The Pulse - Vol. 7, Issue 43

Chattanooga’s Weekly Alternative

Steaming into the Future Past Story by Gary Poole • Photography by Stephen Chapman

FREE • News, Views, Music, Film, Arts & Entertainment • October 28, 2010 • Volume 7, Issue 43 • www.chattanoogapulse.com

Chattanooga’s Weekly Alternative President Jim Brewer, II Publisher Zachary Cooper Contributing Editor Janis Hashe News Editor / Art Director Gary Poole Director of Sales Rhonda Rollins Local Sales Manager Jonathan Susman Advertising Sales Rick Leavell, Townes Webb Graphic Design Jennifer Grelier Contributing Writers Gustavo Arellano, Rob Brezsny Chuck Crowder, Joshua Hurley Phillip Johnston, Matt Jones Tara Morris-Viland, Ernie Paik Garry Poole, Alex Teach Editorial Cartoonist Rick Baldwin Calendar Editors Bryanna Burns, Josh Lang Editorial Intern Blake Hampton, Reginald Owens Contact Info: Phone (423) 265-9494 Fax (423) 266-2335 Email Inquiries info@chattanoogapulse.com Calendar Submissions 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.

The Pulse is published by

Brewer Media 1305 Carter Street Chattanooga, Tennessee 37402 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 300 words in length.

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

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AL AN Y se NU U C ED Pul AN YO M The O L AL T C k in EA wee xt ne

OCTOBER

11 STEAMING INTO THE FUTURE PAST

By Gary Poole Halloween comes this weekend, a holiday once all about the celebration of childhood and candy that has become as much, if not more, a holiday for adults. The number of costume parties being thrown, be they at a private home, the office or at a local nightclub seems to increase every year.

So, for the discerning costumer, what is the one costume you can wear that will set you apart from everyone else?

Photography by Stephen Chapman

feature stories 18 BOOGIE IN YOUR BONES

By Tara Morris-Viland I love October. I love Halloween. I love costumes. I love the opportunity to buy $2 color spray that stains my hair pink longer then it should and the only reason I agreed to this childbirth thing was so I could have another excuse to go trick or treating.

25 PARIS WHEN IT CAN-CANS

By Janis Hashe Some stories are timeless, and a remarkable number of them involve Paris. From The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables to La Boheme and An American in Paris, we never tire of these romances.

33 THE BEST MINDS OF MY GENERATION

By Phillip Johnston Early on in Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Freidman’s film Howl, James Franco’s Allen Ginsberg is asked if he single-handedly created the Beat Generation, the diverse cabal of 1950s writers that included Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs.

news & views 5 6 8 17 27 38

PULSE BEATS FIVE QUESTIONS BEYOND THE HEADLINES ON THE BEAT LIFE IN THE NOOG ASK A MEXICAN

everything else 4 5 9 9 19 20 26 30 34 36 37

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR CITY COUNCILSCOPE POLICE BLOTTER THE LIST NEW MUSIC REVIEWS MUSIC CALENDAR A&E CALENDAR HALLOWEEN CALENDAR SPIRITS WITHIN FREE WILL ASTROLOGY JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

Letters to the Editor John Wolfe Responds Sorry that you did not include my issues in your election edition, and sorrier still that you would let a known antagonist speak for my campaign. Mr. James seemed more intent on assigning labels like “loser” and “liberal” than addressing the substance of my campaign.

My campaign for the U.S. Congress is not liberal. It is small “c” conservative because it attempts to conserve what is so woven into our political architecture, to wit, Social Security, Medicare, T.V.A., student loans, and unemployment benefits. These programs have worked well to raise the living standards and opportunities of all Americans, yet each is under attack from all my opponents, including Mr. Fleischmann, who railed against the stimulus package that will create over 2500 jobs in our Third District, which includes Oak Ridge. Mr. Fleischmann explicitly approved the Tea Party message; you can hear him for yourself on our home page at votejohnwolfe.com. Fleischmann would eliminate the Department of Education and downsize the Department of Energy.

I should not define myself only as my

opponent’s opposite, but the party of Eisenhower has become the party of Palin, and it is riding an irrational wave of anger that must be checked. Like Ike, I believe in corporate responsibility, defensive wars, and responsible budgets. Ike would never have given the rich huge tax cuts in times of war, nor would he have allowed the corporations to get by with paying only 9% of the federal budget. They paid 23% of our budget in 1954, though they were a fifteenth of the size they are now.

I believe that we should favor the above programs, not because they are liberal or conservative, but because they work and are the right thing to do. I believe that a slight tax on Wall Street derivatives can raise tremendous amounts of money with no harm to investors; I don’t believe that we need to keep making 4 billion dollar submarines every year when our navy is already bigger than the next 13 navies combined, 11 of which belong to allies. I believe that new small businesses deserve preferential tax treatment, favored treatment by the Small Business Administration, and the right to instantly expense up to $350,000.00 of equipment purchases.

I have always held to these beliefs. Had I won either of my past two runs for Congress, I would have fought for them. Remember, had we had brought to office folks like myself, who could hold the country to its tradition of fighting only defensive wars, taxing the rich fairly, and regulating Wall Street, we’d have a budget deficit of less than 10 trillion dollars and a more stable economy. More importantly, we’d have thousands of our young Americans living productive lives, not lying dead or disabled from a war based on lies. I offered that mindset in both 2002 and 2004 and continue to hope that this good people of the Third District will listen this time. I’m proud of having tried and believe events have vindicated me.

The moral of the last 10 years is to choose your leaders carefully. Bush and Wamp might have been more fun to have a beer with, but the staggering problems they left us with surely demand another yardstick by which to measure our candidates.

See votejohnwolfe.com for more information or call me toll-free at 1-866-2661172.

John Wolfe Democratic Candidate For Congress

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 think that’s wonderful. I think that’s their absolute right and praise God.” — Hamilton County School Board member Rhonda Thurman, supporting the decision of Soddy Daisy high school students to pray together as a group before last Friday’s football game.

Chattanooga Red Cross Volunteer Wins National Scholarship There was much celebration at the Chattanooga Red Cross this week when it was learned that Volunteer Nurse Maureen Baksh-Griffin had been chosen to receive The American Red Cross Jane Delano Student Nurse Scholarship Award. The Scholarship Fund awards only three scholarships to nursing students across the country who have contributed volunteer service to a Red Cross unit.

Baksh-Griffin is presently a registered nurse working on her doctorate in Homeland Security Nursing at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. “I am so honored and grateful to the Chattanooga American Red Cross for nominating me for this scholarship award. It comes at just the right time for me to be able to complete my studies,” she said.

CRC Chief Executive Officer Barbara Alexander noted, “We are thrilled to have such an amazing nurse volunteering for the Red Cross.

And it is only fitting that she be one of only three people in the nation to be awarded this special honor for her work in Homeland Security Nursing. Maureen is a prime example of the outstanding volunteers we are fortunate to have working with our chapter.”

Baksh-Griffin added, “Along with what I am learning as a disaster volunteer for the CRC, I am also learning how to coordinate and administer global disaster nursing. I plan to help create and implement a comprehensive plan for disaster preparedness administration and education, tailored to the Chattanooga area.

For a city of its size, Chattanooga is a unique place because it has a large corporate presence and the people are very sober minded and serious about developing a comprehensive plan for disaster preparedness in business as well as in our schools. I hope to help Chattanooga become a role model for other cities as an example of a well-prepared community.”

Baksh-Griffin is currently employed by the Erlanger Emergency Unit. She relocated to Chattanooga from New York City, along with her mother and two sons in August of 2009. Baksh-Griffin was inspired to pursue a nursing career after her brother was killed in Tower One of the World Trade Center on 9/11. “My brother was beginning his first day of work in client services for a large insurance

company in Tower One. He was on one of the impact floors,” and she is thankful that, “Our last words to each other were, ‘I love you’.”

Local Hooters Waitress Featured In Calendar Hooters fans in the Chattanooga area now have another great reason to visit their neighborhood Hooters restaurant. Local Hooters Girl Tabitha Gilley from Hooters of Chattanooga will be featured in the 2011 Hooters Calendar, the 25th annual edition of the calendar.

Gilley was selected from more than 20,000 Hooters Girls currently working in 460 Hooters restaurants worldwide. She is featured in the Military Calendar Poster in the Hooters Calendar.

This year’s 25th Anniversary edition features a double-sided cover and a special section dedicated to the military. This is the sixth year that Hooters has rolled out a program called Operation Calendar Drop, which supports the troops overseas. Customers can purchase a calendar, sign a note of appreciation to an unknown serviceman or woman and Hooters will send it out to a designated base to boost morale during the holidays.

Here is one of the more interesting agenda items set to be discussed at the Tuesday, November 2 meeting of the Chattanooga City Council.

7. Resolutions: c) MR-2010-064 City of Chattanooga c/o Dan Thornton. A resolution authorizing the acceptance of a donation of property from JH Holdings located at 1144 Gas Street, more particularly described herein, and authorizing the Director of General Services to execute any and all documents necessary relating thereto.

This resolution was deferred from the October 18 meeting, largely due to the fact that no address for the property could be located in a GIS map search. This is one of the weird aspects of government, as it is obvious the property does exists, and that Dan Thornton does indeed want to donate the property to the city, but according to the government’s own records, nothing is there.

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 agenda and minutes from past meetings, visit www.

Chattanooga.gov/City_Council/110_Agenda.asp

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Five Questions

By Gary Poole

The Politics Of Policing O

fficer Phil Grubb is President of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, Local 673, which represents a good percentage of officers within the Chattanooga Police Department. As part of his responsibilities with the union, Officer Grubb regularly attends city council meetings and works directly with the council members on issues relevant to the department, most especially how officers are treated.

While there has been some recent good news for the department, notably in the form of a federal grant to help fund a second police academy, there are still many pressing—and often vexing—issues and problems facing the department and the rank-and-file officers who work the streets. Officer Grubb took time out of his busy schedule to sit down with The Pulse and answer five questions.

1) What would you say is the number-one issue facing the department right now?

There are several issues that we are concerned about.

The pay is the big one because, besides the obvious reasons, it also hurts the city as far as officer retention.

Officers come here to get some of the best police training around and then once they get their state certification and a little bit of experience, they leave and go to another department making a lot more money. And they usually have to deal with a lot less crime and problems from the mayor and city council.

2) Aside from lower pay rates, what other pay issues have become a problem?

The city has just elected to cut out our overtime, or at least make it next to impossible to earn any overtime. In

the past the city paid overtime (at timeand-a-half) for anything over 40 hours a week. Now the city has decided to go

by FSLA guidelines, which put us on a 28-day pay cycle. But instead of paying overtime for anything over 160 hours (the equivalent of 40 hours a week), we now have to work 171 hours before we get paid overtime.

The city tries to say that this is necessary because it is federal law, but it is not. FSLA is a federal standard, which means that this is the absolute worst treatment that the city can impose on its employees and get away with legally. Now on top of that, keep in mind that police officers do not get off on holidays or weekends. The department does not close down like the private sector.

We also do not get holiday pay, though we do get personal days that are supposed to compensate us for not being allowed to spend the holidays with our families.

According to the FSLA standards that the city elected to go by, if we use one personal day (8 hours) then instead of the extra 11 hours at straight pay, we will have to work 19 extra hours at straight pay plus lose the personal time that we took. So, we are being punished for taking our personal time that we have earned.

3) One of the more recent changes is how the city deals with health insurance for retirees. What has changed there?

Before the changes, this was a benefit that brought people to the department. Once you retired you were able to keep the same insurance.

Now when we reach 65, we lose our city insurance and we

“They now want to charge us for the take-home cars, while at the same time, the mayor and his staff get $400 a month for travel.”

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have to depend on Medicaid. We all know how bad that is. Also, I am three years older than my wife, so when I reach 65 I lose my insurance and she will be uninsured (when she needs insurance the most) until she reaches 65.

4) What happened with the career development program that was supposed to equalize pay rates and help attract new officers to the city?

The program is just screwed up. I don’t even know where to start with that. It was a program that was started by the mayor’s people with no thought or reason at all put into it. Shortly after the program was started, it was stopped because the city “ran out of money”. When the program was stopped it left officers scattered all over the pay range. This led to several EEOC violations and the city was about to be hit with a federal lawsuit. This is what caused the city to move forward and fix the pay anomaly for the sergeants and up. This same anomaly still exists at the patrol level.

5) And finally, much has been made in the news and in council meetings about take-home cars. What’s the latest there?

The mayor’s office has been trying to get our cars forever, as you well know. They now want to charge us for the take-home cars, while at the same time, the mayor and his staff get $400 a month for travel. They get $400 a month and we will have to pay. The other option is that we park the cars, which is what they wanted to start with. Now they will say, “We didn’t take the cars from the police, they decided to give the cars up.” The amount that the city wants to charge for the cars will be more than what some of the car payments are. The disservice that this will do to the citizens has been discussed over and over.

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Beyond The Headlines

Some Really GOOD Ideas

By Phillip Johnston

“Chattanooga is one of three finalists in a project called City R+D, an effort to inspire civic innovators to further reinvent and develop the cities they call home.”

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L

ast week, it was announced by GOOD Magazine out of Los Angeles, California that Chattanooga was one of three finalists in a project called City R+D, the magazine’s effort to inspire civic innovators to further reinvent and develop the cities they call home.

The other two cities in the running are San Francisco, California and Jersey City, New Jersey. The winner will be announced next week at GOOD’s web site.

Earlier this year, GOOD, which celebrates the efforts of individuals, businesses, and nonprofits in pushing the world forward, announced City R+D to encourage the proliferation of local, actionable solutions in

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 43 | October 28, 2010 | www.chattanoogapulse.com

cities, towns, and suburbs. Taking the reins for Chattanooga’s City R+D event in August was CreateHere, the well-known nonprofit located on Main Street.

CreateHere’s participation in City R+D was driven by some of the major findings of last summer’s Stand survey: that Chattanooga’s citizens are worried about pollution, traffic, congestion and other issues of growth. These concerns have become more prominent in recent months in light of the new Volkswagen plant at Enterprise South.

Exploring connectivity between Chattanooga’s urban core and the emerging center of commerce at Enterprise South was the goal of Chattanooga’s City R+D. The event offered a full day for a handpicked group of business and nonprofit professionals, civic leaders, artists, and architects to gather together to think about how these two invaluable places might be better connected.

City R+D was a success by the time lunch arrived, as this diverse assembly of bright Chattanooga minds began the day by traveling to the Enterprise South Fire Department via highway, bike, and public transportation routes. Many participants experienced their city—its problems and opportunities—with fresh eyes.

Armed with maps, pictures, and notes from the morning’s journey, the City R+D team returned to CreateHere for an afternoon of planning and idea sharing.

Four potentially transformative ideas for the future of connectivity between downtown Chattanooga and Enterprise South were the result.

One City R+D brought together

representatives from TDOT and Main Street Bike Co-Op to discuss the addition of a bike lane that would enable a convenient bike commute from downtown Chattanooga to Enterprise South. Because of the increase in traffic due to the presence of industry, increased bike awareness has proven very necessary.

Another group proposed a throwback to an existing but unused light rail line. With the addition of a few new stops on the CARTA bus system and further overlap with the expanding Chattanooga Greenways walking/ biking path system, it is conceivable to use existing rail-line tracks to create a “car-free” network of multi-modal transportation throughout the city.

The other two of the four City R+D results pertain to the animation of public space. One group proposed a public-art ribbon to bring more attention to the neighborhoods in East Chattanooga that connect downtown and Enterprise South. The final group discussed and envisioned in detail the creative use of parking lots as a place for local vendors to do business and for other organizations to host events and functions.

While Chattanooga has a rich history of public planning and civic action, this particular civic muscle always stands in danger of atrophy. City R+D was a chance for a group of passionate Chattanoogans to remember that a city is greater when citizens work together across disciplines on common issues.

For more information about City R+D and CreateHere, visit CreateHere.org. For the final results of City R+D, keep an eye on GOOD.is.

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.

• One can generally tell the “police officer” is not a real officer when they flash a badge and then demand you hand over your wallet. An earlymorning robbery Sunday on Willow Street has Chattanooga police looking for suspects posing as police officers. Patrol officers responded just after 3 a.m. and spoke to three victims who described two suspects; one with a knife and the other with a gun who initially told them that they were police. They showed the victims a gold-and-black badge—then demanded their wallets. After taking their wallets, money and cell phones, the suspects fled on foot. Chattanooga police are encouraging citizens to be cautious when out in secluded and dimly lit areas, especially late at night.

• Police will often tell you the easiest part of their job of catching criminals is that most of them are far from being criminal masterminds. Property crimes detectives with the Chattanooga Police Department were busy last week after receiving several calls on reported robberies. Fortunately for detectives,

there was a common thread with all of the reports. Victims of the robberies told police that a suspect robbed them at gunpoint and left in a silver Chevy HHR. When police arrived at a South Willow Street address to talk with the man who rented the vehicle, he was wearing the same clothes described by several of the robbery victims in the robberies.

He was arrested for several robberies as well as filing a false report in the theft of the rental vehicle.

• One of the more common complaints people have about police officers, especially when they’ve been pulled over for a traffic violation, is “Why aren’t you out catching the real criminals?” A busy two-day warrant operation last week with law enforcement officials from the Hamilton County Sheriff ’s Office, the Chattanooga Police Department and the Tennessee Department of Probation and Parole did just that. The operation primarily focused on individuals who had outstanding warrants related to property crimes, failure to appear in court and domestic assaults. All told, 60 people were arrested and 121 warrants were served. Better yet, a fugitive who had been indicted on a first-degree

The List Top Ten Horror Films, Adjusted For Inflation

murder charge for a July homicide was also captured.

• And from the “you can run but you cannot hide” file comes the story of a man who picked a rather unusual place to try and hide from the law. An unregistered sex offender was captured in Rocky Face, Georgia last week...hiding in a tree house. Several anonymous tips led officials to an abandoned property on Railroad Street near Old Chattanooga Road in Rocky Face. Which is where officers found the man, who was wanted on warrants for failure to register as a sex offender, aggravated assault, giving a false name and violating his probation.

1. The Exorcist (1973), $686,631,452 2. The Amityville Horror (1979), $213,841,738 3. What Lies Beneath (2000), $179,115,699 4. The Omen (1976), $177,620,519 5. The Blair Witch Project (1999), $171,800,749 6. The Ring (2002), $137,432,001 7. Halloween (1978), $124,730,769 8. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), $123,601,446 9. Sleepy Hollow (1999), $123,550,077 10. Haunting (1999), $111,473,051 If you’re looking for a good scary movie to rent this weekend, nothing beats Linda Blair and a good bowl of split pea soup. Just remember to keep at least one light on while watching.

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Cover Story

Steaming Into The Future Past Story by Gary Poole • Photography by Stephen Chapman

Halloween comes this weekend, a holiday

once all about the celebration of childhood and candy that has become as much, if not more, a holiday for adults. The number of costume parties being thrown, be they at a private home, the office or at a local nightclub, seems to increase every year. So, for the discerning costumer, what is the one costume you can wear that will set you apart from everyone else?

While many adults will stick with the standards— vampires, zombies, superheroes, naughty nurses, pirates, French maids, etc.—a trend that has been growing rapidly over the past several years within science fiction fandom has started breaking out in the mainstream. Mix Victorian-style clothing with gadgetry reminiscent of movies such as 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and Wild Wild West, combine it with a love of top hats and goggles, and you have what is known as steampunk.

While it looks fantastic, if you are looking for lastminute ideas for a costume for the big party this weekend, you’d be much better served heading to a local costume shop and renting or buying something, as steampunk is not something you can get off the rack. It requires a lot of time, a lot of work, and a whole lot of creativity. But be warned, once you start down the steampunk path, chances are you’ll be hooked immediately.

Stephen Chapman is an engineer by trade and one of the leading “combat roboticists” in the Southeast. Several years ago, after competing in a robotic competition at an Atlanta science fiction convention, he met with several “steamers”, as steampunk aficionados are known, and found a new hobby. But what exactly is steampunk?

Chapman explains that it is based on the mindset of Victorian-era science fiction, focusing on incredible creations with Victorian style. “Of course, the easiest link to make is reference to movies and literature,” he says. “The difficult chore is describing steampunk to someone mired in ‘mundania’ who just doesn’t understand why you do it. Most are hungry to know more once the light turns on.”

Chad Taylor runs a company called T. Force

Fabrications, which makes a lot of steampunk props and gadgets. He got his start in steampunk much as Chapman did—by discovering the steamers at a science fiction convention. “I noticed theses ‘tinkerers’ if you will, milling about the dealer halls and costuming events with these huge weapons and gadgets that looked as if Doc Brown from Back to the Future himself come back and had made them,” Taylor remembers.

“I was absolutely blown away. I immersed myself into this world to only find out that I do indeed have an obsessive need to make and build amazing ideas and to take things to a new level.”

What really hooked Taylor is that steampunk is different from costumer to costumer. “It has its own flair, based upon what that person feels or sees,” notes Taylor. “Steampunk separates itself because of its personal relation to its enthusiasts. Steampunk feeds on the creative genius and basic ideas of the creator, leaving that person happy and excited to have made something unique of their own and brought to life.”

John Strangeway grew up with a love for the “Star Wars” movies, and at the age of 17 decided to make a costume based on the bounty hunter Boba Fett out of aluminum, cardboard and Styrofoam and wear it to a convention. “It was good for what it was,” he says. “But for my next costume, I wanted to be professional. So

“The difficult chore is describing steampunk to someone mired in ‘mundania’ who just doesn’t understand why you do it. Most are hungry to know more once the light turns on.”

that’s when I had an idea to do a steampunk Boba Fett. I contacted Penny Dreadful Productions, commissioned them to make the suit, and the rest is history.”

And history it was, as Strangeway’s Boba Fett not only became very popular, but also is part of a new wave of steampunk costumes based around classic film, television and comic book characters. “To me, it’s a huge fashion style,” he notes. “Take the classic Victorian-era aesthetic, and apply it to any facet in our current time period. Or travel back in time. To me, there is no set bible, but the main recognizable feature is the Victorian style. This also flows over into the individual hand craftsmanship of any piece. It’s people taking existing materials and giving them their own unique touch, or fabricating new designs and concepts while adhering to the style of steampunk.”

That’s not to say that one needs an engineering degree or be a master costumer to get involved. Brittani Revels admits she had no background in costuming other than the usual Halloween costuming enjoyment, though she does note that Halloween was a major holiday in her family. “My interest in steampunk was drawn through the sheer mechanics of it, even though I have no grasp on actual machinery,” she explains. “A good friend was actually the one to encourage me to step into the costuming aspect of the genre.”

According to Chapman, one of the difficulties of

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Cover Story “Steampunkers are bound together by a drive to know more about the target era and to socialize with other likeminded souls. Discussions are marked by extreme politeness and civility, like bathing in positive reinforcement.” explaining steampunk is that it resists detailed definition. “Movies that are generally considered to have a steampunk flavor include Wild Wild West, The Golden Compass, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea,” he says. “I would include the written works of H.G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs as core steampunk references.

The TV series Warehouse 13 has a definite steampunk influence, as well.”

Revels explains that much of steampunk lies in the visual. “I would describe it as an artistic style drawing influences from Victorian clothing, machinery, jewelry, etc., meshing it together with fantastical technological ideas,” she says. “There are countless books, bands, movies, and so forth that are heavily influenced by or heavily influence the steampunk community. A quick Google search can find page after page.”

Taylor agrees. “Comics and graphic novels such as Gotham by Gaslight by Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola, and Hell Boy by Mike Mignolia are a fantastic source for those looking for the genre.”

And it’s not just movies and comics—there is also a musical aspect to the genre.

“Abney Park and Dr. Steel are the most recognizable steampunk bands,” notes Strangeway. “And steampunk can even be found in anime with examples such as SteamBoy and Samurai 7.”

Strangeway further explains that while steampunk does fit well into the sciencefiction genre, it really has become its own core sub-genre. “It pulls from influences like Jules Verne and H.P. Lovecraft and sticks with the elements of alternate futuristic technology from the past,” he says. “The main time period is from the early 1800s leading up to World War One, with the most recognizable being either the American West or Victorian

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London. However, this does not limit the rest of the world. That time period happened everywhere, and more people are researching the fashions of that day and age in other countries.”

“No one mistakes steampunk for Victorian fact or modern-era fiction,” adds Chapman. “Steampunkers are bound together by a drive to know more about the target era and to socialize with other like-minded souls. Discussions are marked by extreme politeness and civility, like bathing in positive reinforcement. I like steampunk because of the freedom of expression it offers the enthusiast; each character or persona you create is original and yours alone. It is collaboration with others, not a competition. I have always been fascinated with steam and 19thcentury machines, but what really hooked me into steampunk were the cool gadgets.”

Ah, yes, the gadgets. According to Chapman, the first law of steampunk props is that there shall be a presumption of functionality, which is what got his imagination working on overdrive. After years of building highly competitive combat robots, he changed his focus to building props that looked as realistic as possible. “I started building ray guns, clockwork binoculars, steam sabers, brass goggles, etc. and I am still going strong.

I have to sell some of my creations at a steampunk gallery just to make room for more at my home.”

However, there is a lot more to steampunk than just costuming, whether it’s at a science fiction convention or a Halloween party. “There are gatherings, usually at locations providing suitable backdrops for photo ops or suitable libations,” Chapman explains. “A steampunk picnic in the park is just a delight to the senses. I am in the planning stage of a visit to a transportation museum

Cover Story

Where To Go If you are interested in attending a nearby science fiction convention and learning more about steampunk, here are some coming up in the near future that are good places to make connections.

HallowCon October 29-31 Super 8 Convention Center Dalton, GA www.hallowcon.com

complete with a working roundhouse and steam engines that should result in a wonderful series of pictures.”

Strangeway says the community aspect of steampunk is a major part of the attraction. “It’s one of the few communities that I have come across where there is a whole sense of unity, and people reach out across the world to connect with one another and share ideas,” he says. “In Atlanta, for example, there is a Steampunk community called Terminus Steam. They coordinate meet ups in local pubs or outings at parks. They have held picnics at Piedmont Park or gatherings at the Botanical Gardens as well as Oakland Cemetery.”

So, if steampunk has grabbed your imagination, the next question is how to get involved. Chapman, Taylor and Strangeway are all enthusiastic about seeing new people come into the community. Chapman notes that the Steampunk Empire and Brass Goggles online communities are very popular.

“YouTube is another excellent online reference for costuming and cool gadgets,” says Chapman. “Attend any sci-fi fantasy convention and start a dialogue with any steamer about their costume. Most are happy to explain their views and give advice.”

Taylor seconds the notion about attending a convention (such

as HallowCon this weekend or January’s Chattacon). “You can search the web looking at all the unique and diverse creation in existence and read the book and comics that are out, but you will never get as much of a ‘in your face’ thrill as when you attend a major convention and you see the amazing ‘punks’ and their technological feats in their world of play,” he explains.

“Steampunk interests me with its unending unique possibilities.

You can recreate or even bring your own story and character to life. But most of all, I love the gizmos and gadgets that everyone brings to the table.”

Revels adds that one of the main attractions of steampunk to her are the people and the ability to truly let her imagination run wild. “The fact that there are no true rigid standards to the way things ‘must be done’ makes it one of the more free-formed costuming genres that I have been interested and participated in.”

So while there is not enough time before this weekend to put together a convincing steampunk costume, you do have plenty of time (and plenty of resources online) to get started on Halloween 2011. Just don’t be surprised if you get hooked and start making your own gadgets.

Chattacon January 21-23 Chattanooga Choo Choo Chattanooga, TN www.chattacon.org ConNooga February 18-20 Chattanooga Choo Choo Chattanooga, TN www.connooga.com AnachroCon February 25-27 Holiday Inn Select Perimeter Atlanta, GA www.anachrocon.com MomoCon March 12-13 Georgia Tech Atlanta, GA www.momocon.com

www.chattanoogapulse.com | Octber 28, 2010 | Vol. 7, Issue 43 | The Pulse

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Cover Story

No Science In Steam?

“I’m a science fiction author. I don’t dislike

steampunk. I hate steampunk.”

So says New York Times bestselling author John Ringo, a Chattanooga resident. Ringo, who specializes in military and hard-science fiction novels, is well known within the science fiction community for his disdain of steampunk.

“While there’s the word ‘fiction’ in science fiction, there is also a word that many people, especially anyone associated with steampunk, seems not to recognize: Science. And I’m not talking ‘debatable’ science; I’m talking about the stuff that was well known and understood when the writers that steampunk draws upon (Verne and Wells mostly) were writing. Physics.

Chemistry. Science. Reality.”

Ringo maintains that steampunk is part of a generalized movement in American and European culture away from hard realities and science and towards fantasy and wish fulfillment. One of the biggest aspects of steampunk fantasy is the use of airships.

“Airships are a stone bitch to drive in anything but the most placid air conditions. The slightest wind and they are all over the sky. The skill level to drive them, even under the best conditions, far and away exceeds heavier-than-air flight and the maintenance on them is truly atrocious,” he points out.

“When I see steampunk depictions of airships in ‘formation’ (you know, the way airplanes and helicopters fly all the time) I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Any such formation is a Hindenburg

disaster times a hundred waiting to happen. And don’t even get me started on the mechanics of trying to DOCK two airships in flight!”

He also has issues with the steampunk movement itself, which he describes as elitist.

“Steampunkers like to say that ‘everyone dressed properly to fly in the old days.’ By which they mean that men wore suits and women wore dresses. Know why? Because it was enormously expensive to fly a zeppelin, and only the ‘suits’ could afford it!”

He really feels that the appeal of steampunk is about form over function, about fantasy over reality. “Can someone explain to me how you have a coal-fired submarine?

There is no way to have a coal-driven submarine. OK, maybe if you also have fricking HUGE oxygen tanks.”

But it’s not just the bad science of fantasy wish fulfillment for Ringo.

“A comedian recently went off about how ‘everything is

“Good science fiction looks to a brighter future, a better tomorrow. Steampunk clings to a rather uncomfortable and distinctly unpleasant past.”

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great and nobody’s happy.’ Good science fiction looks to a brighter future, a better tomorrow. Steampunk clings to a rather uncomfortable and distinctly unpleasant past.

“The reason that Victorians wore capes and deerstalkers was to have some coverage from the elements since they walked everywhere. And pea-soup fogs? That was from the smog from coal fires! Want really bad smog? Have coal fires! Ask the old-timers in Chattanooga about what coal smog and dew are like on your car’s finish.

“We have enough problems with other countries exceeding us in science and technology. Wrapping our society around fantasy and Luddism is not going to help that trend. And there is nothing, absolutely NOTHING romantic about coal as the primary source of home heating for an entire city. Nothing.”

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On The Beat

By Alex Teach

Haunted House I

t was definitely that time of year.

The wind blew more crumpled sale ads and empty potato chip bags than leaves, but it was still appropriately creepy, and we were still going into this spook house.

“Movement caught my eye, and I saw a humanoid shadow creep across the wall midway up the stairwell and we backed off to assess our next move, however violent or silent.”

The path to the house was treacherous enough, weeds and grass covering the concrete that once cut a clear path to the door, and the porch was covered with discarded wet carpet rolls and a cheap lounger chair with Naugahyde that had been there long enough for flora and fauna to take root and bloom from its crevices.

Mustiness flowed from it despite the wind to my back, and that brand of rot always had a special place in my heart. Rotting flesh had its own secure file in my mind, but mustiness…I had a small but irrational fear of it I could never put a finger on. “Wet rot”: the smell and texture combined seemed to gross me out, but never mind; I moved past those things, and directly to the door that hung agape in front of me. My partner moved to my right on the other side of it.

I announced my entrance and hearing no response, shoved the door open wide with my foot. My partner covered the angles I could not, and I reflexively returned the favor; he slid inside the door first and I quickly When Officer Alexander D. Teach is not followed, quietly flooding the room like water, patrolling our fair city on the heels of as we were trained. the criminal element, he is an occasional I didn’t see any monsters right away, but I student, carpenter, boating enthusiast, and did see a pile of empty prescription bottles in spends his spare time volunteering for the the center of the floor next to a spot where Boehm Birth Defects Center. To contact someone had built a small fire for warmth him directtly, follow him on Facebook at that had scored the under flooring, yet www.facebook.com/alex.teach

somehow left the house intact. On the other side was a makeshift bed and a blanket that was dry, unlike the cushion below it. More trash blew across the floor from the open door behind me, and we moved on.

We eased past an empty kitchen and down a hallway that inconveniently had a set of stairs halfway down it, which was a bitch to cover with so many other exposures for monsters to be hiding in up and down the hall. We had to check them all, though… there was no one else to help.

Not one room was either lit well or empty (or dry). The first one had walls covered in crude crayon drawings of landscapes accented by mildew creeping up from the baseboards, and I could barely see the darkened closet door swinging open slowly as something moved out of it with barely perceptible movement, which I quickly dubbed The Luckiest Rat To Be Alive at that second, since it came closer than it will ever know to a hollow-point .45 caliber slug being put through it. Only the thought of me having to live that down had I shot at it made me smile.

The remaining two rooms down the hall were empty and my partner and I finally prepared to head up the stairs to clear the next floor; I had gotten my left foot on the first step up when I heard another sound that was much larger than a rat…even for the East Side.

Movement caught my eye, and I saw a humanoid shadow creep across the wall midway up the stairwell and we backed off to assess our next move, however violent or silent. I trained my gun sights on the anticipated area of arrival and began giving verbal challenges (cop-talk for saying

“POLICE! Show me your hands, f%*@^!!”) when the figure shuffled forward just into view as if she hadn’t heard us, her knotted grey hair framing her open-mouthed, slackjawed expression that almost distracted you from the fact she was wearing nothing but a soiled nightgown that had been on for what appeared to be years. Only in East Chattanooga: It was a real zombie.

We walked her back out and sat her in the back of one of our cars (OK…mine, but don’t think I’m soft), and waited on an ambulance to arrive to check her out before we worked out placement into definitive care for her. She was a discarded human, too inconvenient to care for, but not important enough to be checked on by regular family despite age and accompanying dementia, but she was ours now and I’d make sure she was OK. (It happens.)

The ambulance ended up transporting her and we went back inside, past the same lounger and pile of pill bottles, but despite finding the Undead earlier I wasn’t any more wound up than before; the only “really” scary thing about these haunted houses were the toilets, and I’d long since learned not to look directly into their eye, no matter the compulsion to do so. We crept back up the stairs, guns again pointed upward and to the sides…

I don’t love “Haunted Houses”, but that’s because I see them every day…how thrilling could they be after a while? But unlike your Halloween trips, I get to attack my attackers… and my haunted houses operate from November to September, as well as October.

Happy Halloween. (In the month of May, in this case.)

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Music Feature

Boogie in Your Bones I

love October. I love Halloween. I love costumes.

By Tara Morris-Viland

“We are going for the shock factor. It is going to be breathtaking and go above and beyond anything we’ve done before.”

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I love the opportunity to buy $2 color spray that stains my hair pink longer then it should and the only reason I agreed to this childbirth thing was so I could have another excuse to go trick or treating.

Hooray for Halloween! If you haven’t figured out your plans for Halloween weekend, then you can thank me later for letting you in on this “little” party they call BoneYard Boogie. Started by all those rock stars at JMJ and Gemini Productions, BoneYard Boogie earned its sea legs four years ago in East Ridge and has grown in size (and gore) every year.

This will be my first year attending and veterans a-plenty have been howling the tempting buzz of years before. I hear that illfavored word “epic’—and as I hate the word too, it seems there is really no other way to describe what is going down on the Southside October 29th and 30th. (Trust me, I Googled it.)

This year’s event will have lights bigger then Widespread Panic, bands and artists of local and national flair, and prove to be the most wicked party Chattanooga has seen for a while.

With four acts each night, DJs spinning inbetween sets making sure the music doesn’t stop and our own local man-about-town, Sparkz, hosting the show, this throwdown will provide an elixir that would get even the angriest torch-wielding mob dancing.

Friday night, after some of our favorite local

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 43 | October 28, 2010 | www.chattanoogapulse.com

bands, Protomen will take the stage. Out of Nashville, this 10-piece American rock band is known for their outlandish costumes and Daft Punk-like presence. They create “rock-n-roll fables”, introducing a dark underlying story to the popular NES video game Mega Man and its cult-like following. Protomen have played CapCom’s booth at the San Diego Comic Con, two shows at the CMJ Music Marathon, SXSW, and in 2009 competed and won the chance to play Bonnaroo.

As Friday proves to be more of a bandthemed night, Saturday will host a slew of DJs that will live out every drum-n-bass kid’s dreams and induce an ex-raver’s flashbacks.

Headlining Saturday is the duo Signal Path of Colorado. They have toured heavily in North America, and their viral success led them to share their melodic intense sound with the masses and also here with us, making a special flight just to be at BoneYard Boogie.

Each band and performer has been working on original material specifically for these shows and you will be surprised by the collaborations taking place. Along with the musical attributes, fire hoops, glowsticks, heels and ghouls will take over for two evenings of fright and hysteria.

As far as the venue, I was not even able to check it out as they have kept it very hushhush. This will be the first time something of this magnitude has hit the newly named Creative Vision’s Event Hall, located at the end of Rossville Avenue. The 1,300-square -foot warehouse will provide indoor and outdoor areas, a spooky open vibe, and plenty of room to show off that life-size unicorn costume you’ve been holding out on.

Speaking of those life-size unicorns, costumes are required. Costume contests

will be held each night and the winners will win $200. There will also be a group contest offering gift certificates to establishments all over the Scenic City. If you need inspiration, I would like to see a flock of seagulls or invasion of aliens (the space kind). But that’s just me.

The street will be blocked off, and while a few parking spaces will be near the CV Hall, the great people at the Choo-Choo will help provide parking for the more than 1,000 attendees. Shuttles will be provided to and from the parking deck, or you can take that leisurely stroll. If parking among all the booze and monsters isn’t your thing, then as always remember our city’s fine cab providers and the always-timely idea of a designated driver. If you really want to slither in style, then gather up that flock of seagulls and rent a limo. Anyone arriving in a limo (and of course picking me up first) will get V.I.P. No waiting in line.

Summing up: What we can expect this Halloween weekend at Boneyard Boogie 2010?Justin Casey of JMJ Productions told me,“We are going for the shock factor. It is going to be breathtaking and go above and beyond anything we’ve done before.”

For a full line-up and all ticket info, swerve over to www.jmjpresents.com.

All in all, brace yourself for a witchin’ good time.

Happy Halloween!

BoneYard Boogie Collective Visions Event Hall 1925 Rossville Avenue www.jmjpresents.com Friday, October 29 and Saturday, October 30 8 p.m. to 3 a.m.

18 to enter. 21 to drink.

New Music Reviews

By Ernie Paik

Belle and Sebastian

Laetitia Sadier

Write about Love

The Trip

(Matador)

(Drag City)

I remember listening to the Scottish band Belle and Sebastian for the first time—the album If You’re Feeling Sinister, to be exact—and thinking that it was OK. Years later, I’m still baffled by my initial lukewarm reaction; it took a few listens for the album to really sink in with me, and now I find it hard to imagine that I ever regarded it as anything less than a masterpiece. Belle and Sebastian primarily features the songwriting talents of member Stuart Murdoch, meshed with musical arrangements with a great deal of taste and finesse, often evoking a perfect wistful mood; the band’s world is a world of bookish, misunderstood loners, teenage rebels, and fumbling romantics.

The title of the group’s latest album, Write about Love, functions as a command as well as a statement, and on the title track, actress Carey Mulligan provides guest vocals, singing brightly about escaping her soul-crushing desk job by fantasizing, in lyrical form, about her dream guy: “He’s intellectual and he’s hot…but he understands.”

Equally unexpectedly, Norah Jones makes an appearance, lending her gliding, sultry voice to duet with Murdoch on “Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John”; it’s another song about fictitious beaus, calmly and pensively contemplating regretted lost chances, with the title referring to “the history of boys I invent in my head.”

The opening salvo is the album’s peak, with memorable, syncopated melodies and the girl/boy vocal interplay of Sarah Martin with Murdoch on “I Didn’t See It Coming,” followed by the equally catchy “Come on Sister”—two numbers that are as strong as Belle and Sebastian’s best moments. There are no huge stylistic departures here, with certain charming details that poke their heads out, like a twangy guitar or nostalgic keyboard outbursts. Although it’s growing on me, Write about Love doesn’t immediately have that “instant classic” quality that several other Belle and Sebastian albums have, but the subtleties and lyrical secrets reveal themselves gradually, calling for repeated visits.

The British band Stereolab, which infused an insider knowledge of avant-garde music with a love of analog synths into its pop/rock music, announced last year that after 19 years, it would be going on hiatus. This was disappointing news, since Stereolab was both prolific and rewarding, finding new ways to be simultaneously creative and purposefully derivative. Previous to this, lead singer Laetitia Sadier already had her own non-Stereolab output channel, the group Monade, and on her first official solo album, The Trip, Sadier covers similar territory, with some diversions; she employs two different lineups of backing musicians, recording in both Oregon and the United Kingdom, with guest vocalists April March and Rebecca Gates from Spinanes.

The album has a promising start with “One Million Year Trip,” which uses a simple yet effective rhythm section hook underneath Sadier’s vocal harmonizing; a tight delay effect provides a futuristic sheen, and present is the familiar and satisfying momentum and minimalism of Stereolab. While Stereolab frequently borrowed elements from other artists, they only recorded a few straight-up cover songs; here, Sadier indulges herself with three covers, including “By the Sea” by Wendy & Bonnie, the teen sisters who made breezy psychedelic pop in the late-’60s; while not as gentle as the original, it retains certain traces of tenderness and turns the number into a more propulsive song.

The most uncharacteristic sounds on the album are on Sadier’s take of “Un Soir, Un Chien,” originally by Les Rita Mitsouko, with an ’80s synth-lounge-pop sophistication that brings to mind Ryuichi Sakamoto. A minimal, two-minute version of “Summertime,” the Porgy and Bess standard, helps close out the album, with a reverbdrenched piano, synthetic glissandos, and other sparse details. Although there are artificial moments, The Trip seems to have a more human element to it than a typical Stereolab album, mindful of flow, and taking time to build and release, away from being blindly methodical and driving.

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Music Calendar Thursday Spotlight

Glossary Feral Fire is this Murfreeboro-based band’s latest release. $7 10 p.m.

JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK. Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

On Facebook as JJ’s Bohemia.

Thursday Jimmy Harris 6:30 p.m. The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd., #202. (423) 499-5055. www.thepalmsathamilton.com Dirty Lungs, Black Painter 9 p.m. Discoteca, 304 E. Main St. (423) 386-3066.

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

(423) 499-5055.

The Dirty South: A Local Tribute To The Drive By Truckers 9:30 p.m. Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St. (423) 267-4644. www.rhythm-brews.com Glossary 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

Find them on Facebook SOULEDOUT! Classic and Modern Soul with DJ K7 10 p.m. The Social (next to Public House), 1110 Market St., Ste. 101.

Soul Sessions 10 p.m. Table 2, 232 E. 11th St. (423) 756-8253. www.table2restaurant.com

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Friday Spotlight

Friday Johnny Cash Tribute Band 5 p.m. Chattanooga Choo Choo Victorian Lounge, 1400 Market St. (423) 266-5000.

Ben Friberg Trio 6 p.m. Table 2, 232 E. 11th St. (423) 756-8253. www.table2restaurant.com Jimmy Harris 6:30 p.m. The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd., #202. (423) 499-5055.

A.J. Valcarcel’s Bitter Lesson 7 p.m. Blue Orleans Creole Restaurant, 3208 Amnicola Hwy. (423) 629-6538. blueorleanscreolerestaurant.com

The World Alive, Between 2 Seas, Axiom, My Friend The Captain, Dispel The Serpent’s Lie 7:30 p.m. The Warehouse, 5716 Ringgold Rd. myspace.com/warehousetn Renee Mixon 8 p.m. Southside Saloon & Bistro, 1301 Chestnut St. (423) 757-4730. southsidesaloonandbistro.com Stoneline Halloween Bash 8 p.m. Magoo’s Restaurant, 3658 Ringgold Rd. (423) 867-1351.

BoneYard Boogie 8 p.m. Collective Visions Event Hall, 1925 Rossville Ave. www.jmjpresents.com Sweet N Lowdown 8:30 p.m. The Foundry, 1201 South Broad St. (423) 756-3400. www.chattanooganhotel.com

Scotty Cram 9 p.m. Raw, 409 Market St. (423) 756-1919. www.myspace.com/jstriker Little Teeth, Afusche 9 p.m. Discoteca, 304 E. Main St. (423) 386-3066.

Husky Burnette 9 p.m. Champy’s Chicken, 526 E. Martin Luther King. (423) 752-9198. www.champyschicken.com Dana Rogers 9 p.m. The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd.. #202.

(423) 499-5055.

Downstream 9 p.m. Bart’s Lakeshore, 5600 Lakeshore Dr. (423) 870-0777. www.bartslakeshore.com Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs, Heypenny, Crystal Thomas 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

Strong Like Horse 10 p.m. Tremont Tavern, 1203 Hixson Pike. (423) 266-1996. www.tremonttavern.com Slippery When Wet: A Tribute To Bon Jovi w/ Rock Daddy 10 p.m. Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St. (423) 267-4644.

Scent of Remains, Sturgeons Revelations, Uncle Touchy 10 p.m. Ziggy’s Hideaway, 607 Cherokee Blvd.

(423) 756-4786. myspace.com/ziggyshideaway Bounty Hunter 10 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878. www.budssportsbar.com

BoneYard Boogie with Opposite Box, Protomen First night of the two-night Halloween blowout. $20 8 p.m.

Collective Visions Event Hall, 1925 Rossville Avenue www.jmjpresents.com

Subway Mars 10 p.m. T-Bones, 1419 Chestnut St. (423) 266-4240. www.tboneschattanooga.com

Saturday Normalpalooza: Hollly Golightly and the Brokeoffs 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Normal Park Upper School. normalparkmuseummagnet.com Johnny Cash Tribute Band 5 p.m. Chattanooga Choo Choo Victorian Lounge, 1400 Market St. (423) 266-5000.

Terry Smith 8 p.m. Charles & Myrtle’s Coffehouse, 105 McBrien Rd. (423) 892-4960. www.christunity.org BoneYard Boogie 8 p.m. Collective Visions Event Hall, 1925 Rossville Ave. Sweet N Lowdown 8:30 p.m. The Foundry, 1201 South Broad St. (423) 756-3400.

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

(423) 499-5055. www.thepalmsathamilton.com

Music Calendar

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

Saturday Spotlight

Kissfits Halloween Show They tell us, “You’ll piss yourself with fear.” See for yourself… $7 10 p.m.

JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK. Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

On Facebook as JJ’s Bohemia..

Abnorming, Piercing Deception, Iron Diplomat 9 p.m. Ziggy’s Hidaway, 607 Cherokee Blvd.

(423) 756-4786. myspace.com/ziggyshideaway Nic Cowan 9 p.m. Raw, 409 Market St. (423) 756-1919. www.myspace.com/jstriker Funktastic 7 Band 9 p.m. Tremont Tavern, 1203 Hixson Pike. (423) 266-1996. www.tremonttavern.com Bud Lightning 10 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878. www.budssportsbar.com Cadillac Saints 10 p.m. T-Bones, 1419 Chestnut St. (423) 266-4240. www.tboneschattanooga.com Acrophobia 4 Halloween party: Cause 4 Concern 10 p.m. 412 Market St. (423) 757-0019.

Kissfits, Mordelo 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd.

(423) 266-1400.

Find them on Facebook

Sunday Spotlight

The Wrong Way: A Tribute to Sublime w/ special guest Danger Muffin 10 p.m. Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St. (423) 267-4644. www.rhythm-brews.com Halloween Costume Party with Cluck The Office, 901 Carter St. (inside Days Inn). facebook.com/theofficechatt

Sunday Open Mic w/Jeff Daniels 4 p.m. Ms. Debbie’s Nightlife Lounge 4762 Highway 58, (423) 485-0966. myspace.com/debbieslounge Pay the Reckoning (Irish Music) 6 p.m. Tremont Tavern, 1203 Hixson Pike. (423) 266-1996. www.tremonttavern.com The Great Commission, I, The Breather, We Are Defiance, Every Word a Prophecy, Failing the Fairest 6:30 p.m. The Warehouse, 5716 Ringgold Rd. myspace.com/warehousetn Kenny Meeks 8 p.m. Charles & Myrtle’s Coffehouse, 105 McBrien Rd. (423) 892-4960. www.christunity.org Filter with Middle Class Rut 9 p.m. Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St. (423) 267-4644.

Missoula Oblongata, Daikaiju, THE SABBATH DANCE PARTY 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

Monday

Filter with Middle Class Rut

Old Tyme Music 6 p.m. Market Street Tavern, 850 Market St. (423) 634-0260. www.marketstreettavern.com Big Band Dance 8 p.m. The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd., #202.

(423) 499-5055. www.thepalmsathamilton.com Rick Rushing & the Blues Strangers 8 p.m. The Camp House, 1427 Williams St. (423) 702-8081. www.thecamphouse.com

“Industrial propulsion, metallic riffs and incensed vocals.” Nuff sed.

Tuesday Ben Friberg Trio 6:30 p.m. Table 2, 232 E. 11th St. (423) 756-8253. www.table2restaurant.com All That Jazz 8 p.m. The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd., #202.

(423) 499-5055.

Lightning Billy Hopkins 8 p.m. Market Street Tavern, 850 Market St. (423) 634-0260. www.marketstreettavern.com Open Mic with Mike McDade 9 p.m. Tremont Tavern, 1203 Hixson Pike. (423) 266-1996. www.tremonttavern.com

Wednesday Jimmy Harris 6:30 p.m. The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd., #202. (423) 499-5055.

$15 9 p.m.

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

Ben Friberg Trio 7 p.m. Market Street Tavern, 850 Market St. (423) 634-0260. www.marketstreettavern.com Johnny B. and Friends 8 p.m. Bourbon Street Music Bar, 2000 E. 23rd St. (423) 826-1985.

Leticia Wolf 9 p.m. Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St. (423) 267-4644. www.rhythm-brews.com Open Mic with Mark Holder 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

Find them on Facebook Got a gig coming up that you want to tell the world about?

Send us your information (the basic when, where and time) and we will list it here in the weekly music calendar.

Email the particulars to us at calendar@chattanoogapulse. com at least ten days before the event for inclusion here.

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Arts & Entertainment

By Janis Hashe

Paris When It Can-Cans S

ome stories are timeless, and a remarkable number of them involve Paris. From The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables to La Boheme and An American in Paris, we never tire of these romances.

Yet another of these stories is Moulin Rouge. Its irresistible combination of fin de siecle Paris, painters, can-can dancers and a tragic love has inspired several books and no less than six films, most recently the Baz Luhrmann love-it-orhate-it extravaganza.

The story is tailor-made for ballet, yet the world premiere of Moulin Rouge The Ballet was only last year. Canadian choreographer Jorden Morris was commissioned to create the original ballet by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

Lovers of traditional ballet will be charmed by the Atlanta Ballet’s production of Moulin Rouge, playing for four more performances, October 28-31, at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. As evidenced by the standing ovation at the performance reviewed, audience members responded to the big sets, big costumes and romantic storyline.

The plot follows the doomed love of laundress-turned-Moulin-Rouge-star Nathalie and aspiring painter Matthew.

They meet on a Paris street right before the owner of the Moulin Rouge, Zidler, sees Nathalie dance and immediately woos her to become his new headliner.

Nathalie agrees, but as she has already fallen in love with Matthew, continues to see him, to Zidler’s fury, as he wants her for himself.

Tara Lee, dancing Nathalie in the performance viewed, was enchanting in her gossamer lightness. She also projected a strong sense of the character’s innocently coquettish personality. Her technique is not perfect, particularly noticeable in her port de bras, but she

more than makes up for it with her strengths.

Another standout is Rachel Van Buskirk as the dethroned queen of the Moulin Rouge, La Goulue. Based on a real person, La Goulue is world-weary but still charismatic. Van Buskirk impressed as she believably created the way an older, tiring body expresses movement, a difficult task for a young dancer.

Jacob Bush as Toulouse-Lautrec is extremely fun to watch both as dancer and actor. Choreographer Morris simply ignores the fact that the real painter was disabled, with legs that never grew to adult size. But in this Paris of the imagination, everything is possible, and Bush energetically takes the stage, most noticeably in one of the production’s best passages, the “dueling painters” pas de deux between Toulouse-Lautrec and Matthew.

Another favorite moment was Jonah Hooper’s dancing as “Lead Tango Man” in the second act. Hooper’s athleticism is well suited to this character, whose street style actually seems to reflect more of the slightly later period Apache dance than the menacing but elegant tango. Hooper brought to mind Gene Kelly in An American in Paris and that is as good as it gets.

“Tara Lee, dancing Nathalie in the performance viewed, was enchanting in her gossamer lightness.”

(Please be aware that the cast as described is scheduled for Friday, October 29, and Sunday, October 31, but not Thursday, October 28 or Saturday, October 30, and that casting is subject to change.)

Kudos also to the live musicians featured onstage in certain sections; their appearances are a musical highlight in a production using a taped score.

One section of Act II really deserves a longer program note for those not familiar with period details. Matthew, in despair over Nathalie’s entrapment by Zidler, drinks too much absinthe and is visited by a trio of “green fairies.” This does not make a whole lot of sense, unless you know that absinthe is also called “la fee verte”, which means—you guessed it—“the green fairy.”

If your ballet tastes run to experimental, avant-garde work, this is not the production for you. Moulin Rouge is, essentially, a throwback to an older style of ballets. But it succeeds very well in its intent, and judging from the number of small, budding ballerinas in attendance, casts a classical spell for those wishing to fall under it.

Moulin Rouge The Ballet $28.55 - $133.05 8 p.m. October 28, 39, 30 2 p.m. October 31 Atlanta Ballet at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Pkwy., Atlanta 30339. (800) 982-2787. www.atlantaballet.com

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A&E Calendar Highlights Friday

Thursday

String Theory at the Hunter Cello, piano and flute play Hadyn, Beethoven and more. $25 6 p.m. talk, 6:30 p.m. concert Hunter Museum, 10 Bluff View (423) 267-0968. www.huntermuseum.org

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

Lebanon 12:50. 3:10. 5:30, 7:50, 10:10 p.m. Majestic 12, 311 Broad St. www.carmike.com VeggieTales Live! “Sing Yourself Silly” 3, 7 p.m. Abba’s House, 5208 Hixson Pike. (423) 642-TIXS. www.abbashouse.com Dreamnight: Boo in the Zoo 5:30 p.m. Chattanooga Zoo, 301 North Holtzclaw Ave. www.chattzoo.org Flicks Café: Spartan 6:30 p.m. Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library, 1001 Broad St. (423) 757-5310. lib.chattanooga.gov SEFP V Semi Finals 8 p.m. The Comedy Catch, 3224 Brainerd Rd. (423) 629-2233. www.thecomedycatch.com Menopause The Musical 8 p.m. Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad St. (423) 757-5050. www.chattanooga.gov Chattanooga Ghost Tour 8:15 p.m. Walnut Street Bridge, 1 Walnut St. (423) 821-7125. www.chattanoogaghosttours.com

Reading of Macbeth The Bard’s scariest play, presented by Shakespeare Chattanooga. $5, $3 if you come in costume.

7:30 p.m.

Barking Legs Theater, 1307 Dodds Ave, (423) 624-5347. www.barkinglegs.org

Saturday

Irving Berlin’s White Christmas Atlanta’s Theatre of Stars sings and dances to the classic holiday tunes. $21.50-$51.50 8 p.m.

Memorial Auditorium, 399 McCallie Ave. (423) 642-TIXS. www.chattanoogaonstage.com

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Discover the Nina and Pinta 9 a.m. Ross Landing Park, Riverfront Pkwy. (787) 672-2152. www.thenina.com Friday Morning Art Therapy Group 10 a.m. Rivoli Art Mill, 2301 East 28th St. (423) 322-2514. www.jasmilam.com Mark Twain Recitation 10 a.m. Southern Adventist University, 4881 Taylor Cir., Collegedale. (423) 236-2329.

Boo in the Zoo 5:30 p.m. Chattanooga Zoo, 301 North Holtzclaw Ave. www.chattzoo.org 9th Annual Fantasy Maze at Riverpark 6 p.m. Tennessee Riverpark, 4301 Amnicola Hwy. (423) 842-6748.

Aqua-Scarium Halloween Party 6:30 p.m. Tennessee Aquarium, 1 Broad St. (800) 265-0695. www.tnaqua.org Ultimate Wave Tahiti 3D 7, 9 p.m. IMAX Theater at the Tennessee Aquarium, 1 Broad St. (800) 265-0695. www.tnaqua.org/imax

UTC Piano Students’ Studio Recital 7:30 p.m. UTC Fine Arts Center Roland Hayes Hall, 725 Vine St. (423) 425-4601. www.utc.edu/music “Dracula in Dixie” 7:30 p.m. Chattanooga Choo Choo, 1400 Market St. (423) 266-5000.

Irving Berlin’s White Christmas – The Musical 8 p.m. Memorial Auditorium, 399 McCallie Ave. (423) 757-5156. www.chattanoogaonstage.com SEFP V Semi Finals 8 p.m. The Comedy Catch, 3224 Brainerd Rd. (423) 629-2233. www.thecomedycatch.com Songs for a New World 8 p.m. Chattanooga Theatre Centre, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534. www.theatrecentre.com Chattanooga Ghost Tour 8 p.m. Walnut Street Bridge, 1 Walnut St. (423) 821-7125. www.chattanoogaghosttours.com Female Impersonation Show Midnight. Images, 6065 Lee Hwy. (423) 855-8210. www.imagesbar.com

Sunday Discover the Nina and Pinta 9 a.m. Ross Landing Park, Riverfront Pkwy. (787) 672-2152. www.thenina.com Brainerd Farmers Market 10 a.m. Grace Episcopal Church parking lot, 20 Belvoir Ave. (at Brainerd Rd.) Mosaic Market 11 a.m. 412 Market St. (corner of 4th/Market). (423) 624-3915 Rocktoberfest Noon. Rock City, 1400 Patten Rd., Lookout Mountain, GA. (706) 820-2531.

Art Til Dark Noon. Northshore. (423) 413-8999. arttildark.wordpress.com Lil’ Red 3 p.m. Chauncey-Goode Auditorium, 1815 Union Ave. (423) 242-5156. www.destinyentertainment.org Boo in the Zoo 5:30 p.m. Chattanooga Zoo, 301 North Holtzclaw Ave. www.chattzoo.org 9th Annual Fantasy Maze at Riverpark 6 p.m. Tennessee Riverpark, 4301 Amnicola Hwy. (423) 842-6748.

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 43 | October 28, 2010 | www.chattanoogapulse.com

“Dracula in Dixie” 7:30 p.m. Chattanooga Choo Choo, 1400 Market St. (423) 266-5000. www.choochoo.com SEFP V Finals 8 p.m. The Comedy Catch, 3224 Brainerd Rd. (423) 629-2233. www.thecomedycatch.com CSO Pops: “The Phantom’s Leading Ladies” 8 p.m. Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad St. (423) 757-5050. www.chattanooga.gov Songs for a New World 8 p.m. Chattanooga Theatre Centre, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534. www.theatrecentre.com Chattanooga Ghost Tour 8 p.m. Walnut Street Bridge, 1 Walnut St. (423) 821-7125. www.chattanoogaghosttours.com D.T.E.’s 4th Annual Halloween Bash 9 p.m. Coltrane’s on 9th, 2 Union Sq. (423) 355-3153.

Female Impersonation Show Halloween Blowout Midnight. Images, 6065 Lee Hwy. (423) 855-8210. www.imagesbar.com

The Haunted Market Scary produce and spooky art at the Market.

Free 11 a.m.- 4 p.m.

Chattanooga Market, First Tennessee Pavilion, 1826 Carter St. (423) 266-4041. www.chattanoogamarket.com

Discover the Nina and Pinta 9 a.m. Ross Landing Park, Riverfront Pkwy. (787) 672-2152. www.thenina.com “Haunted Market”: Chattanooga Market 11 a.m. First Tennessee Pavilion, 1826 Carter St. (423) 266-4041. www.chattanoogamarket.com Rocktoberfest Noon. Rock City, 1400 Patten Rd. Lookout Mountain, GA. (706) 820-2531. www.seerockcity.com Chattanooga Ghost Tour 7:30, 8, 8:30, 9 p.m. Walnut Street Bridge, 1 Walnut St. (423) 821-7125. www.chattanoogaghosttours.com “Flavors of Tuscany” North River Civic Center, 1009 Executive Dr. Ste. 102.

(423) 870-8924.

“Platters” Jewish Cultural Center, 5461 N. Terrace Rd. (423) 493-0270.

“Butterfly Handled Tea Paraphernalia” Houston Museum of Decorative Arts, 201 High St. (423) 267-7176.

A&E Calendar Highlights Monday Discover the Nina and Pinta 9 a.m. Ross Landing Park, Riverfront Pkwy. (787) 672-2152. www.thenina.com Awesome Autumn Fall Leaf Cruises 1 p.m. Tennessee Aquarium River Gorge Explorer, One Broad St. (423) 265-0698. www.tnaqua.org/RiverGorgeExplorer Live Team Trivia 6 p.m. Bart’s Lakeshore, 5840 Lake Resort Terr. (423) 870-0770. www.chattanoogatrivia.com Speak Easy: Spoken Word and Poetry 8 p.m. The Office, 901 Carter St. www.facebook.com/theofficechatt “Their World” River Gallery, 400 E. 2nd St. (423) 265-5033.

One Year Anniversary Exhibition My Color Image Boutique and Gallery, 330 Frazier Ave. (423) 598-6202.

“After Disappearance” Sewanee University Art Gallery, 68 Georgia Ave.

Tuesday Discover the Nina and Pinta 9 a.m. Ross Landing Park, Riverfront Pkwy. (787) 672-2152. www.thenina.com Awesome Autumn Fall Leaf Cruises 1 p.m. Tennessee Aquarium River Gorge Explorer, 1 Broad St. (423) 265-0698. www.tnaqua.org/RiverGorgeExplorer “Cosmic Abberation” Leo Handmade Gallery, 22 Frazier Ave. leogallery.blogspot.com Charlie Newton: A Retrospective Exhibition Bessie Smith Cultural Center, 200 E. Martin Luther King Blvd.

(423) 266-8658. www.bessiesmithcc.org “Brushes with Life” Ringgold Art and Frame Gallery, 7825 Nashville St., Ringgold, GA. (706) 935-2844. www.ringgoldart.com “The Whole Ball of Wax” In-Town Gallery, 26A Frazier Ave. (423)267-9214. www.intowngallery.com

Wednesday Awesome Autumn Fall Leaf Cruises 1 p.m. Tennessee Aquarium River Gorge Explorer, 1 Broad St. (423) 265-0698. www.tnaqua.org/RiverGorgeExplorer Main Street Farmers Market 4 p.m. Main St. at Williams St. www.mainstfarmersmarket.com “New Works 2010” Hanover Gallery, 111 Frazier Ave. (423) 648-0533.

2010 Western Art Show The Gallery, 3918 Dayton Blvd.

(423) 870-2443. www.redbankgallery.com “Domestic” 12 p.m. Tanner Hill Gallery, 3069 S.Broad St. (423) 280-7182 “A Vested Interest” Gold Leaf Designs / Shuptrine’s Fine Art & Framing, 2646 Broad St. (423) 266-4453. www.shuptrines.com AEC Fall Independent Film Series Majestic 12 Cinema, 311 Broad St. (423) 826-2370. www.artsedcouncil.org

Editor’s Pick: Featured Event Of The Week

Songs for a New World Four actors play many roles in this “cabaret-style” musical review. $18 8 p.m.

Friday, October 29 and Saturday, October 30 Chattanooga Theatre Centre, Circle Stage, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534. www.theatrecentre.com

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Life in the Noog

By Chuck Crowder

Status Is Everything R

“I’m discovering for the first time that as far as your Facebook peers are concerned, love ain’t love unless it’s written on your wall.”

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 popular website thenoog.com

ecently I changed my Facebook relationship status for the first time ever. Sure, I’ve witnessed it done by “friends” in the past, but never quite knew the implications of such a deliberate, open and outward sign of your innermost feelings until I cast myself into the pool of those who’ve taken the plunge before me.

You see, it’s not enough for everyone who you’ve chosen to be your cyber friend to instantly know your age, address, education, career, interests, political and religious views, intended event attendance, photos from those parties, and/or random thought of the moment (otherwise known as a “status update”). Facebook functionality also enables one to publically proclaim the current heartbeat of their love life as well.

This sometimes annoying but crack-like infectious social media outlet helps you rank your affections at any given time into nine or ten distinct categories: “single,” “in a relationship,” “in a relationship with (insert fellow FB mate here),” “engaged,” “married,” “separated,” “divorced,” “widowed” and the two most intriguing of them all—“in an open relationship” and “it’s complicated.”

If your status happens to be one of those last two, your chances of hooking up with a normal, law-abiding, clinically-sane Earthling is less likely than winning the lottery while being struck by lightning. Probably ain’t gonna happen. Simply stating that you are “in an open relationship” should be a waving red flag to others that your genitalia (if not your brain as well) likely has the smell and

consistency of scrambled eggs sitting in a dirty ashtray that happens to be parked in a dumpster—in the middle of summer. You’ve not only been around the block a few times, you own it.

“It’s complicated” just has wishy-washy, don’t-know-what-I-want-but-it-isn’t-whoI’m-with-and-most-likely-not-you-either written all over it in Sharpie. It could either mean you’re in love with a few, one or more of which may or may not be a farm animal, or you’ve always thought your best friend’s mom or dad is the hottest thing on two legs and can’t bring yourself to come to terms with how disturbing that will be to your friend.

Now, it seems that some “complicated” statuses refer to homosexual relationships, but they don’t necessarily need to be categorized that way just because they might seem to be socially unconventional. If you’re in a good one, then to me you’re “in a relationship.”

Only farm animals are truly “complicated.” At least that’s what kinky shepherds tell me.

Anyway, as plain as I’ve tried to make it, “open” and “complicated” relationships aren’t relationships at all. Neither is being “separated” or “divorced.” You’re all “single”— get over it.

My teenage daughter and her friends love to jokingly change their status often, citing each other as the objects of their momentary affection. I think she’s been married and divorced more than her parents will ever be.

And like her, some of my Facebook friends attempt to seek some sort of special attention (unlike this column), if not sympathy, with each update of their relationship status.

If single people suddenly find themselves “in a relationship,” “engaged” or “married”

then they truly deserve some “atta-boy” accolades of joy. The same might apply to someone who is finally able to make their “divorce” official. But when you publically announce that you are “separated” or “it’s complicated”, then you’re looking for the shoulders of anyone and everyone in your friend population to cry upon. And then everyone also sees the “I’m so sorry, what happened?” and “I always thought he/she was a jerk—stay strong” written on your wall.

However, one side effect of doing so is that you’ve inadvertently invited the wolves to come calling for the ripened scraps of your crumbled heap of confused emotion.

Likewise, seems that “single” on Facebook means that no matter who you might be holding hands with every Friday night, you haven’t “really” committed to squat. “What do you mean you’re dating someone? Well it must not be all that, or you wouldn’t still be ‘single’.” And so you remain in the crosshairs of those who’d like to be the next person you love, or love to hate.

I’m guilty. I can’t say that I haven’t jumped online to check the relationship status of a suddenly single chick I run into at a local watering hole when I get home at 2 a.m. Goes perfectly with the Krystals.

In fact, that’s how I got into the relationship that eventually caused me to change my status.

We courted for a bit, decided we liked hanging out, didn’t see a finish line anytime in the near future, and decided to make our intentions official. And as I weed through the “attaboy’s,” I’m discovering for the first time that as far as your Facebook peers are concerned, love ain’t love unless it’s written on your wall.

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Halloween Events, Haunted Houses and Trunk or Treats Friday: 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Saturday: 10:30 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Sunday: Noon - 6:30 p.m.

271 Chattanooga Valley Road, Flintstone, GA. www.enchantedmaze.com

Halloween Events Hamilton Place Mall Free Mall Trick or Treating 2100 Hamilton Place Blvd, Chattanooga.

October 31, 6 p.m. www.hamiltonplace.com

Haunted Barn $15 (coupon on web site) Fridays and Saturdays in October 7 p.m. - Midnight 5107 McDonald Road, McDonald, TN. thehauntedbarnchattanooga.com

Bradley Square Mall Free Mall Trick or Treating 200 Paul Huff Parkway NW, Cleveland.

October 31, 6 p.m. www.shopbradleysquare.com Northgate Mall Malloween 271 Northgate Mall, Chattanooga.

October 30, 3 p.m. – 5 p.m. www.visitnorthgatemall.com

through October 31 at 3 a.m.

Collective Visions Event Hall 1925 Rossville Ave., Chattanooga.

Spooky Days @ Creative Discovery $20 Advance; $30 2-Day Pass; Museum $25 Day of Show per day 321 Chesnut Street, www.tinyurl.com/2c44htq Chattanooga.

Classic Horror Films October 30, 3 p.m.

October 5 - Buffy the Vampire Storytellers at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Slayer episodes “Hush” & “Once Admission: $10.95 More With Feeling.” www.cdmfun.org Public Library, 1001 Broad St., Chattanooga.

Boneyard Boogie – Halloween (423) 757-5310 Party lib.chattanooga.gov Friday, October 29, at 8 p.m.

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Haunted Houses Haunted Carnevil: Vampire Nation $20 (includes mini-golf and other treats) Fridays and Saturdays in October, Doors open at 7 p.m.

5918 Brainerd Road, Chattanooga. www.sirgoonys.com Enchanted Maize $9 Adults, $7 Kids Thursdays – Sundays in October Thursday: 9 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Haunted Hilltop $15 all ages Fridays and Saturdays in October 7 p.m. – 1 a.m.

8235 Highway 58, Harrison, TN. www.thehauntedhilltop.com Massacre on Meighan $20 Every Thursday - Sunday Doors open at 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. on Thursdays and Sundays 1404 Cowart St, Chattanooga. www.massacreonmeighan.com

Halloween Events, Haunted Houses and Trunk or Treats Blowing Screams Farm Forest of Fear - $15 Ghost Ride - $10 (Both for $20) Fridays and Saturdays in October Doors open at 7 p.m.

271 Chattanooga Valley Road, Flintstone, GA. www.blowingscreamsfarm.com Ruby Falls Haunted Cavern $22 at the door, ($20 online) September 25; October: 1, 2, 8, 9, 15-17, 21-24, 28-31 8 p.m. – 11 p.m.

1720 South Scenic Highway, Chattanooga. www.hauntedcavern.com Lodge of Fear $5 on October 8 $10 every night after

Chattanooga.

October 27 from 6:30 p.m. until all the candy is gone.

Chattanooga Valley Baptist 90 Nickajack Lane, Flintstone, GA. October 31 from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. (while treats last) October 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 29, 30 (Every Friday and Saturday after first weekend of October) 8 p.m. – Midnight Masonic Lodge, 1500 Dodds Ave., Chattanooga. lodgehaunt.moonfruit.com House of Horrors $10 Every Friday and Saturday in October, also on Halloween.

7 p.m. – Midnight

(10 p.m. on Sundays) 140 Edwards Street, Cleveland. www.wewillscareyou.com Trunk or Treats Trinity Lutheran Church 5001 Hixson Pike, Hixson Oct. 29 from 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. (while treats last) Jones Memorial Church 4131 Ringgold Road,

St. Mark United Methodist 701 Mississippi Avenue, Chattanooga, October 31 from 5 p.m. until all the candy is gone.

Red Bank United Methodist Church 3800 Dayton Blvd, Chattanooga.

October 31 from 3 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. (while treats last)

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Film Feature

By Phillip Johnston

I Have Seen the Best Minds of My Generation E

arly on in Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Freidman’s film Howl, James Franco’s Allen Ginsberg is asked if he single-handedly created the Beat Generation, the diverse cabal of 1950s writers that included Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. “There was no Beat Generation,” Ginsberg replies to the nameless, faceless interviewer, “just a bunch of guys wanting to get published.”

In 1955, the printed page was the key to success for a writer and publishing was a dangerous game. This was the age of the Hayes Code and the House Un-American Activities Committee, and American censors were acutely reactionary, ready and willing to shed a critical eye in order to unleash their fury upon anything that carried a whiff of “obscenity”.

The film Howl (this week’s selection in the Arts and Education Council’s Independent Film Series) is a cinematic pastiche focused on the genesis and life of Ginsberg’s first published poem of the same title. Though it sometimes feels like one, Howl is not a Ginsberg biopic. Rather, it’s an experimental reflection on a groundbreaking piece of writing and its effects on 1950s culture.

Allen Ginsberg first read the legendary words of “Howl” publicly at the Six Gallery in New York City in 1955. Filmed in grainy black and white, the film opens with this inaugural reading.

Ginsberg considered poetry to be a rhythmic articulation of feeling, and James Franco makes his words race through the smoky air of the Six Gallery just as much as they seem to fly off of the printed page when read. Franco understands the violence and fierce surrealism in Ginsberg’s words and takes not one syllable for granted. The assembled audience of hipsters at the Six spend their evening in laughter and are left in tears by the night’s end.

Publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti was in attendance at this first reading of “Howl” and was immediately compelled to print the poem. This fateful decision landed him in court for an obscenity trial, an absurd display of political theater in

which all manner of literary experts were asked to voice their assessment of “Howl” and decide whether or not it constituted literature. Ginsberg was notably absent from the proceedings.

Howl moves freely between three different settings: the people v. Ferlinghetti courtroom (filmed in color), flashbacks and an “interview” with Franco’s Ginsberg, and animated sequences by artist Eric Drooker. This scattershot structure momentarily feels akin to Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There, the brilliant 2007 biopic of Bob Dylan that featured many different actors playing the legendary songster. (It even boasted a brief appearance by David Cross playing Ginsberg.)

I’m Not There was a measured, evocative experiment executed with the knowledge that the real Bob Dylan could never truly be known. That was the beauty of it. Howl lacks all of these qualities in its attempt to create a multifaceted picture of an equally mysterious character. Franco’s interpretation of Ginsberg borders on perfection, but Howl is thoroughly confused and shortsighted.

There’s a fascinating exchange during one of the courtroom scenes. The straight-laced prosecutor (David Strathairn) is grilling a literary expert on the stand. After reading a particularly challenging and explicit section of Ginsberg’s poetry, the prosecutor poses a probing question. “Can you tell me what these words mean?” he asks. The academic’s response is simple: “Sir, you can’t translate poetry into prose.

That’s why it is poetry.”

Odd that his answer provides insight into one of the most disappointing aspects of Howl: Eric Drooker’s animated sequences. Howl is a film about “Howl” and even though Drooker was once bestowed Ginsberg’s blessing, his wild, coruscating animated sequences that “bring the poem to life” are little more than imaginative, freewheeling distractions.

If one does not have the right or luxury to turn poetry into

prose, then what right do the makers of Howl have to take the deepest and most personal of Ginsberg’s poetic revelations and interpret them on the screen as animation? The gesture is not vengeful, just wrongheaded and tiresome.

Earlier this year, I visited an exhibit of Ginsberg’s personal photographs in Washington D.C. Each photo was printed and attached to a larger piece of paper on which Ginsberg had scrawled in permanent marker a description of the photo: the people, the place, the feelings, the madness.

A single one of these photos offered a better glimpse into Ginsberg’s creative work than Howl does. With a frightening overdose of sentiment, Howl attempts to create a 21st-century Ginsberg from a Ginsberg who is decidedly a product of the Beat Generation. James Franco is wonderful—but poetry will always remain poetry for a reason.

Howl Directed by Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman Starring James Franco, David Strathairn, Jon Hamm Rated R Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

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Riley's Spirits Within Big Chilean Taste, Small Chilean Price

By Joshua Hurley At Riley’s Wine and Spirits, we pride ourselves in offering customers everyday low prices. We don’t run ads for prices that are only good for 48 hours; we simply advertise our everyday prices.

For this and many other reasons, it’s easy to see why Chattanooga voted us “Number One”.

This week’s “Great Buy” demonstrates this policy— with imported varietal wines from Chile called Santa Rita 120.

Great Buys is a weekly column in which Riley’s Wine and Spirits on Hixson Pike in Hixson picks something worthwhile in quality and price from the area’s largest selection of wine and spirits from around the world and shares it with the readership of The Pulse.

The genesis of the Chilean wine industry can be traced back to the 16th century, when Spanish missionaries planted seedlings of the grape called “Pais.” This grape still grows in Chile, and is found here as well, called “Mission” in California.

In 1851, things took a turn for the best when these same missionaries planted Frenchstyle varietals, and within 40 years, the Chilean wine industry went international.

It was in the middle of this boom that Santa Rita Winery was born in 1880. It was founded by Domingo Fernandez, whose mission statement was “to gather people and contribute to pleasurable moments by crafting high-quality wine

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for less money,” a statement certainly still in practice today, 130 years later.

Santa Rita’s 120 label pays respect to the brave patriots who fought in the armed conflict (1810-1821) to win Chilean independence from Spanish tyranny. In 1819, 120 patriots took refuge in a cellar that would soon become Santa Rita.

The winery’s 120 line of wines pays homage to the heroic character of these fighters.

• 120 Chardonnay. This chard is un-oaked. Expect tropical fruit flavors, including green apple and oranges.

• 120 Sauvignon Blanc.

Acidic and crisp with intense flavors of citrus and peach.

• 120 Cabernet Sauvignon.

Big cab, little price—delivers intense aromas of berry, cloves and vanilla, while offering flavors of black fruit and earthy undertones of soil and vine.

• 120 Merlot. This merlot is smooth, displaying flavors and aromas of black cherry, plum and vanilla, with some oak and lingering spice in the finish.

All 120 wines are available at Riley’s for $6.91 plus tax.

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Free Will Astrology SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You could really use your own personal doorman or doorwoman—someone who would accompany you everywhere you go and help you gain entrance through the portals you encounter.

In my vision of what you require, this assistant would go further. He or she would find secret camouflaged doors for you, and do the equivalent of uttering Ali Baba’s magic words “Open Sesame!” He or she would even *create* doors for you, allowing you to penetrate obstacles—going into carpenter mode and fashioning a passageway for you right on the spot. If you can’t find anyone to fulfill this role for you, do it yourself. Halloween costume suggestion: a doorman or doorwoman; a gatekeeper from a fairy tale.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Is the highest form of courage embodied in a soldier fighting during a war?

Irish poet William Butler Yeats didn’t think so. He said that entering into the abyss of one’s deep self is equally daring. By my astrological reckoning, that will be the location of your greatest heroism in the days ahead.

Your most illuminating and productive adventures will be the wrestling matches you have with the convulsive, beautiful darkness you find inside yourself. Halloween costume suggestion: a peaceful warrior.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The average spammer sends out 12,414,000 e-mails before snagging the money of just one gullible dupe. You’re not going to have to be quite that prolific in order to get the word out about what you have to offer, but you’ll have to be pretty persistent. Fortunately, to improve your odds and raise your chances of success, all you have to do is purify your intentions. So please check in with your deep self and make sure that your gift or idea or product or service has impeccable integrity.

Halloween costume suggestion: a holy salesperson; an angel hawking real estate in paradise; a TV infomercial spokesperson for free cake.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Sunlight may smell spicy or musky to you these days. The wind might have a flavor like chocolate liqueur or a ripe peach. The hum of the earth as it turns may sound like a symphony you heard once in a dream. Your body? Electric. Your soul?

Sinewy. In other words, Aquarius magic is afoot. The hills are alive with future memories that taste delicious.

Your feet will touch sacred ground far more than usual.

Halloween costume suggestion: a character from a film that changed your life for the better.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In the middle of the last century, avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger threw a masquerade party called “Come as Your Madness.” One of the invited guests was the Piscean writer Anais Nin. She appeared as the ancient fertility goddess Astarte, but with an unexpected wrinkle: She wore a birdcage over her head. This Halloween I urge you to be inspired

by Nin’s decision to portray her madness as a goddess, but reject Nin’s decision to cage the head of her mad goddess. Find a disguise that allows you to embody the best and most beautiful part of your craziness, and let it roam free.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the Chinese province of Fujian, there used to be people who believed they could communicate directly with the dead. If they slept on the grave of the person they wished to reach, their dreams during the night might lead to a meeting with the spirit of the departed. I propose that you consider something similar, Aries. Why? Because according to my reading of the astrological omens, you would benefit from communing with your ancestors. If you can’t actually spend the night near their final resting place, find another way to contact them in dreams. Put their photos under your pillow, maybe, or hold one of their beloved objects as you sleep. Halloween costume suggestion: the ancestor whose influence you need most right now.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In an exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, performance artist Marina Abramovic stared into the eyes of a succession

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The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 43 | October 28, 2010 | www.chattanoogapulse.com

By Rob Brezsny Truthrooster@gmail.com of different strangers for 700 hours. Actresses Marisa Tomei and Isabella Rossellini were among those who received her visual probes, as well as 1,400 less famous folks. I think it would be fun for you to do a variation on her ritual, Taurus. In your case, you wouldn’t do it to show off or to prove an artistic point, but rather to get closer to the allies with whom you’d like to develop a deeper bond. Are you up for some deep eye gazing?

Halloween costume suggestion: a mystic seer; a god or goddess with a third eye; a superhero whose power is X-ray vision.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Have you ever seen the edible fungi known as truffles? They are bulbous, warty clumps. Because they grow underground near trees, specially trained pigs and dogs are needed to sniff out their location. In parts of Europe their taste is so highly prized that they can sell for up to $6,000 per pound. In my opinion, the truffle should be your metaphor of the month this November. I expect that you will be in the hunt for an ugly but delectable treasure, or a homely but valuable resource, or some kind of lovable monster.

Halloween costume suggestion: a Frankensteinian beauty queen or underwear model, a rhino in a prom dress, a birthday cake made of lunchmeat.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Don’t try harder, Cancerian; try easier. Don’t turn your focus into a white-hot beam of piercing intensity; relax your focus into a soft-eyed enjoyment of playing around with the possibilities. Don’t tense your sphincter, marshal your warrior ferocity, and stir up your righteous anger at how life refuses to conform to your specifications; rather, send waves of tenderness through your body, open your heart to the experiment of blending your energy with life’s unpredictable flow, and marvel at the surprising revelations and invitations that are constantly flowing your way. Halloween costume suggestions: Mr. Smooth, Ms. Velvet, Dr. Groovalicious, DJ Silky.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “I wanted to change the world,” said writer Aldous Huxley. “But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.” I suggest you adopt that as your operative hypothesis, Leo. Maybe in a few weeks it’ll make sense for you to shower your loved ones with advice, and maybe you’ll eventually get re-inspired to save humanity from its foolish ways. But for now your assignment is to fix, refine, and recalibrate your own beautifully imperfect self. Halloween costume suggestion: hermit, anarchist, keeper of a gorgeous diary, do-it-yourself brain surgeon.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In last May’s national election, none of Britain’s three political parties got a majority. For a while, the country had no leader.

Eventually, the rightwing Conservatives and the leftwing Liberal Democrats formed a weird coalition, making Conservative David Cameron the Prime Minister. Some people had mixed feelings about the deal. “I said it was like a cross between a bulldog and chihuahua,” London’s mayor announced, “but what I meant is it will have a fantastic hybrid vigor.”

I suspect that a certain merger you have in the works, Virgo, could yield similar feelings. Halloween costume suggestion: half-bulldog, half-chihuahua; part hummingbird, part-crocodile; equal mix of Gandhi and Napoleon.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Five white tigers at a Chinese wild animal park became way too tame for their own good. Maybe they’d hung around humans too long or their lifestyle was too cushy. Whatever the reason, one of their essential instincts atrophied. A zookeeper put live chickens into their habitats, hoping they would pounce and devour, but instead they retreated as if unnerved. Tigers scared of chickens?!

Since then the zoo officials have been taking measures to boost the big cats’ bravado. I bring this to your attention, Libra, because I’m worried you might be headed in the tigers’ direction. Undomesticate thyself!

Halloween costume suggestion: a big fierce creature.

JONESIN’

Across 1 Henri Matisse’s art movement 8 Former “Tonight Show” announcer Hall 11 Constricting snake 14 Prefix before sclerosis 15 Penn & Teller, e.g.

16 Sound from a kennel 17 Thai cuisine feature 19 Gnarls Barkley’s ___ Lo 20 Like the god Apocatequil 21 “Weeds” or “Scrubs” 23 Gift wrapping supplies 26 Chart topper 27 “Betty La ___” 28 Constellation with a belt 30 It’s drawn to explain differences 35 Damfool 36 Directional ending 37 Alternative to a gallop 38 It takes up time when taken up 39 Word after sports or

“If Deer Took Over” –not even headlights could stop them.

training 40 Elevator selection 41 “That’s ___ and you know it!”

42 Actor Penn 43 Deaf “Sesame Street” character 44 Unit of electrical capacity 47 “It’ll be ___ day in hell...”

48 Mercury or Saturn, but not Jupiter 49 “It Was Written” rapper 51 Place for a brace 52 Old school “Rubbish!”

55 Late rapper Shakur 57 Bart’s grandpa 58 “Hey wait, that just might work” 63 Tierra ___ Fuego 64 Presidential nickname after Harry 65 Print (or reprint) of a book 66 It usually starts with www.

67 Signed, in a way 68 Saying it’s not so Down

1 “Very sexy!” (hidden in HALF A POUND) 2 “___ you nuts?”

3 Stage actress Hagen 4 California bodybuilding area, after the deer took over?

5 “___ To You” (Lady Antebellum song) 6 “Jersey Shore” guy, slangily 7 Artwork made of tiles 8 University e-mail address suffix 9 Mover in some central air conditioning 10 Delaware’s capital, after the deer take over?

11 Composer in a “Switched-On” record series 12 Cookie in some pie crusts 13 Some 18 Georgia metropolis, after the deer took over?

22 Utah metropolis, after the deer take over?

23 Led Zeppelin drummer John 24 Blackbird relative

25 Lottery come-on 29 Yankees, on the scoreboard 31 Pitcher’s stat 32 Like some T-shirt decals 33 Lasagna divider 34 Financial company with an asterisk in its name 39 Word after sports or wet 40 Tampa’s st.

42 Pastime with a mike 45 Arizona’s capital, after being taken over by deer?

46 Did some finger painting 50 “SNL” alum David 52 Singer Erykah 53 Prefix for geek or mensch 54 It’s yelled on Wall Street 56 Score after deuce, in tennis 59 Newsman Koppel 60 Half of MIV 61 Long time 62 “Brokeback Mountain” director Lee

Crossword created By Matt Jones. © 2010 Jonesin’ Crosswords. 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 #0491.

www.chattanoogapulse.com | Octber 28, 2010 | Vol. 7, Issue 43 | The Pulse

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Ask A Mexican!

By Gustavo Arellano

Even More About Sam Houston

“Sam Houston was a Mexican and American citizen at one point, but not like he bothered with the former other than to ensure a clear path to dismantle Mexican rule.”

Ask the Mexican at themexican@ askamexican.net, be his fan on Facebook, follow him on Twitter or ask him a video question at youtube.com/askamexicano!

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Dear Mexican, I was a history major at the University of Arizona in Tucson, which I believe was part of the Gadsden Purchase, the last piece of old Mexico the US “acquired.” That got me thinking: what was the citizenship status of all Mexicans/ gringos who lived in parts of Mexico “acquired” by the United States, in that big piece of territory from Texas to California? Did Mexicans gain dual citizenship—Mexican and American? Did gringos gain dual citizenship? Was Sam Houston now an American and Mexican citizen? Did Mexicans in the Gadsden Purchase now have to show their papers to U.S. sheriffs?

— Curiousa y Chula Dear Curious and Cute Gabacha, So many questions, all related to one— didn’t that degree teach you economy of words? You’re right about Tucson being part of the Gadsden Purchase and that Mexis had to show papers then like we do today. The gabachos who lived in Texas when it ceded from Mexico were technically still American citizens, since they were all really scouts for Manifest Destiny even if they took a citizenship pledge for Mexico. That made it easier for the United States to reprocess expat gabachos upon taking Aztlán, and those gabachos never bothered with their Mexican status again (besides, history major: remember that they called themselves Texians to differentiate themselves from the Hispanic tejanos). The Mexicans who lived in the conquered territories, on the otra hand, were offered the chance to become American citizens per the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Not que that did any good: those Mexicans proceeded to suffer through a century of official segregation, unlawful land grabs, and persistent discrimination—not that

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 43 | October 28, 2010 | www.chattanoogapulse.com

we’re bitter about it or anything. And, yes: Sam Houston was a Mexican and American citizen at one point, but not like he bothered with the former other than to ensure a clear path to dismantle Mexican rule.

Dear Mexican, Hey carnal: I’ve had a lot of gabachos ask me constantly about my gente’s love of gold jewelry.

I mean, from my mom and sisters’ semenarios to me and my dad’s rope chains with a cross or santo dangling from them, it’s true! Even the fact that I remember wearing jewelry even way back when we were struggling to make it day-to-day, picking onions. Way before black rappers made gems and gold in their teeth so commercial, my relatives have been sporting that same look. I’m not sure where I heard it, but is it true that one of our ancestral cultures were the first to sport gold or gems in their teeth?

— Beaners Love it, Nosy Gabachos Dear BLING, By “ancestral cultures,” you’re probably referring to the Mayans, whose artistry with shoving metals onto their dientes for aesthetic purposes has long fascinated archeologists. I wouldn’t call them the first culture to do that, though, as mankind has modified their body parts since the days of the Venus of Willendorf. The whole cosa about the poor showing off bling isn’t anything cultural but rather an indication of class, or what sociologists know as conspicuous consumption, whereby los pobres spend beyond their means on items that have no real value to them other than appearance of status. But the modern-day phenomenon of Mexicans sporting gold or silver caps and fillings in their mouth is actually physics

and economics of a different kind: gold alloys tend to last longer than other caps, while silver is more affordable. Perdón for not coming up with a funnier answer, but Mexicans aren’t always about the irrational, cabrones.

NEW PROJECT! Times are tough for everyone, but especially Mexis. The Mexican wants to help los buenos as always, and thus ask ustedes to send him non-profits, projects, community spaces, stores—anyone and anything helping out Mexis—deserving a shout-out. For example, Dos Vatos Productions is currently filming Precious Knowledge, a documentary highlighting the Mexican American Studies program offered by the Tucson Unified School District currently under attack by Know Nothings aghast that not all educators think Sam Houston is a saint. But Dos Vatos needs funds to complete their docu, so anyone interested in helping out can visit dosvatos.com. Know of a worthy cause? E-mail the Mexican!