time Madonna made yoga fashionable.

From Natalie Portman’s eco-chic shoe collection to Wal-Mart’s new sustainability programs, everyone wants in on green. And not every organization pushing green is really living up to the hype.

It’s great that our society has adopted such a progressive attitude, but it’s up to the consumer to make sure that these “green” promises are more than propaganda fueling a fad.

Unfortunately, there has been so much of this undesirable behavior that it now has its own name: greenwashing.

Greenwashing isn’t always easy to spot. Luckily, there are a few telltale signs and tools available to help navigate this tricky landscape.

1. Suggestive Images and language.

A model running through a field of daisies, a group of smiling children playing in pristine wilderness, flowers spontaneously blooming, an actor scattering “eco” prefixes throughout the voiceover—if all these things are not backed with facts and concrete sources, it’s probably because there aren’t any.

2. Made up certifications or imaginary labels. Ever see a product with a “green seal of approval” or a green ribbon? Another popular tactic is slapping an image on a product that looks like it could be a third-party endorsement, except that there is no concrete explanation of who this entity is. Good Guide, now an app for the iPhone, is a great way to quickly fact-check in the aisle.

3. Trust your instincts. If it’s

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too good to be true, it probably is.

Unfortunately, a lot of the things we like to consume are not green. If a product has always had issues, it probably has not changed overnight to accommodate a newly conscious society.

4. When instincts fail, research.

Good Guide.com is a great site for picking green products, and what you find may surprise you. Turns out that Suave shampoo is more sustainable than some of the fancy, hip shampoo brands with green overtones. Spending five minutes on this site is extremely valuable. Another great site for product research is greenwashingindex.com.

5. Stick with what you know.

LEED standards are a trusted source.

These experts have done all the work for you. If the product meets LEED standards (and can prove it) chances are they are Earth-friendly. Respected certifications can help you make good choices. Energy Star-certified products can be trusted to save energy, and a USDA certified organic seal ensures that produce is chemical-free.

Being green is about more than being cool. It’s a lifestyle, a way of living that does not have to be expensive or difficult. But we have to hold the companies selling us “green” products accountable. If you want to change the world, analyzing what you throw in the cart is a good place to start.

Elizabeth Crenshaw is LEED accredited and works for EPB in Strategic Planning, but her views are her own. Originally from South Carolina, Elizabeth moved to Chattanooga after graduating from Warren Wilson College in 2007.

“Greenwashing isn’t always easy to spot.

Luckily, there are a few telltale signs and tools available to help navigate this tricky landscape. ”

95.3 Pulse News www.chattanoogapulse.com 7.30.09 The Pulse

23

Music Feature

Wow…He Said “Sex”

By Hellcat

L

et me start by saying that back in 1997, when I and everyone else on the planet, started hearing “Sex and Candy”

by Marcy Playground, my little sophomoric mouth fell open. He totally said “sex”. He’s talking about it and singing about it on the radio. Is that allowed?

You can’t say “ass” on the radio, but you can describe getting some candy-scented ass? This is awesome.

My mom is disgusted by this song, so it must be good. Wait, I sort of feel dirty and rebellious singing along to this song…and I’m sold. (Granted, I was 14.) At the time, everyone was trying to convince their parents it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. “Hush it, Mom, it isn’t dirty, you don’t know. It’s just a new way of describing something exciting and awesome and stuff. Geez. You didn’t have to turn off the radio. I’m going to my room!”

Well, as it turns out, it is dirty. It is about exactly what it describes. When I spoke to Marcy Playground’s John Wozniak earlier, he told me the story that inspired the song. It’s a story that makes him entirely more real and relatable in my eyes.

Back in 1992, he was on spring break from college, and he was visiting his girlfriend. They, being college kids and in lust, were acting the part of rabbits, when her roommate walked in and caught them right in the middle of a reunion concert. Undaunted, the roommate just laughed and said, “Oooooh!

Smells like sex and candy in here!” and walked out. In the age of flavored condoms and during the peak sales boom of Bath and Body Works, I am not surprised. Unfortunately, he does not remember the name of the roommate to thank her, but it was her utterance that inspired a song that stayed in the number-one slot on Billboard charts for 15 weeks in a row. I’m pretty sure someone deserves some flowers. I’m just saying. John was actually going to leave that song off the record, but the engineer said he’d walk if he did, so he kept it. That guy gets some flowers, too.

OK, beyond the “Sex and Candy” song is a really impressive band. I

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can’t say I followed them much in the past, but I did just go to their web site and listened to their brand-new album, released July 7. It’s called Leaving Wonderland…in a fit of rage. It’s pretty ridiculous, and by ridiculous, I mean wicked good.

It’s an emotionally evolving work that takes you on the rollercoaster John just came off. It creeps into your skin, and reminds you that you too once loved something or someone, and how much of an asshole you were for inevitably messing it up. But on a brighter note, it also reassures you that you get another chance when love or luck fall whimsically into your life again. If it doesn’t work, turn to punk rock. It’s more of a journey than an album. I’m into it.

Wozniak, who, might I say, is a very level and charismatic guy, is both polite and funny. He was very easy to chat with, as opposed to some puffedup blowfish types I have recently come across.

Hellcat: Wow, so I had no idea that you owned a studio that recorded Mudhoney and Tegan and Sara records, to name a few. What’s that about?

John Wozniak: Well, basically, I’m just really obsessed with gear, to be honest.

HC: Ah, most musicians are. What’s different about this effort?

JW: Well, we did this one on our own, separate of Capital. With a great group of people, publicists and distribution. We have a lot more freedom. This album was different because Jeff Dawson was the producer. I generally don't work with

a producer. I am a Type-A personality and like being in control of the sound. But he kind of got me out of my funk, as I was in a low place.

HC: What about the title? Is this an angry record?

JW: No, the title is more symbolic than anything. It’s mainly about me leaving my childhood and experiencing emotional maturity. I found myself still being a child in my thirties, so this is the transition out of that. It comes from a different place than I am used to writing from. It was really draining to put together. It’s a bit eclectic, and as always, I try to keep “the suck” out of it.

HC: Oh, good. I appreciate that, thanks. What is this song, “Memphis”? I have to ask, being a Tennessee girl.

JW: No problem. “Memphis” is a song about going to your grave but finding redemption, you’ll just have to hear it. The lyrics and music can define it better than simple language. But I started writing it in Tennessee. My mom’s side is actually from right outside of Knoxville. I frequent the area.

HC: Anything else?

JW: Yeah, anybody can check out the whole record on our web site before you punk out the money to buy it. Being on our own gives us the freedom to offer it this way.

Marcy Playground $15 9 p.m.

Sunday, August 2 Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market Street.

(423) 267-4644. www.rhythm-brews.com

Music Calendar

Send your calendar events to us at calendar@chattanoogapulse.com

Friday

Thursday Tomorrow’s End, Shades of 7, Broken Romance, Aneirin 7 p.m. The Warehouse, 5716 Ringgold Rd., East Ridge

Brian Ashley Jones Noon. Miller Plaza, 850 Market St. (423) 265-0771.

Dead End Stanley, Feed the Lions, Half Price Heros 7 p.m. The Warehouse, 5716 Ringgold Rd., East Ridge

Baby Dead Robots 9 p.m. The Low Down, 306 Cherokee Blvd. (423) 468-3593.

Channing Wilson 9 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878. www.budssportsbar.com

The Greencards

Howard Levy with Milele Roots

Six to Never, 476, Hollow Pages, Out of Body, Backseat Bingo 7 p.m. Club Fathom, 412 Market St. (423) 757-0019.

The Distribution, Cadillac Jones, Jonathan Sexton, Big Love 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400. www.myspace.com/jjsbohemia The Coal Men 10 p.m. Midtown Music Hall, 820 Georgia Ave. (423) 752-1977.

The Micks 10 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878.

They’ve been nominated for a Grammy and toured with Dylan.

Convertibulls 9 p.m. The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd #202.

(423) 499-5055.

Another don’t-miss Nightfall with master jazz harmonica player Levy and our own M. Roots.

Legion X, Animula, Sacraficum, 8 p.m. Ziggy’s Hideaway, 607 Cherokee Blvd. (423) 634-1074.

The Big Nekkid 10 p.m. Market Street Tavern, 850 Market St. (423) 634-0260.

$15 9 p.m.

Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market Street. (423) 267-4644. www.rhythm-brews.com

Racing Death 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400. www.myspace.com/jjsbohemia

Free 7 p.m.

Nightfall, 850 Market Street.

(423) 265-0771. www.downtownchattanooga.org

Mudville Mafia 9 p.m. The Tin Can, 618 Georgia Ave. (423) 648-4360. www.thetincanchattanooga.com

Billy Hopkins & Friends 10 p.m. Tremont Tavern, 1203 Hixson Pike. (423) 266-1966. www.tremonttavern.com

Saturday

Moonlight Bride, Nim Nims, Matt Urmy Fab locals bill, plus it’s a CD release party for Matt. $7 10 p.m.

JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd.

(423) 266-1400. www.myspace.com/jjsbohemia

Monday DJ at the Palms 8 p.m. The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd #202. (423) 499-5055. www.thepalmsathamilton.com Motormaus, Eskimeaux 9 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400. www.myspace.com/jjsbohemia Karaoke Night 10 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878. www.budssportsbar.com

Sunday Evidence of Faith 7 p.m. The Warehouse, 5716 Ringgold Rd., East Ridge.

Scott Holt 7 p.m. Chattanooga Waterfront.

(423) 756-2211. www.riverfrontnights.com Mushina 7:30 p.m. Club Fathom, 412 Market St. (423) 757-0019.

Apocalyptic Visions, Parabellum 8 p.m. Ziggy’s Hideaway, 607 Cherokee Blvd. (423) 634-1074.

Preston Parris 8 p.m. The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd #202.

(423) 499-5055.

Johnny Neel 8 p.m. Charles & Myrtle’s Coffeehouse, 105 McBrien Rd. (423) 892-4960. www.christunity.org

Banger’s Ball 9 p.m. The Low Down, 306 Cherokee Blvd. (423) 468-3593.

Booger Holler 9 p.m. The Tin Can, 618 Georgia Ave. (423) 648-4360. www.thetincanchattanooga.com The Fuze 10 p.m. Midtown Music Hall, 820 Georgia Ave. (423) 752-1977. www.midtownmusichall.com The Micks 10 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878.

Fearful Symmetry 10 p.m. Market Street Tavern, 850 Market St. (423) 634-0260.

Noah Collins and Tim Cofield 10 p.m. Tremont Tavern, 1203 Hixson Pike. (423) 266-1966.

80Z-Enuff 10:15 p.m. Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St. (423) 267-4644.

Tuesday

Wednesday

The Ben Friberg Trio 7 p.m. Table 2, 232 E. 11th Street, (423) 756-8253. www.table2restaurant.com DJ at the Palms 9 p.m. The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd #202. (423) 499-5055.

Open Mic with Mike McDade 9 p.m. Tremont Tavern, 1203 Hixson Pike. (423) 266-1966. www.tremonttavern.com

Coathanger Abortion, Blasphemar, Disfigured, Sikfuk 8 p.m. Ziggy’s Hideaway, 607 Cherokee Blvd. (423) 634-1074. myspace.com/ziggyshideaway 2 N Fro 8 p.m. The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd #202. (423) 499-5055.

DJ Steelo with Eroc 9 p.m. The Low Down, 306 Cherokee Blvd. (423) 468-3593.

Fireside Lounge 4021 Hixson Pike.

(423) 870-7078.

We Are Not Men, Ratt Attack, Dos Tornadoes 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

Roger Allan Wade 9 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878.

Lucky’s 2536 Cummings Highway.

(423) 825-5145.

Spoken Word/Poetry Night The Riverhouse, 224 Frazier Avenue, (423) 752-0066

Open Mic Madness 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

Marcy Playground with Hot Action Cop Modern folk meets psychedelia in Marcy Playground. $15 9 p.m.

Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market Street. (423) 267-4644. www.rhythm-brews.com

Summer Music weekends featuring New Binkley Brothers 12 p.m. Rock City Gardens, Lookout Mtn. (706) 820-2531. seerockcity.com/summermusic Open Mic w/Jeff Daniels 4 p.m. Ms. Debbie’s Nightlife Lounge, 4762 Highway 58.

(423) 485-0966. www.myspace.com/debbieslounge Irish Sessions Music Group 6:30 p.m. Tremont Tavern, 1203 Hixson Pike. (423) 266-1966. www.tremonttavern.com The World We Knew, Thaddeus, Sons of Cynics, Ewap, Underwraps 7 p.m. The Warehouse, 5716 Ringgold Rd., East Ridge. www.myspace.com/warehousetn Charlie King, The Fixins 9 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

Editor’s Pick: Featured Event Of The Week Johnny Neel Grammynominated Neel has played with the Allman Bros., Lonnie Mack and Gov’t Mule, and his songs have been recorded by John Mayall, Joe Louis Walker and Travis Tritt, among many others.

Saturday, August 1 $10 suggested donation 8 p.m.

Charles & Myrtle’s Coffeehouse, Christ Unity Church, 105 McBrien Road.

(423) 892-4960. www.christunity.org

95.3 Pulse News www.chattanoogapulse.com 7.30.09 The Pulse

25

New Music Reviews Taxicab Racers L Turnpike

(www.myspace.com/ taxicabracers)

“On record, the group’s songs seem to be more akin to contemporary tracks from likeminded outfits like ‘Paris’ by Friendly Fires.”

Various Artists Esopus #12: Black and White (Esopus)

Music contributors on the compilation accompanying the latest issue of the art-minded periodical Esopus, which features a monochromatic theme this time, were asked to select a black-andwhite film and create an original song inspired by it.

The chosen movies range from silent films such as Nosferatu to beloved Hollywood classics like To Kill a Mockingbird to more quirky selections like Guy Maddin’s The Saddest Music in the World and the

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The Pulse 7.30.09 www.chattanoogapulse.com 95.3 Pulse News

ead singer Michael Roddy, front man of Taxicab Racers, sings various wistful, yet hopeful lines that stand out on the new 4-track EP, Turnpike, such as “I’ll find a new place for you” and “It’s your last chance to make it on your own.”

In light of this, there is an uncanny sense of timing with the release of Turnpike, which comes right at the eve of the group’s relocation from Chattanooga to Nashville. Intentionally selfreferential or not, the EP works and succeeds independently of any backstory; over 20 minutes, a bittersweet, unabashedly emotive demeanor is conveyed with stirring electronic pop songs.

The title track has select elements of electro-nostalgia while avoiding being too derivative; the drum machine beats, lifted from ’90s dance-floor stompers, and new wave synth sounds serves as a bed for concise electric guitar strums and choice notes with just the right timbre, alongside Roddy singing with a glowing optimism. The final seven-minute track, “Houses,” continues the EP’s theme with reflections of moving away and a sense of belonging; it features cherubic keyboard contributions from Reeve Hunter and charming Spanish dark comedy El Verdugo.

The 11-track collection strives to match the diversity of the films with assorted approaches, but the majority of the tracks fall under two categories: acoustic strum-or-pluck tunes, like Lisa Cerbone’s wide-eyed elfin pop on “Scout Meets Boo,” or electronic-oriented numbers, like the chaotic artificiality of the Ruby Suns’ alternate score for the industrial dystopian film Metropolis.

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson decided to move away from New York while watching It’s a Wonderful Life and created his track “Ciao Manhattan (First Draft)” about that; Robinson approximates a one-man version of Arcade Fire, ardently sounding uncomfortably tormented. Sam Amidon sings in an oddly blank, rustic style somewhat akin to Will Oldham and Alasdair

vocal harmonizing from Sondra Aten, both of whom are band mates with Roddy in the group Chinasaur.

While Taxicab Racers’ live performances sometimes suggest other technologically inclined bands such as New Order or LCD Soundsystem, on record, the group’s songs seem to be more akin to contemporary tracks from like-minded outfits like “Paris” by Friendly Fires. Turnpike covers all the bases for a great electrodance pop release, being affecting and spirited, with charged playing and soaring vocals, serving as a memorable, fond farewell both to and from Chattanooga.

— Ernie Paik Roberts on “Vance,” inspired by the western film The Furies; it begins with Appalachian fiddling and kind of rambles aimlessly atop string plucks and drones, not quite redeemed by one killer line: “You stop telling lies about me, and I’ll stop telling the truth about you.”

As a whole, the collection doesn’t quite satisfy consistently, but it ends with its best number, by Nina Nastasia. She tackles Catherine Deneuve’s disturbing fantasy in Repulsion, using terse song poetry and a scampering acoustic guitar; a clock’s strict tick-tocking in the background seems to represent order and repression, but acting like a timer, it makes the track foreboding and tense, conveying the moment before Deneuve’s fragile character snaps.

— Ernie Paik

Table Service

Guthrie’s Comes To Roost in Lookout Mountain

By Molly Iles

Z

axby’s, Chick-fil-A, Bojangles…Guthrie’s? On June 24, Guthrie’s opened its doors in Chattanooga for the first time, with the goal of serving tasty, affordable meals in a clean, family-friendly environment.

Tucked away in the small town of Lookout Mountain, the locally owned and managed restaurant offers a menu specializing in chicken. In fact, Guthrie’s claims to be the “original chicken finger specialty” restaurant.

Founded by Hal and Melissa Guthrie in Haleyville, AL, the original Guthrie’s opened as a full-service restaurant in 1965, serving up many traditional Southern favorites. Years later, in 1978, the chicken finger made its big debut along with a nowfamous sauce created by 10-year-old Hud Guthrie. Shortly afterward, the restaurant changed its menu to focus solely on chicken fingers.

This idea came from Chris Guthrie, who believed that specializing would speed up production. By 1982, a second Guthrie’s opened in Auburn, AL. The early ’90s saw more expansion and a growing fan base, consisting largely of college students, as the restaurant was becoming very popular in college towns. In 2005, Guthrie’s began franchising, which is how Chattanooga became home to a Guthrie’s of its own. Guthrie’s now offers some 50 locations across the South in cities such as Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and Knoxville.

The Guthrie’s of today remains largely the same as it was in 1982 when the restaurant made the decision to specialize in chicken fingers.

The menu and the recipes have not changed—and neither has the target of serving tasty, affordable meals in a clean and healthy environment.

The signature Guthrie’s meal, known as a plate or box, includes five of their original golden fried chicken fingers, French fries, Texas toast, slaw, and Guthrie’s famous sauce. Still, a customer is not limited to the famous chicken fingers meal. Guthrie’s also serves a selection of wings, salads, and

even a grilled chicken pita sandwich.

Desserts include fried apple or lemon pies, as well as Reese’s and Snickers pies. In addition, Guthrie’s offers fountain drinks along with pink lemonade, coffee and Guthrie’s special sweet tea, made especially for the restaurant. Even the fine-flaked ice that keeps the drinks cold is special at Guthrie’s.

The Guthrie’s on top of Lookout Mountain is located in the historical business district next to the town’s post office, and if the sign above the restaurant does not grab your attention, then the large green awnings that hang over the windows and doors will. Stepping inside, a very neat and tidy eatery is presented with neutral walls, tile floors and seating for roughly 40 people. Owner and manager Will Garrett believes this is partly what makes the restaurant different from other Guthrie’s in the South. “Most Guthrie’s are drivethroughs,” says Mr. Garrett. This Guthrie’s features sit-down dinning, carry out, or curbside service with the feel of a small-town restaurant.

The staff seems friendly and helpful, working busily to serve the customers as quickly as possible while keeping the building clean and orderly.

One immediately noticeable thing is that the restaurant lacks the “fried chicken smell” usually found at other specialty chicken restaurants This could be from good cleaning—or it could just be that mountain air found

atop Lookout.

When asked why Guthrie’s was a special restaurant, Garrett, who has known the Guthrie’s family for nearly 20 years, replies that being the original makes it special. “No one was doing the chicken finger in 1978…

Guthrie’s perfected the chicken and the homemade sauce, and they have kept the same recipes,” he says.

Garrett also believes that the specific Guthrie’s he runs is unique.

Besides looking unlike most other Guthrie’s, the restaurant’s location in a small town, as opposed to the usual college town, is different.

After months of demographic research, Garrett decided that “the area needed another restaurant,” as Lookout Mountain does not offer many dine-in opportunities. Other than opening a new eatery in a small town, he also hoped to bring people to the mountain. “I wanted to serve the community I love…and offer a getaway at a low budget price,” he says. “Also, there are no tips allowed here.”

New to Chattanooga but not to the South, Guthrie’s, the home of the original golden fried chicken fingers, is serving up good food at good prices while offering a family environment— as well as a sense of nostalgia for those who remember eating at a Guthrie’s in their youth.

Guthrie’s is located at 808 Scenic Highway, Lookout Mountain, Tennessee 37350.

95.3 Pulse News www.chattanoogapulse.com 7.30.09 The Pulse

27

JONESIN’

By Matt Jones

“Flippin' Sweet” –that's how it's gonna be.

Free Will Astrology LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Would you like to spend the next 30 years working your assets off to make your bosses rich? If not, I suggest you start formulating Plan B immediately. The astrological time is not exactly ripe to extricate yourself from the wicked game, but it’s ripe to begin scheming and dreaming about how to extricate yourself.

Here’s a tip to get you in the mood. Assume that there’s some validity in the meme that mythologist Joseph Campbell articulated: “Follow your bliss and the money will come.” Then ask yourself, “Do I even know what my bliss is? Not my mild joy or diversionary fun but my unadulterated bliss?” Once you know that, you can follow it.

And then, inevitably -- although it may take a while -- the money will follow.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): As the season of riddles and paradoxes kicks into high gear, I present you with a two-part quiz. Question 1: Since it has taken you your whole life to become the person you are today, is it reasonable to expect that you can transform yourself in a flash? Question 2: On the other hand, since you are more creative than you give yourself credit for, and are also in an astrological phase when your ability to change is greater than usual, is it reasonable to assume that you must remain utterly stuck in your old ways of doing things?

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): So much to say and do. So little time. Is it OK if I pepper you with pithy hints? It’s the only way to fit everything in.

Here goes. There’s strength in numbers, Libra.

So travel in packs. Round up support and whip up group fervor. Always say “we,” not “I.” Add at least one new friend and bolster at least one old friendship. Think before you act, but always act instead of watching from afar. Avoid doing stupid things in smart ways. To court good luck, do charity work. To ensure that extra favors will come your way later this year, do extra favors now.

Across 1 Not a lot 4 A followers 7 “Would You Like to Buy ___?” (“Sesame Street” song) 10 Smog watchdog: abbr.

13 “American Gladiators” co-host Laila 14 Iberia’s cont.

15 “That’s funny!” on the message boards 16 “Mayor of Simpleton” band 17 The art of sculpting shrubbery 19 Emphatic speaker’s phrase 21 Je9ns 23 Cremation containers 25 Miniseries whose final episode was the thirdmost-watched scripted show in U.S. history 26 Philosopher David Hume, for one 29 Exasperated exhalation 30 Doctor’s request while holding a tongue depressor 31 ___ Valley, California 32 Waters, in Oaxaca 34 “___ Married an Axe Murderer” (1993 movie) 35 Passport endorsements 36 aldde 39 Grab a bite 40 Be in the red 41 Pink Floyd founder Barrett 44 They’re pulled from the

shell, in a Squeeze song title 48 ___ Kippur 51 One of five children born at the same time, slangily 53 Reese of “Touched by an Angel” 54 “___ Feel Like a Woman!” (Shania Twain song) 55 sa>le) 58 Sleep problem 59 “All Those Years ___” (George Harrison song) 60 Make happy 61 Handle effectively 62 ___ Te Ching (classical Chinese text) 63 ___ Tag (1980s toy set) 64 Items on a chain 65 Button on some cell phones 66 Spider egg holders Down 1 Like some chances 2 “Hold On Tight” band 3 Getting rid of a spill 4 Wally and the ___ (classic TV brothers, for short) 5 Meat preparers that use salt and smoking 6 Prepare peanuts, perhaps 7 “Masterpiece Theatre” host Cooke 8 “That’s okay, take your time” 9 Kennedy couturier Cassini 10 It’s good to get some

every so often 11 Bake sale sponsor, sometimes 12 Get one’s ass in gear 18 Fit 20 Inactive 22 “Happy Birthday ___” 23 Men’s 4x100 meter medley relay winners at the 2008 Olympics 24 Latvia’s capital 27 Giants shortstop Vizquel 28 “___ the season to be jolly” 33 Poetry competition 35 Wedding exchanges 37 Chopin piece 38 Baseball Hall-of-Famer Ryan 41 Complain loudly 42 “The Year of the ___” (1984 designation by Newsweek) 43 “WALL-E” co-releaser 45 Put under 46 Campaign encapsulation 47 The only Blues Brother to reappear in “Blues Brothers 2000” 48 Japan’s equivalent of the Mafia 49 “It’ll be just a moment” 50 Stingy people 52 Nobel Prize-winning physicist Bohr 54 Michelle Phillips and Cass Elliot, musically 56 Nuclear family member 57 Silent ___ (presidential nickname)

©2009 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-655-6548. Reference puzzle #0377.

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SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The Biblical book of Isaiah prophesies a future time of undreamedof harmony and cooperation. “The wolf will romp with the lamb,” reads one translation.

“Cow and bear will graze in the same pasture, their calves and cubs will grow up together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.” I have it on good astrological authority that you’re now eligible for a preview of this paradisiacal state. To receive your free introductory offer, you need only meet one condition. You must vow not to harm any living thing -- not even a cockroach. Not even the person you love best.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): You Sagittarians are famous for filling your cups too full. Sometimes this is cute. Sometimes it’s a problem for those who don’t like Cabernet Sauvignon sloshed on their handwoven Persian rugs. This week, however, I predict there will be little or no hell to pay for overflowing. So go ahead and transcend your containers, you beautiful exaggerators. Feel free to express yourself like a fire hose. Now enjoy a few gems from your fellow Sagittarius, the extravagant poet and painter William Blake. 1. “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.” 2. “Exuberance is beauty.” 3. “The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.” 4. “You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.”

By Rob Brezsny

Psychology of Discovery and Invention. This advice is one of his ideas about how to get into attunement with the Tao, also known as being in the zone or getting in the groove or being aligned with the great cosmic flow. How would you go about being the opposite of who you are, Aquarius? According to my reading of the omens, that will be an excellent question for you to muse about in the coming weeks. As you stretch yourself to embody the secret and previously unknown parts of you, I think you’ll be pleased with how much more thoroughly that allows you to be in sync with the rhythms of life.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Internet addiction has risen to epidemic proportions in China. In early 2009, psychologists in Shandong province began offering an alleged cure that involved the use of electro-shock therapy. Parents of 3,000 young people paid Dr. Yang Yongxin and his team over $800 a month to hook their anesthetized teens up to machines that sent electricity through their brains to induce artificial seizures. After four months, the Chinese government intervened and halted the treatment, noting that there was no evidence it worked. This practice might sound comically barbaric to you, but I think it has a certain resemblance to the way you have been dealing with your own flaws and excesses: with inordinate force. In the coming weeks, I really think it’s important not to punish yourself for any reason, Pisces, even if it’s in a supposedly good cause. The lesson of the Chinese experiment is: not only is it overkill, it also doesn’t even have the desired effect.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Are you a gelatinous pool of longing yet? Are you a perfumed garden of madly blooming purple explosions? Are you throbbing and gooey and half-nauseous with that delicious sickness some people called love? If not, I don’t know what to tell you. By all astrological reckoning your gut should be swarming with drunk butterflies and the clouds should be taking on the shapes of mating horses. If you’re not halfdrowning in these symptoms, I implore you to find a way to pry open the floodgates.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You’re primed to cancel a jinx in the coming days, Taurus. You could help someone (maybe even yourself) escape a bewitchment, and you might be able to soothe a wound that has been festering for a long time.

In fact, I’m playing with the fantasy that you are now the living embodiment of a lucky charm. At no other time in recent memory have you had so much power to reverse the effects of perverse karma, bad habits, and just plain negative vibes.

Your hands and eyes are charged with good medicine. Other parts of you are, too, which means sexual healing could be in the works. But as you embark on your mission to cure everyone you love, remember the first law of the soul doctor: “Physician, heal thyself.”

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The Norwegians used to have a concept called svoermere, which meant something sweetly futile or deliciously unprofitable. While I can see the appeal that your particular version of svoermere has had for you, Gemini, I think it’s time to think about moving on. According to my reading of the omens, you have both a right and a duty to seek out more constructive pleasures that not only make you feel really good but also serve your long-term goals.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Constant vigilance, my friend. That’s what I advise. Be attentive to details you sometimes gloss over.

Wake up a little earlier and prepare for each encounter with greater forethought. Stare a little harder into the hearts of all those whose hidden motivations might detour your destiny. Monitor every communication for hints that all is not as it seems. Most importantly, guard against the possibility that you may be overlooking a gift or blessing that’s being offered to you in an indirect way.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): It’s Freedom from Want Week! For Cancerians only! During this uncanny grace period, you might actually feel perfectly contented. It’s quite possible that you’ll be free from the obsession to acquire more security, more love, more proof of your greatness, more chotchkes, more everything. You may even make the shocking discovery that you don’t need nearly as much as you thought you did in order to be happy; that maybe you have a lot to learn about getting more out of what you already have.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “Keep exploring what it takes to be the opposite of who you are,” suggests psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of the book Creativity: Flow and the

Homework: Is there something about you that’s too tame? If so, do you think it’s time to untame yourself? Testify at FreeWillAstrology.com.

Ask A Mexican

Special Houston Edition Dear Mexican, Why do Mexicans at construction sites always draw a dick and vagina on the interiors of port-a-potties?

They sure are not as poetic as they are artistic. Then you got the white boy reply, “Here I sit flexing a...” You should know the rest.

— Original Schreck in Houston

as part of the “well-known human yearning to leave a record of one’s presence or one’s existence” and notes it emanates from “neuroses develop[ed] over the mysterious aura that has been thrown around the bodily functions.”

Walker lists citations of the practice, drawn and written, dating back to the Hellenic era, and it’s fitting, since writing while taking a dump is all greco to me.

Dear Gabacho, Methinks we have a coprophiliac in our midst—how else would you know the ethnicity of toilet taggers?

The Mexican doesn’t bother with bathroom graffiti because he prefers to read Reconquista for Dummies while cagando, but he is an avid reader of bathroom-stall graffiti academic treatises.

Allen Walker Read, in his 1935 publication Classic American Graffiti: Lexical Evidence from Folk Epigraphy in Western North America—A Glossarial Study of the Low Element in the English Language, categorizes such scatological and sexual vandalism

Dear Mexican, I am curious about your take on English versus Spanish. I am an obviously Mexican-American woman, but sometimes I get angry at people that come up to me and assume I speak Spanish.

Oh, and when they find out that I don’t, I get foul faces, rude comments in Spanish (which I can pretty much figure out what they’re saying). I’m a third-generation Houstonian and grew up in the suburb of Spring-Klein (not too many of us out there when I was growing up).

I believe because I’m an American and I do live in America, I speak English. Don’t get me wrong: I really

By Gusatvo Arellano themexican@askamexican.net

Solution To Last Week’s Puzzle

wish I did speak Spanish fluently. I am not ashamed of my heritage! So I will be taking a summer course in español this year; it just gets to me sometimes.

— Coconut in the City Dear Wabette, Don’t get mad people assume you speak Spanish: in this country’s psychology, once a wab, always a wab. If it’s a Mexican who’s giving you grief, they’re just insecure pendejos who wished they spoke English or were more Mexican. And the best way to learn Spanish? Los Tigres del Norte.

Dear Mexican, I’m a Mexican from Houston with great admiration for Latinos in the film industry and I’m looking for my big break. Do you think there is a lack of Hispanic/Latino movie directors, and how can we change this?

— Wrapping More Tamales and Less Movies for a Living Dear Wab, Si, and you can find out how to change Hollywood’s brown-out by visiting the National Association of Latino Independent Producers website at nalip.org.

Dear Mexican, I work at an ice cream shop in Houston, so we get all kinds of Mexicans; from border jumpers who need to have their kids order for them, to upper-class güeros who moved from Lomas de Chapultepec to be closer to an emporio Armani.

A common thread I’ve noticed

is that Mexicans order butter pecan much more than any other group an I can’t figure out why. Please explain the Mexican affection with the nuez.

— Gabacho Heladero Dear White Ice-Cream Man, Because it’s bueno. And porque Tapatío nieve has yet to be perfected.

Next!

Dear Mexican, What’s with quinceañeras and their entire party walking around in full get-up at the mall? Go to the Houston Galleria on a Saturday afternoon, and there’s always a young lady with a big, puffy, pink dress, crown on her head, high heels and chambelan in tow walking around. Is “showing off” at the mall now part of the quinceañera festivities?

— Former Pretty in Rosa Dear Pretty in Pink, “Showing off” is the only reason for quinceañeras. If Mexican parents were smart, they’d use the thousands of dollars spent on the event toward their daughters’ college fund—but you didn’t hear it from me. Oh, wait: You did!

Ask the Mexican at themexican@ askamexican.net, myspace.com/ocwab, find him on Facebook, Twitter, or write via snail mail at: Gustavo Arellano, P.O. Box 1433, Anaheim, CA 92815-1433

95.3 Pulse News www.chattanoogapulse.com 7.30.09 The Pulse

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