The Pulse - Vol. 8, Issue 8

FREE • NEWS, VIEWS, MUSIC, FILM, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT • FEBRUARY 24, 2011 • VOLUME 8, ISSUE 8 • CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM

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The Pulse | Volume 8, Issue 8 | February 24, 2011 | www.chattanoogapulse.com

PULSE BEATS 4 BEYOND THE HEADLINES 7 ON THE BEAT 13 LIFE IN THE NOOG 23 ASK A MEXICAN 30

FEBRUARY

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VOLUME 8, ISSUE 8 • CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM

“Is this ‘safety measure’ really designed to rein in latenight establishments that serve alcohol?”

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— Zack Cooper on a new city sprinkler ordinance.

“Imagine that Sisyphus is actually 13 people, 8 and that they break for lunch. And that they take turns bringing snacks.”

— Allison Gorman on the Hamilton County Grand Jury.

“You must take control of your life 14 and surroundings in order to not become a victim of mediocrity.”

— Taxicab Racers on the concept behind their new album.

“This kind of art has a more overtly democratic quality, an exploration and a possible merging of the consciousness of viewer and artist.”

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— Michael Crumb on Ian Pedigo's new sculpture exhibit.

www.chattanoogapulse.com | February 24, 2011 | Volume 8, Issue 8 | The Pulse

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NEWS Chattanooga’s Weekly Alternative President Jim Brewer, II Publisher Zachary Cooper Contributing Editor Janis Hashe News Editor Gary Poole Director of Sales Rhonda Rollins Advertising Sales Rick Leavell, Michelle Pih, Townes Webb Calendar Editors Bryanna Burns, Kat Dunn Graphic Design Jennifer Grelier Pulse Contributors Gustavo Arellano, Rob Brezsny Chuck Crowder, Michael Crumb, Zack Cooper, Allison Gorman Janis Hashe, Joshua Hurley Phillip Johnston, Matt Jones, Kelly Lockhart, Ernie Paik Alex Teach, Tara V Editorial Cartoonist Rick Baldwin 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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Pulse Beats

"Q"

Haslam Announces New Legislative Package Newly seated Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam introduced his administration’s legislative package for the 2011 session last week, which he says focuses on educating the workforce, identifying the best teachers and revising the state’s civil justice system.

The legislation seeks to: • Make tenure tied to classroom performance; extend probationary time from three to five years.

• Lift the cap on charter schools and allow open enrollment.

• Allow the state’s Achievement School District (part of Race to the Top) to authorize charter schools.

• Extend use of the lottery scholarship for summer courses and cap the total number of hours based on required degree completion.

• Limit non-economic damages for both healthcare liability action and other personal injury actions.

• Limit and clarify standards for assessing punitive damages.

• Limit appeal bond amounts.

“Tennessee is poised to lead the way in educational reforms that will bring 21st century approaches into our classrooms,” Haslam said. “The Race to the Top initiative is the blueprint for us to improve student achievement, to instill strong, innovative leadership skills in our principals and to encourage high-performing teachers to share their knowledge with our children.”

The legislative agenda was, interestingly enough,

The Pulse | Volume 8, Issue 8 | February 24, 2011 | www.chattanoogapulse.com

“I think it needs to be looked at in light of how much money this city is going to spend this year.”

— Chattanooga City Council member Jack Benson, questioning the city’s annual expenditure of $20,000 for public art.

presented a day after the biggest teachers’ union in the state, the Tennessee Education Association (TEA), was coming out in strong opposition to a separate measure being debated in the state legislature that would overturn a 1978 law that gave them the power to bargain collectively with school boards.

With the issue of public employee union collective bargaining nearly paralyzing state government in Wisconsin, the issue is one that is sure to spread through the nation. A recent study by the University of Missouri noted that the five states that do not allow collective bargaining for teachers’ unions rank at the bottom of the ranking for SAT and ACT scores by high school students. South Carolina ranks 50th, North Carolina is 49th, Georgia follows in 48th place, Texas is 47th and Virginia ranks 44th. For comparison, Tennessee ranks near the middle in 30th place in the report.

Even so, the TEA appears to be onboard with Haslam’s proposals. “We share the governor’s concern that only the highest-quality teachers should attain tenure,” said Jerry Winters, the TEA’s director of government relations. “He’s putting the emphasis in the right place.”

“An effective teacher should lead every classroom, and we should recognize them.” Gov, Haslam maintains. “At the same time we should take steps to address those teachers who consistently fail to measure up to the standards we all want for every child. That should be the measure for tenure.”

• Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield is again saying that the sales tax agreement between the city and county will likely run out. And he says not to expect any kind of a fast deal. “Don’t expect it to be something worked out quickly, and probably not quietly,” the mayor said during his address to the the Southeast Tennessee Political Action Committee last Friday about the agreement. Of those who attended, many were from nonprofit organizations that worry their funding could be decreased because the city might take over their funding. The sales tax agreement is set to expire on May 23. About $10.5 million in sales tax revenue would come to city coffers and out of the county’s budget. Much of that sales tax money has been spent for the past 45 years on funding nonprofit agencies.

• The issue of Sunday liquor sales is dead for this year’s Georgia legislative session. Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers said last week the Republican caucus decided that there was just not the support to move forward. After breezing through committees with no opposition from conservatives or liquor sales groups, the proposal seemed headed for passage. The issue would have offered municipalities the option of putting the question to voters—as one of local control, not morality.

NEWS

Commentary

AVA Needs To See Beyond Downtown Do you think maybe this new AVA director will forgive us creative types for living out here in East Brainerd/Collegedale and not downtown? Do you think AVA will now somehow include the galleries out here in the Gallery Hop and other activities even though they are not located downtown?

We love Chattanooga, downtown and everywhere! How can we overcome the exclusion of creative folks out this way? We have tried everything, paid membership fees, visited, entreated, corresponded and explanations as we understand them are that it is” not convenient”, “the focus must to be on the downtown art scene’, “our galleries are too far away and no one would come” and our shows are not visited and supported because “no one has time to drive that far.” We are open to suggestions. We are all so proud of Chattanooga’s vibrant downtown art scene but such wonderful energy and inspiration is sure to naturally grow and spread, and isn’t this a good thing?

Daisy Pratt Cops Of All Types Alex Teach reminds us about Brainerd Road in the innocent world of Sheila the

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.

Wonder Horse, when a Street Monster could toss his revolver into his cruiser and wade into a Krystal, cleaning house. No punk with a Glock and advanced sociopathic tendencies inside. I have seen a few of those huge cops still around, but there is, as Teach says, more than one kind of cop. Thank goodness for both.

Felix Miller

Free Pancake Day Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and IHOP restaurants will celebrate National Pancake Day on Tuesday, March 1 from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. IHOP will be offering a free short stack of its famous buttermilk pancakes to each guest and in return, diners will be asked to leave a little something behind for T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital.

Hannah Munoz Needing Tools For The Town The founders of the Chattanooga Tool Barn will exchange drinks for tools at a donation social in Warehouse Row on February 26 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The event—aptly named a “Tool Raiser” —will raise funds and collect new or lightlyused tools to be used for local clean-up projects. Guests who attend will be offered a complimentary beverage in exchange for tool or cash donations. Members of the Tool Barn hope the donations collected at the social will create an ample supply of lendable equipment that sponsored community groups can use to make infrastructural improvements throughout the city.

Tia Capps www.chattanoogapulse.com | February 24, 2011 | Volume 8, Issue 8 | The Pulse

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NEWS

Politics & Crime 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.

Here is one of the agenda items to be discussed at the Tuesday, March 1 meeting of the Chattanooga City Council.

13. Recognition of Persons Wishing to Address the Council on Non-Agenda Matters.

At the end of every council meeting, anyone can have three minutes to address the entire body about anything on their mind, as long as it wasn’t something already covered in the agenda for that meeting and is an issue that falls under the purview of the council.

If you have a complaint, compliment, suggestion or even a beef with the city, this is your time to get the undivided attention of all nine council members (and the city attorney, to boot).

Even better, the heads of the various city departments—ranging from the Police Department to Public Works to Neighborhood Services and a good dozen other agencies—are usually present at the meetings, which can be very beneficial.

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 current agenda, and past minutes, visit www.Chattanooga.gov/City_Council

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• While it’s understandable that not having custody of your child can be very upsetting, that’s no reason to snatch the child and flee across state lines. Yet that is just what an East Ridge man is accused of doing. A woman, who had been granted temporary custody of her grandchild, called police when the biological father showed up at her house, grabbed the child out of his crib and fled. Making matters worse, when he drove away, he nearly hit the grandmother. Dade County deputies, working with East Ridge officers, managed to locate the father and convinced him to return the child.

Unfortunately for the wayward parent, chances are he won’t be able to see his offspring for some time, as he’s now facing charges of kidnapping and aggravated assault, and considering he crossed over the state line, he may be in deeper trouble with federal authorities.

• Taking your child to work is a great way for youngsters to get a first-hand view of what the business world is really like. However, it is not recommended when your job involves the manufacture and sale of methamphetamine.

As part of a round-up of suspected meth labs in the North Hamilton County area, officers came upon one on Eveningside Drive in Soddy-Daisy. There, they found an 8-month-old

The Pulse | Volume 8, Issue 8 | February 24, 2011 | www.chattanoogapulse.com

baby in the same place its parents were mixing toxic chemicals. The 35-year-old father and 31-year-old mother were arrested and have been charged with several drugrelated offenses along with aggravated child abuse. The baby was taken to T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital to be treated for exposure to the chemicals and is expected to be just fine.

• Not everyone, even children, loves fast food. At least that’s the conclusion one can draw from the fact that a 9-year-old boy has been arrested by Chattanooga fire investigators in connection with a fire that occurred at a fast-food restaurant on Shallowford Road back on February 5. The fire started in the men’s restroom and the entire restaurant had to be evacuated. Fortunately, Chattanooga firefighters arrived and quickly got the blaze under control, containing the fire damage to the restroom. Better yet, no one was injured, though the dollar loss was estimated at $5,000. Fire investigators managed to piece together evidence and eyewitness statements and charged the burger-hating youth with aggravated arson.

• Whenever a wanted suspect tries to flee from authorities on TV or in the movies, the

first thing detectives say is, “Notify the airports.” Turns out that works quite well in real life, too. A man wanted in Bradley County for growing marijuana in his house was caught in Miami, trying to leave the country. The 31 year old was returned to Tennessee, where he will face charges of cultivating marijuana after nearly 200 plants were found in his Mount Bethel Road home last week. U.S. customs agents at the Miami International Airport caught the man as he tried to board a flight to Ecuador. Other charges he faces include possession of a Schedule 6 drug for resale and possession of drug paraphernalia. And adding insult to injury, he won’t even get a refund on his plane ticket.

OPINION

Beyond The Headlines

Of Smoke and Mirrors

By Zack Cooper, Pulse Publisher

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ast week, the city council passed a resolution to adopt fire codes that will require certain establishments to install sprinkler systems. In reading the minutes from that meeting, it’s clear there are many questions and more than enough confusion about this issue.

This ordinance stems from the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Life Safety Code, known as NFPA 101. It’s important to note that the “Life Safety Code” is not a legal code and has no legal implications to any municipality or government entity. It is intentionally written to make it easily adoptable and enforceable by local governments within their own ordinance(s), sort of like “cut and paste” regulatory measures. The “Life Safety Code” is also widely used as a source for determining liability, and insurance companies use it to determine risk and insurance rates.

this ordinance is like saying that since terrorists on September 11 attacked tall buildings, we should convert the Republic Building downtown to seven stories.

And then there is confusion in the language of the ordinance that determines what types of establishments it applies to. It specifically defines “nightclubs” as establishments with an “occupancy of 100 or more” that “serve alcohol after 11 p.m.”

What, is it, exactly, about “nightclub” fire safety that the city council has concerns about? We have many restaurants that seat more than 100 people that do not have sprinkler systems, and in which a fast-moving fire would pose just as much danger to its occupants as it would if they were shaking tail on a dance floor or listening to music during an open mic night.

So, obviously, restaurants are not the target of the ordinance. But does this mean that restaurants that have a DJ or a singer with a guitar, where you might order a cocktail at 11:15 p.m. are either A) not allowed to have live music, B) not allowed to serve alcohol when the music starts after 11 or C) all the above if they do not have sprinkler systems? Can patrons dance in any of the above scenarios? Is dancing is a risk factor in commercial building fires? Is it that live music is the main risk? Is it serving alcohol? Is it the capacity of the building?

Consider this example: There is a restaurant in town

“Is this ‘safety measure’ really designed to rein in late-night establishments that serve alcohol? One could argue that it seems suspiciously like a ‘sin’ ordinance.”

Clearly, one of the aspects of this ordinance is to give the City of Chattanooga legal protection. And then there is the “public safety” argument. There have been citings of high-profile fires going back to the Coconut Grove nightclub in 1942 and the 2003 fire at The Station in Rhode Island.

Public safety is important, but citing the Rhode Island fire (caused by the idiotic use of pyrotechnics by the band’s tour manager) provides little support for the proposed new ordinance. Using that as the logic behind

with a lounge separate from its main dining room. Three nights a week, that lounge has a DJ performing. Alcohol is served until 1 a.m. and people regularly dance in front of the DJ. Would this establishment have to install sprinklers? Are they a “nightclub” according to the ordinance? A lounge with an occasional DJ? How does this ordinance apply to them or does it at all?

I doubt that any of your city council members, or the fire marshal himself, could answer that without legal assistance. What’s really going on here? Is this “safety measure” really designed to rein in late-night establishments that serve alcohol? One could argue that it seems suspiciously like a “sin” ordinance.

One way a city has to keep momentum is in nightlife and entertainment. During the past five years or so, we have seen the resurgence of the live-music scene. This heavy-handed ordinance is completely counterproductive to constructively working with the existing businesses who are catalysts for this.

I constantly hear from readers about what they feel is lacking in Chattanooga. The single most recurring complaint, especially from those in the 25-35 age range, is the need for more nightlife. We can all agree that safety is vital to public spaces—but is it not smarter, and more fair, to grandfather existing establishments under current codes and move forward from there?

The city council will have met and had a second reading the night before The Pulse is distributed. I hope a motion on this ordinance can be delayed, so more time can be spent talking with concerned business owners and citizens.

www.chattanoogapulse.com | February 24, 2011 | Volume 8, Issue 8 | The Pulse

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COVER STORY

Grand Justice

Rock and Roll: The True Story of the Hamilton County Grand Jury

By Allison Gorman, Pulse Investigative Reporter

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today—the same frustrations, questions and concerns; the same calls for atust off your knowledge of Greek mythology and recall Sisyphus, the tention to and correction of many apparent problems; the same observaking who angered the gods and was sentenced to push a rock up a steep hill— tions and recommendations.”

The habitual reappearance of the same defendants has become an indigan eternal task, as the rock always rolled back down. nity to the institution that indicts them time and again: Now imagine that Sisyphus is actually 13 people, and that they break for “We…are disgusted to see so many defendants have serious charges dislunch. And that they take turns bringing snacks.

But the rock-rolling-down-the-hill thing? There’s your metaphor for the missed in Criminal Court…It is infuriating that most of them rarely receive any real punishment.”

Hamilton County Grand Jury.

Critiquing the outcome of criminal cases falls outside the grand jury’s purMany people don’t know what a state grand jury does, and that’s not surprising. Grand jury proceedings are secret—plus, we live in an America where view, says Judge Rebecca Stern, who supervises the grand jury along with All I Really Need to Know about Grand Juries I Learned from Law & Order. fellow Criminal Court Judges Barry Steelman and Don Poole. In December, Federal grand juries, which do headline-grabbing work like investigating cor- the three judges opted not to reappoint longtime Foreperson Marsha Crabtree, whose grand jury’s reports had become increasingly strident in their ruption, lend themselves to dramatization. State criticism of the county’s criminal justice system. grand juries? Not so much.

Each grand jury in Tennessee’s 31 judicial districts operates a little differently, but in the Eleventh Judicial District—Hamilton County—it has two jobs: First, it hears evidence to determine whether a criminal case merits a jury trial. Second, it tours four county penal facilities and issues a report suggesting improvements.

The Hamilton County Grand Jury hears about 75 cases a week. Most are routine, and because the evidence required to indict is minimal, most end up in criminal court. (Hence the adage that even a ham sandwich can be indicted by the grand jury.)

The grand jury’s reports are routine, too. They come out every four months, always covering the same territory: The county jail, Silverdale, the Juvenile Justice Center, Community Corrections. Compare last year’s reports to those from a decade or so ago—they’re public record—and you’ll read the same problems and recommendations, year after year.

What has changed in those reports is more subtle. The words are stronger, the focus broader.

Chronic concerns left unaddressed—a poorly designed jail, inadequate facilities for juveniles—have become grievances: “We’re amazed that most of what has been reported by Grand Juries for the past 20 years is essentially the same as what we feel to be true even

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The Pulse | Volume 8, Issue 8 | February 24, 2011 | www.chattanoogapulse.com

COVER STORY

Grand Justice

The role of the grand jury in that system is largely perfunctory—“just another stop on the way up to criminal court,” Poole says.

As such, the grand jury is witness to the fact that a great number of defendants making that stop have made it many times before. But except in the rare instance when the grand jury surprises by failing to indict, its effect is negligible.

Tennessee is one of only 22 states where the grand jury is required or constitutionally protected; many states no longer use grand juries at all. Asked what the practical result would be if Tennessee followed suit, Poole was candid: “I don’t know that it would make any difference.”

Meanwhile, the Hamilton County Grand Jury keeps pushing that rock up the hill.

Not so grand

They do so with surprising dedication. The three former grand jurors we interviewed waxed enthusiastic about serving, despite the meager compensation of $13 a day. (Now jurors also get parking and coffee.) “We took turns bringing snacks,” recalls Stacey Walker, who served in 2007. “I work for McKee Foods, so I brought in Little Debbies. They loved that.”

Grand jury service is a valuable education—“eyeopening,” all three call it.

Both Jenny and Bob (pseudonyms) say the experience made them less complacent about their personal safety; Bob says it shattered his long-held assumption that violent crime occurs only in the inner city. “There was a murder very close to my house that I’d never even heard about,” he says. “There were problems and issues

all over the county.”

Still, it was time well spent, he says. “There were days I didn’t particularly like hearing some of the ugliness, but I found it totally fascinating.”

Walker says when she was called, she had no idea what to expect; she’d never even seen a regular jury trial. While she also found the process “fascinating,” she adds, “I didn’t think we were that grand.

It sounds grand when you’re talking to the press—‘Soand-so was indicted by the grand jury’—but we just sort of listened to the case and said, ‘Yeah, well, it needs to go to trial.’”

The grand jury doesn’t determine guilt or innocence; it determines whether there’s probable cause to believe that a crime was committed and that the defendant committed it.

Almost all the cases that went before Walker’s jury ended as “true bills” (indictments), she says. “There were a couple that were questionable,” she says, “but in general, they’ve got enough evidence.”

That evidence is only prosecutorial, against the defendant. It’s prepared by the district attorney’s office and presented by a witness—usually a law enforcement officer—who often can relate only hearsay, not what he saw happen. The jurors may question the witness; the foreperson and an assistant district attorney are available for consultation.

There must be 12 votes to return a true bill, which sends a case to criminal court. (The thirteenth juror is an alternate.) If the vote is 11–1, the foreperson can cast the twelfth vote to indict. Any other combination is a “no bill,” and the case ends there.

There are several provisional rarities: A defense attorney can, but rarely does, request that his client testify before the grand jury. The grand jury can, but rarely does, subpoena the victim. The foreperson rarely casts that twelfth vote.

No bills are also relatively rare—in a typical week, about five per 75 indictments, says Assistant District Attorney Bill West.

“The only times we failed to indict was if there wasn’t enough information,” Jenny said via e-mail. “This was VERY rare.”

“They wrote a letter to (District Attorney) Bill Cox asking him to take the case to the other grand jury…We never heard back; it just went away.”

Rejecting the “rubber stamp”

Part of that is logical: The grand jury hears mostly cut-and-dried cases, like DUIs. And part of it is logistic: The grand jury hears hours of cases, each lasting about 15 minutes, then votes on the lot as a whole. “You don’t have time to poll each one,” Walker says. “At the end of the day they’d just say, ‘Raise your hand if they should go,’ and every once in awhile we’d have one where we’d say, ‘No, we don’t think it should go,’ and we’d have a discussion.”

That discussion can get “pretty conflicted and heated,” says Crabtree, former foreperson. She cites as an example the case of a Chattanooga man charged with criminally negligent homicide after he accidentally left his toddler in a sweltering car, repeatedly ignoring his car alarm. Crabtree’s grand jury didn’t indict. “But they were really upset about it,” she says. “They wrote a let-

Just the Facts: The Hamilton County Grand Jury, Deconstructed Anyone who’s 18 and has a state driver’s license and no felony convictions can serve on a Tennessee grand jury. But according to District Attorney General Greeley Wells of Sullivan County, a grand jury expert, once a 13-person grand jury is empanelled, it operates differently in each of Tennessee’s 31 judicial districts—from the role of the district attorney to the manner of foreman appointment.

In Hamilton County, the Eleventh

Judicial District, there are two new grand juries empanelled every four months. These “regular” and “concurrent” grand juries are equals, alternating weeks of service throughout the four-month period.

Each grand jury has a standing foreperson who is appointed—and in Hamilton County, historically, reappointed—every two years by the three criminal court judges.

Those judges also nominate candidates for appointment, often tapping citizens who

had served commendably on an earlier grand or petit (regular) jury. Such is the case with current forepersons Robert Smith and Ruth Thomas, as well as Thomas’s predecessor, Marsha Crabtree. The foreman works twoand-a-half days a week, every other week, for about $50 a day.

The 13 members of each grand jury make $13 a day working two days every other week, from about 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Each week the grand jury hears about 75 cases,

prepared by the district attorney’s office.

(While private citizens can present a case to the grand jury, they must follow strict protocol per the office of the criminal court clerk. It almost never happens, Crabtree says.)

Both grand juries also tour the four county penal facilities they’re charged with overseeing. At the end of their empanelment, each body issues an official report on two of the facilities.

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COVER STORY

Grand Justice

“The decision not to reappoint Crabtree—the first non-reappointment in recent memory in Hamilton County—came down to the perception of fairness, Stern says.” ter to (District Attorney) Bill Cox asking him to take the case to the other grand jury…We never heard back; it just went away. My group was really disturbed, and so was the other grand jury for not getting the opportunity to hear the case.”

Especially in emotion-charged cases, she says, she constantly cautioned jurors to apply the law as written, regardless of whether they agreed with it. “She had to keep reminding us, ‘You have to do what the law says,’” one juror recalls. “Some people didn’t want to do that. They wanted to vote their conscience.”

While defense attorneys complain that the grand jury is a tool for the prosecution, Crabtree says, the vote “is certainly not the ‘rubber stamp’ process often referred to.”

West similarly rejects the “rubber stamp” premise. “They have no-billed cases that, frankly, surprised us,” he says.

Still, unexpected no bills have been so rare that everyone we interviewed pointed to the same example: the case of Chattanooga Police Detective Kenneth Freeman—the infamous Walmart-greeterpusher.

Because its proceedings are secret, we’ll never know why the grand jury didn’t indict Freeman. And secret proceedings are optimal for certain highly sensitive cases, notes grand jury expert Greeley Wells, Sullivan County’s district attorney general.

“The grand jury is a forum for cases that really shouldn’t be in public. There are a lot of things, like accusations of child abuse, that could ruin someone,” even if charges are dropped, Wells says.

In this instance, though, secrecy may not have served justice. While a no bill should function as procedural euthanasia for a dying case, there were both witnesses to and video of the Freeman incident—evidence that would seem to rise at least to

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The Pulse | Volume 8, Issue 8 | February 24, 2011 | www.chattanoogapulse.com

the level of probable cause. Freeman was found guilty in the court of public opinion; it’s plausible that, given the opportunity, a jury of his peers would have convicted him, too.

The Hamilton County Grand Jury likely knocked that case off its natural trajectory—a rarity, indeed.

Pushing too hard?

Marsha Crabtree isn’t the first person to argue that what really keeps criminal cases from reaching their just conclusion is the courtroom deal. But in Chattanooga, she’s been among the most vocal. In her 10 terms as grand jury foreperson, she watched 20 years’ worth of repeat offenders make that perfunctory stop through the Hamilton County Grand Jury.

“She knew them all,” Walker says. “Pretty much when they came in, she’d give us all the background.”

Multiple reappointments of a foreperson is common in some jurisdictions, including Hamilton County, and the resulting institutional knowledge can ease the process considerably, Wells says. Some jurisdictions appoint a new foreperson every time a grand jury is empanelled; in one, he saw a foreperson so bewildered by the paperwork that she didn’t know where to sign her own name.

But Stern suggests that too much historical perspective can distort a foreperson’s inherently limited perception: “It’s got to be frustrating when you hear a case and you’ve made up your mind as grand jury foreperson that this guy’s going to be convicted of murder…and then you get a blurb on the six o'clock news that so-and-so was convicted of reckless homicide, when you thought he’d be getting the death penalty. You’re outraged, because you heard the worst part and you didn’t hear the whole story.”

COVER STORY

Grand Justice

And polite outrage permeates Crabtree’s grand jury’s reports.

“Marsha had some very strong opinions, and we talked about it,” Bob says, “Her mark is written; that’s why so many of the reports read very similarly, because she was pushing her spin on it. I don’t disagree with the point that we ultimately made, because we had to come back and bless it. But she really wrote it.”

holds more weight than that of just a mere citizen.”

So how much weight does a grand jury report hold?

Every four months, the two grand jury reports go to the Criminal Court judges, the penal facilities, the city council, the county commission, and the county’s state legislators. But the jurors we interviewed remembered no action resulting from their reports. “Other than just being neat little field trip activities (to the penal facilities), I don’t know that we accomplished anything,” Bob says. Crabtree recalls one significant action in 20 years: the building of an indoor recreation area at the Juvenile Justice Center.

Poole says the reports are more a matter of record than actionable documents.

“If they said the prisoners weren’t being fed properly, or it was too cold, I would think…remedial action would be taken. But it’s usually a big thing, like, ‘We need a new jail.’ Well, absent the money, it’s not going to happen.”

And so the grand jury struggles to find purpose in pushing that rock: “We cannot help but wonder,” the grand jury reported last August, “if most of this isn’t a senseless exercise in futility.”

“Chronic concerns left unaddressed—a poorly designed jail, inadequate facilities for juveniles— have become grievances.”

The decision not to reappoint Crabtree—the first non-reappointment in recent memory in Hamilton County—came down to the perception of fairness, Stern says. When a grand jury critiques the outcome of criminal cases, it casts doubt on that body’s ability to operate without bias, she says.

“Their job is not to opine about the general working of the criminal justice system any more than any citizen,” she says. “But when you put it in a grand jury report, it

Frustration as institution Certainly, grand-juror-as-existentialist wasn’t the vision of our Founding Fathers, who treasured the grand jury concept enough to include it in the Bill of Rights.

The institution may be a relic of 12th-century England, but there’s something distinctly American in the notion of common folk protecting one another from government excess.

While the right to a grand jury hearing is guaranteed at the federal level, the practical value of state grand juries has long been debated. More than a decade ago, Wells says, Tennessee’s Supreme Court commissioned an expert panel to weigh the practical value of the grand jury. The group recommended Tennessee do away with it.

“They issued a report that was promptly put out on shelves and is collecting dust,” Wells says.

The Hamilton County Grand Jury knows how they feel.

For more information about the Hamilton County Grand Jury, juror qualifications and compensation, visit: www.hamiltontn.gov/courts/Juries/Grand

www.chattanoogapulse.com | February 24, 2011 | Volume 8, Issue 8 | The Pulse

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OPINION

On The Beat

The Law Finally Thaws H

ere they are: the first “warm” days of the year. People begin to poke their heads out of their doorways, and consider rediscovering their sidewalks and streets.

They get a chance to step outside and survey yards not covered with snow or leaves (in most cases), and see the ravages of winter in the form of broken tree limbs, broken fences, and sagging rain gutters that need to be addressed, which they had not seen beforehand while more concerned with rushing from the car to the front door to escape the cruelty of sub-freezing winds over the last few months.

People realistically consider pulling boats out of storage for the first time (though not right away of course) or wearing “just a T-shirt” under their coat the next day… and as the temperature rises, some even appreciate the first day of the season that that they might get to flip that thermostat switch from “Heat” to “A/C”. And a select minority of those folks (generally the ones who forsook heat pumps for natural gas or wood stoves) get to do so only to find that some asshole has ripped their entire HVAC system from the back (or side) of their house in order to sell its $2,500 dollars’ worth of equipment for about $45 dollars in the value of its copper components.

Ahhh…Spring.

Crime, like sports and political winds, is seasonal. It’s no easier to drive a hammer or swing a sledge on an honest job outdoors during sub-freezing temperatures than it is to work a hacksaw or a set of bolt cutters when cutting the copper water pipes from underneath an unoccupied (or foreclosed) house if you are a scumbag thief. Sure,

there are fewer bugs active under there when it’s cold, but does that really make up for much when you can’t feel your hands in pitch darkness? Bless their felonious, cowardly hearts.

Cops (district cars, anyways) are kind of like those same bugs during the wintertime. Lethargic, cold, almost hibernating with their decline in both criminal clientele and core body temperatures, spending more time pulling collars up above their necks and toboggans below their ears to fend off the elements…but they, too, begin to flex and get active as their prey (and limbs) begin to thaw.

It’s an interesting shift.

Criminals lose the advantage of excessive clothing and bulky jackets with which to conceal guns and contraband, and they are sad. Whereas cops get to shed the same and therefore have easier access to guns (and contraband, I suppose), and they are happy.

These are the days upon us as I type this from the patio of a closed Mexican restaurant I tend to frequent when the Crown Vic gets a little too claustrophobic. Winds from the northeast tonight at a pleasant 56 degrees and clear starry skies overhead…just nice enough to give you hope for warmer days, but not enough to make you forget that the month of March has an old habit of beating you to death with ice from time to time for such insolent thoughts. But tonight? It’s a literal spring break to me, minus the fun, the hangovers, and the unplanned preg-

Alex Teach

nancies.

Young lovers begin to walk the lanes of the Riverwalk downtown at night, and young felons can begin to stalk them again (or just burglarize their vehicles; God bless free choice). Gang members will be able to represent themselves through inexpensive T-shirts again, instead of having to bear the unfair expense of appropriately colored winter jackets.

And perhaps my favorite sight of all, the vagrants can once again decentralize from the East 11th Street “bug light for bums” that drew them there and go out to where they truly belong, on the exit ramps of I-75 and Shallowford Road and I-24 (South Terrace) and Moore Road. Seeing one just today at Moore Road in his brandnew lawn chair (as opposed to a now-unfashionable milk crate) with his customary poorly scrawled “Need Help”

“Young lovers begin to walk the lanes of the Riverwalk downtown at night, and young felons can begin to stalk them again (or just burglarize their vehicles; God bless free choice).” sign nearly brought a tear to my eye. Seriously! The same tear was there as I got to, for the first time in months, get out with him and run his dirty ass off for the first of what I am sure will be dozens of skirmishes this season. (“Wait!”

I will cry next time, “You forgot your chiv!”)

As I uttered earlier: “Ahh…Spring.” I’m ready.

Are you?

When Officer Alexander D. Teach is not patrolling our fair city on the heels of the criminal element, he is an occasional student, carpenter, boating enthusiast, and spends his spare time volunteering for the Boehm Birth Defects Center. Follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/alex.teach

www.chattanoogapulse.com | February 24, 2011 | Volume 8, Issue 8 | The Pulse

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MUSIC

Feature

Racing Forward on a New Journey

By Tara V. Pulse Music Writer

C

hange can be difficult. Even when we are ready, there are often unexpected surprises that wrench us out of our comfort zone. I was recently talking with a new acquaintance who wasn’t having the best of days. After encouraging her that we all felt this way and have been through these types of emotions, she explained her years in cities such as LA, NYC, and beyond. She was beginning to feel confined by the quarterlife crisis of deciding what to do with herself in a smaller city.

As her pretty lil’ eyes teared up, I couldn’t help but summon a huge smile, and with all sincerity I suggested, “Just leave.”

Shock followed understanding and I saw the wheels begin to turn in her head. You see, life is about change for some of us—we just need to be reminded at times. Life is about continuing on, moving up, and seeing all there is to see, and as the band Taxicab Racers continues to move up and see the full potential of what they can accomplish in this world, they contribute their experiences through their music and new EP, Hunter/Beggar.

the area motivated them to devote their energy to music. You don’t often hear of bands taking such pride in their hometown, but it was time to expand. After moving to Chattanooga and playing here for a few years, Josh and Adam will soon join Michael and Nate as they build and continue to expand in the Music City.

They have definitely earned a soft spot over the years in the hearts of many people in the Chattanooga area and on Saturday, February 26, the entire group comes home to JJ’s Bohemia, mixing up a bill of new and old friends, continuing to prove why we are so in love with JJ’s Bohemia.

During our discussion of Hunter/Beggar, I began to wonder if my editors were sending me these sorts of assignments as a conspiracy to offer me therapy in my own life by talking with other creatives about the difference in truly living. The concept of the Hunter and Beggar stems from the thought that you must take control of your life and surroundings in order to not become a victim of mediocrity, and the struggle that comes with trying to live your dreams and expand hope into a not-always-accepting society.

On the third track, “Angel Eyes”, you get a sense of songwriter Roddy’s meticulous siphoning of emotions that develops into a stream of intelligent messages throughout the entire EP: “ Are we breaking? I refuse to rest. I’m a hunter seeking game, no I’m a beggar bumming change, how we all need

“The concept of the Hunter and Beggar stems from the thought that you must take control of your life and surroundings in order to not become a victim of mediocrity.”

Inside a lively Hair of The Dog I met with members Josh Dillard (drums/ percussion) and Adam Newport, (bass). As members Michael Roddy (vocals/guitar/piano/synth) and Nate Zensen (electric guitar) have moved up to Nashville, Josh and Adam were able to clue me into the history and recent news about their group. With all members growing up in Rhea County, Adam and Josh shared their experiences of playing music in a small town.

I was intrigued to learn that there was a substantial music community and this support and watching other bands in

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something to chase...we’re all inspired, looking for love tonight...we all need something to chase...hope is alive.”

Hunter/Beggar was recorded between The Grant House and Quad Studio in Nashville.

Quad Studio is Nashville’s longest-running independent studio. During their 40 years they have recorded musicians such as The Fray, My Chemical Romance, Elvis Presley, Neil Young, G-Unit, Johnny Cash, Mudvayne, and now Taxicab Racers. Produced by Chad Howat, member of the popular indie-rock band Paper Route, and now being booked by Jeremy Tharp of Forward Motion Entertainment, the man who dealt with The Avett Brothers for many years, it seems Taxicab Racers are closer and closer to their dream. Not too bad for some boys from Rhea County.

At JJ’s with Taxicab Racers will be Nashville’s The Bridges, whose vocalist Brittany Painter joins them on the last track of Hunter/Beggar. North Dakota’s Secret Cities and Chattanooga’s own Concerning Lions will also share the stage Saturday night.

It’s refreshing to talk to others who are ready to take control of their lives and embark on new journeys, even if that journey is in or far away from your hometown. Change is good. Taxicab Racers, we wish you the best of luck.

Taxicab Racers, The Bridges, Secret Cities, Concerning Lions $7 10 p.m. Saturday, February 26 JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd (423) 266-1400. www.myspace.com/jjsbohemia

MUSIC

Ernie Paik's CD Reviews

East River Pipe

We Live in Rented Rooms (Merge)

Wa t c h ing a sewer pipe spew filth into the East River is what inspired the name of F.M. Cornog’s oneperson band, East River Pipe, providing a glimpse of the self-deprecation often found in his work, which includes songs such as “I Am a Small Mistake” and “My Life Is Wrong.” Years ago, Cornog was homeless with a drinking problem, and he defeated that former self with the help of fanturned-partner-turned-wife Barbara Powers and harnessed his songwriting talents as a personality extension to reverse his outlook.

The latest East River Pipe album, We Live in Rented Rooms, maintains the outfit’s recognizable sonic identity, which has changed only slightly over two decades of releases. Cornog uses a drum machine to provide often sparse percussion backing tracks behind paced guitar strumming and picked melodies, warm and subtle keyboard chords, and Cornog’s comforting voice, which can rise in intensity at choice moments without being schmaltzy or overwrought.

The album takes its time before it digs in, and its high points are found on its second half; “When You Were Doing Cocaine” manages to have some wonderfully transcendental moments while telling a concise, old-school-Lou Reed/Trainspotting-esque story, and the poignant “Conman” weaves personal symbolism into its characters (a salesman, a priest, and a killer) and mortality anxieties, ending with ambient synthetics.

East River Pipe’s catalog is fairly consistent with a few standouts (newcomers should start with the nearly flawless Mel from 1996), and We Live in Rented Rooms resides somewhere in the middle of the outfit’s quality range. With his songs, Cornog seems to be defeating sadness by taking it to some extreme and beating it at its own game; imagine a more intimate, personal version of the heartbreaking, gloomy songwriting of the Magnetic Fields’ Stephin Merritt with the down-and-out characters of the catalog of Tom Waits, packaged in uncomplicated, modest, clean, relaxed indie-pop home recordings.

Henry Threadgill Zooid

This Brings Us To, Volume II (Pi Recordings)

I can hear it in my head: a deep-voiced narrator says, movie-trailerstyle, “In a world where jazz runs free, there are no rules.” Some might consider free jazz—that is, improv-heavy jazz without dependence on existing forms—to be the final frontier of jazz, but now that it’s been around for more than a half-century, certain free-jazz clichés have emerged, like wide, sweeping, dynamic waves of calm contrasted with volume and disorder.

Reed player Henry Threadgill, an early member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and saxophonist/ flutist in the ’70s-’80s group Air, sought to develop methods to frame collective improvisation to avoid beaten paths in the free jazz realm. For his band Zooid, Threadgill makes compositions that allow the players to have freedom within interval blocks, creating a space for improvisation and musical dialogues.

The latest Zooid offering, This Brings Us To, Volume II, follows the acclaimed Volume I from 2009 with the same quintet, and despite Threadgill’s new compositional techniques, sonically, the album won’t sound too outwardly radical to those who have listened to more than a couple avant-garde jazz albums; still, it works for the most part.

The opener, “Lying Eyes,” first uses acoustic guitar runs and rhythm section rustling before Threadgill’s flute emerges—hesitant at first, then agitated and fluttering, with a few piercing calls; only during the final minute of the tenminute piece do the melodies converge, for the flute and trombone. The title track starts with rough bass plucks and ends with a woven swatch of guitar, bass, and odd tuba bleats, and “Extremely Sweet William” is perhaps the most integrated number of the album, with a more traditional jazz drumming style and tuneful, fluid guitar playing. For several songs, and the album as a whole, the structures are like mysteries— the beginning and middle sections are spent in puzzlement, with things only making sense at the end. www.chattanoogapulse.com | February 24, 2011 | Volume 8, Issue 8 | The Pulse

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MUSIC

Concert Calendar FRIDAY

THURSDAY

Hap Henninger

Local singer/songwriter lays it down.

No cover.

9 p.m.

The Office, 901 Carter St. Find them on Facebook

Thursday

Jimmy Harris 6:30 p.m. The Coconut Room at The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd., #202. (423) 499-5055. www.thepalmsathamilton.com Open Mic Night 8 p.m. The CampHouse, 1427 Williams St. (423) 702-8081. www.thecamphouse.com Live Music Show 9 p.m. Pasha Coffee & Tea, 3914 St. Elmo Ave. (423) 475-5482. www.pashacoffeehouse.com/Events Hap Henninger 9 p.m. The Office, 901 Carter St. (inside Days Inn). facebook.com/theofficechatt Here Come the Mummies 9 p.m. Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St. (423) 267-4644. www.rhythm-brews.com The Independents, Worst Kept Secret, Local Union 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400. www.myspace.com/jjsbohemia

Friday

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

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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 Coconut Room at The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd., #202. (423) 499-5055. www.thepalmsathamilton.com Chasy Adams Band 8 p.m. Southside Saloon & Bistro.

1301 Chestnut St. (423) 757-4730. www.southsidesaloonandbistro.com Jerry Fordham 8 p.m. McHales Brewhouse, 724 Ashland Ter. (423) 877-2124.

Heypenny, Poison Control Center, Land Camera, Heaven’s Basement, Action!

8 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400. www.myspace.com/jjsbohemia Claire Lynch with Matt Wingate 8 p.m. Barking Legs, 1307 Dodds Ave. (423) 624-5347. www.barkinglegs.org Rich Bauman 8 p.m. Charles & Myrtle’s Coffeehouse, 105 McBrien Rd. (423) 892-4960. www.christunity.org Smooth Flight Jazz 8:30 p.m. The Foundry, 1201 S. Broad St. (423) 756-3400. www.chattanooganhotel.com Black Folk Inc., Yelawolf, Glamourlyke 9 p.m. 412 MRKT, 412 Market St. Mark “Porkchop” Holder 9 p.m. The Office, 901 Carter St. (inside Days Inn). facebook.com/theofficechatt Matt Martinez 9 p.m. Raw, 409 Market St. (423) 756-1919. www.myspace.com/jimstriker

DJ 33 and Dancing 9 p.m. Backstage (inside Holiday Bowl), 5518 Brainerd Rd. (423) 899-2695.

DJ and Dancing 9 p.m. Spectators, 7804 E. Brainerd Rd. (423) 648-6679.

Crossfire!

9 p.m. Bart’s Lakeshore, 5600 Lakeshore Dr. (423) 870-0777. www.bartslakeshore.com DJ and Dancing 9 p.m. The Lounge at The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd., #202. (423) 499-5055.

Cornmeal with Captain Midnight 10 p.m. Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St. (423) 267-4644. www.rhythm-brews.com Killing Kurt Reifler 10 p.m. Market Street Tavern, 850 Market St. (433) 634-0260. www.marketstreettavern.com Nathan Farrow 10 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878. www.budssportsbar.com Jordan Hallquist 10 p.m. Tremont Tavern, 850 Market St. (423) 634-0260. www.marketstreettavern.com Muddy Mule 10 p.m. T-Bones, 1419 Chestnut St. (423) 266-4240. www.tboneschattanooga.com

Saturday

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

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

Heypenny, Poison Control Center, Land Camera, Heaven’s Basement, Action!

Large and loud party celebrating Heypenny’s new CD. $7 8 p.m. (yes, that’s right) JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd.

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

The Vivs, The Mackeys, 40 oz. Folklore, Local Union, The Unsatisfied, The Value, The Hillstreet Hooligins 7 p.m. Ziggy’s Underground, 607 Cherokee Blvd. (423) 756-4786. www.myspace.com/ziggyshideaway Listener, Brando, Our American Cousin, Night Owl 7 p.m. The Warehouse, 5716 Ringgold Rd., East Ridge.

7th Annual Black History Month Step Show 7 p.m. Memorial Auditorium, 399 McCallie Ave. (423) 757-5156. www.chattanoogaonstage.com U. S. Pipe 8 p.m. Southside Saloon & Bistro,1301 Chestnut St. (423) 757-4730. southsidesaloonandbistro.com 9th Annual Johnny Cash Birthday Bash 8 p.m. Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St. (423) 267-4644. www.rhythm-brews.com

MUSIC

Concert Calendar

SATURDAY

The Rosin Sisters

Not born sisters, but joined in the love of roots music. $10 8 p.m.

Barking Legs Theater, 1307 Dodds Ave. (423) 624-5347. www.barkinglegs.org The Rosin Sisters 8 p.m. Barking Legs, 1307 Dodds Avenue. (423) 624-5347. www.barkinglegs.org Smooth Flight Jazz 8:30 p.m. The Foundry, 1201 S. Broad St. (423) 756-3400. www.chattanooganhotel.com Stevie Monce 9 p.m. Raw, 409 Market St. (423) 756-1919. www.myspace.com/jimstriker DJ 33 and Dancing 9 p.m. Backstage (inside Holiday Bowl), 5518 Brainerd Rd. (423) 899-2695.

The Molly Maguires Show 9 p.m. McHales Brewhouse, 724 Ashland Ter. (423) 877-2124.

Barron Wilson 9 p.m. The Office, 901 Carter St. (inside Days Inn).

The Bridges, Taxicab Racers, Secret Cities, Concerning Lions 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400. www.myspace.com/jjsbohemia Trey Reys 10 p.m. Market Street Tavern, 850 Market St. (423) 634-0260. www.marketstreettavern.com

SUNDAY

Whole Fried Trout 10 p.m. T-Bones, 1419 Chestnut St. (423) 266-4240. www.tboneschattanooga.com Moon Slew 10 p.m. Tremont Tavern, 850 Market St. (423) 634-0260. www.marketstreettavern.com Soul Survivor 10 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878.

Sunday

Traditional Irish Music 3 p.m. The Honest Pint, 35 Patten Pkwy. (423) 468-4192.

Open Mic with Jeff Daniels 4 p.m. Ms. Debbie’s Nightlife Lounge 4762 Highway 58, (423) 485-0966. myspace.com/debbieslounge DJ Night 8 p.m. McHales Brewhouse, 724 Ashland Terrace. (423) 877-2124.

DJ and Dancing 9 p.m. Bart’s Lakeshore, 5600 Lakeshore Dr. (423) 870-0777. www.bartslakeshore.com Karaoke with DJ Stoli 9:30 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878. www.budssportsbar.com

Monday

Old Tyme Players 6 p.m. Market Street Tavern, 850 Market St. (433) 634-0260.

Blues Night with Lon Eldridge 7 p.m. The Camphouse, 1427 Williams St. (423) 702-8081. www.thecamphouse.com Music Monday 7 p.m. Pasha Coffee & Tea, 3914 Saint Elmo Ave. (423) 475-5482. www.pashacoffeehouse.com

Big Band Night 8 p.m. The Coconut Room at The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd., #202. (423) 499-5055.

Live DJ – Karaoke 8 p.m. Bart’s Lakeshore, 5600 Lakeshore Dr. (423) 870-0777. www.bartslakeshore.com Karaoke with DJ Stoli 9:30 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878. www.budssportsbar.com

Tuesday

Ben Friberg Trio 6:30 p.m. Table 2, 232 E. 11th St. (423) 756-8253. www.table2restaurant.com Heartstrings for Hope 7 p.m. Tivoli Theatre, 701 Broad St. (423) 757-5050. www.chattanoogaonstage.com Singer/Songwriter Corner 7 p.m. The Camphouse, 1427 Williams St. (423) 702-8081. www.thecamphouse.com Chuck Shields 9 p.m. Ringgold Acoustic Cafe, 61 RBC Drive, (706) 965-2065. www.ringgoldacoustic.com Open Mic with Mike McDade 9 p.m. Tremont Tavern, 1203 Hixson Pike. (423) 266-1996. www.tremonttavern.com Tim and Reece 9 p.m. Bart's Lakeshore, 5600 Lakeshore Dr. (423) 870-0777. www.bartslakeshore.com Karaoke with DJ Stoli 9:30 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878. www.budssportsbar.com Downstream, Eyes Around 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

Irish Music Session

Get your ears in tune for St. Paddy’s Day. No cover 3 p.m.

The Honest Pint, 35 Patten Pkwy.

(423) 468-4192.

Find them on Facebook

Wednesday

Jimmy Harris 6:30 p.m. The Coconut Room at The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd., #202. (423) 499-5055. www.thepalmsathamilton.com Ben Friberg Trio 7 p.m. Market Street Tavern, 850 Market St. (433) 634-0260. www.marketstreettavern.com Open Mic Night 7 p.m. The CampHouse, 1427 Williams St. (423) 702-8081. www.thecamphouse.com Johnathan Wimpee 8 p.m. McHales Brewhouse.

724 Ashland Ter. (423) 877-2124.

Find them on Facebook Michael Curtis 9 p.m. Ringgold Acoustic Cafe, 61 RBC Drive, (706) 965-2065. www.ringgoldacoustic.com DJ Spins – Karaoke Contest 9 p.m. Bart’s Lakeshore, 5600 Lakeshore Dr. (423) 870-0777. www.bartslakeshore.com Johnston Brown 9 p.m. The Lounge at The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd., #202. (423) 499-5055. www.thepalmsathamilton.com www.chattanoogapulse.com | February 24, 2011 | Volume 8, Issue 8 | The Pulse

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ARTS

Feature

The Viewer As Participant

By Michael Crumb, Pulse Arts Writer

“L

iving Daylights,” a sculptural installation by Ian Pedigo, currently inhabits the Cress Gallery as the latest offering in the John and Diane Marek Visiting Artist Series. The adjoining small gallery at the Cress features UTC Feinstein Scholarship Award recipients Michael Woods and Gracie Harvey.

Ruth Grover, the gallery’s curator, is thrilled to be presenting a show she describes as “courageous,” and has removed gallery walls to accommodate it. The eight pieces not only tend to maintain the small environments that each presents, but also to allow relationships among the pieces.

On entering this gallery space for the first time, I wished for receptivity. Conceptual art demands possibly as much of the viewer as it does of the artist. It may represent a kind of aesthetic limit regarding production and receptivity.

As a cultural theorist, I cannot over-emphasize the importance of concepts. They imprint our very cells—or at least mediate our understanding of them. Because of this conceptual emphasis, this kind of art has a more overtly democratic quality, an exploration and a possible merging of the consciousness of viewer and artist, or probably more appropriately, participant. Also, a great deal of complex verbiage arises with respect to these pieces and their justifications.

on aluminum, “Library” and “River”, allow such movement; after all, a library could be situated by a river. Toward the back wall, the piece “RGB” shows part of a rainbow. On another wall, “Spine of Serendipity—Draco” with bones where stars are. There is a literal connection in that the stars suggest where the dragon’s “backbone” forms the constellation. The other association of stars and bones contains more dissonance, yet “Bones” is an eventual result of the other, “Stars.” Then, on the floor, “The Universe Was Halfway Shown,” a painted curve of tubular steel, is a way of viewing, of expanding perspective or consciousness.

There are three other pieces. At another wall, “Opening Ending”achieves real weirdness. Near the wall, a kind of doorframe of 4 x 4s, one black, one silver, and the upper connector more natural. On the wall itself, patterned material, mostly of uniform size, but with variations of color and pattern.

This construction tricks the eye—a door to nowhere? A sense of danger? Perhaps.

Near the center, the construction “Several Moments Standing and Then a Cloud of Dust”—tall, hung from the ceiling, the title says a lot—to me, it recalls the September 11 tragedy. There was a moment like that when the fires were sufficiently terrible, before the towers collapsed. Drama and menace—from hanging fabric! Well, see for yourself—it’s

“This kind of art has a more overtly democratic quality, an exploration and a possible merging of the consciousness of viewer and artist.”

“Living Daylights” seems to refer to the less-tangible inner life. A surprising consequence of our possession of consciousness is the difficulty of understanding precisely what consciousness is, hence phrases like “living daylights.”

Looking at this show on a larger scale, there is a kind of interpenetration between these works and movements to larger contexts. The first two pieces, photographic prints

about seeing, isn’t it?

“Figment of Bloodlust” is a small pyramid of concentric frames. On the inside of the topmost frame, sepia prints of the sun line the four surfaces. The sepia effect comes from halftone screens in cyan, magenta, yellow and black.

Halftone screens are also the modes of the aluminum prints.

The structure itself suggest larger contexts, such as metaphysics or strategies of control. There remains an elasticity of reference, elements of play.

Of the Feinstein Scholarship recipients, Michael Woods paints well, often with an archetypal feel. I found Gracie Harvey’s work delightful. Her mashing of the scientific and the aesthetic, abstract and concrete, with verve and humor, into strange pieces transmits inspiration.

Public Art Charrettes Frances McDonald of Mark Making will bring Ed and Bernie Massey of Portraits of Hope to town for two sessions dedicated to developing large-scale public works with many hands.

On Saturday, February 26, a session will be held at The CampHouse, 1427 Williams St., from 4 to 7 p.m. to develop possible specific projects. On Sunday, February 27, from 6 to 9 p.m., a session at CreateHere, 55 E. Main St. will highlight the Masseys’ presentation to architects, planners and people interested in public art. Session participation is free but reservations are needed at feedthevision@gmail.com. For more information, call (423) 605-5257.

www.chattanoogapulse.com | February 24, 2011 | Volume 8, Issue 8 | The Pulse

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ARTS

Events Calendar FRIDAY

THURSDAY

The Diary of Anne Frank

New adaptation of the classic story. $10-$20 7 p.m.

Chattanooga Theatre Centre, Main Stage, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534. www.theatrecentre.com

Cutting Edge Management Innovations from Around the World 6 p.m. Hunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View. (956) 459-8611 . www.huntermuseum.org “Remember Your Dream”: The Witness and speaker Daniel T. Brown 6 p.m. Lindsay Street Hall, 901 Lindsay St. (423) 425-7826.

2011 Chef Nights 6 p.m. Calvin Donaldson Environmental Science Academy, 927 West 37th St. (423) 209-5653.

Dark Horse & Treasure Hunter Wine Tasting 6:30 p.m. Table 2, 232 East 11th St. (423) 756-8253.

The Vagina Monologues 7 p.m. UTC University Center, 615 McCallie Ave. (423) 425-4455.

Opera Theatre 7:30 p.m. Lee University, 1120 N Ocoee St., Cleveland.

(423) 614-8000.

All-School Talent Show 8 p.m. Bryan College, 721 Bryan Dr., Dayton TN. (423) 775-2041.

Etta May 8 p.m. The Comedy Catch, 3224 Brainerd Rd. (423) 629-2233.

War Dance

Free showing of doc about three Ugandan kids who find hope in song and dance.

Free 7 p.m.

Folk School of Chattanooga, 250 Forest Ave. (423) 827-8906. www.chattanoogafolk.com

SATURDAY

Folk Music Concert

Traditional folk music performed by students and faculty.

Free 7:30 p.m.

Chattanooga State, Humanities Theatre, 4501 Amnicola Hwy. (423) 697-3383.

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37th Annual Houston Museum Antiques Show 10 a.m. Houston Museum of Decorative Arts, 201 High St. (423) 267-7176. www.thehoustonmuseum.com Artist Reception: “Exchange” 5:30 p.m. Tanner-Hill Art Gallery, 3069 South Broad St. (423) 280-7182.

Friday Night Improv 7:30 p.m. Chattanooga State, 4501 Amnicola Hwy. (423) 697-3246.

The Vagina Monologues 7 p.m. UTC University Center, 615 McCallie Ave. (423) 425-4455.

Thunder Nationals Monster Trucks 7:30 p.m. UTC McKenzie Arena, 720 East 4th St. (423) 266-6627.

Caribbean Beach Party 7:30 p.m. The Mill, 1601 Gulf St. (423) 634-0331.

Opera Theatre 7:30 p.m. Lee University, 1120 N Ocoee St., Cleveland.

(423) 614-8000.

An Evening with the Orange Grove Dancers 7:30 p.m. UTC Fine Arts Center Roland Hayes Hall, 725 Vine St. (423) 425-4601. www.orangegrovecenter.org

A Year With Frog and Toad 7:30 p.m. Chattanooga Theatre Centre, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534. www.theatrecentre.com Etta May 7:30, 10 p.m. The Comedy Catch, 3224 Brainerd Rd. (423) 629-2233. www.thecomedycatch.com Doubt 8 p.m. Covenant College, Sanderson Hall, 14049 Scenic Hwy., Lookout Mountain. (706) 419-1051.

The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later 8 p.m. Grace Episcopal Church, 20 Belvoir Ave. (423) 698-2433. www.saygrace.net The Diary of Anne Frank 8 p.m. Chattanooga Theatre Centre, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534. www.theatrecentre.com Leading Ladies 8 p.m. Signal Mountain Playhouse, 809 Kentucky Ave. (423) 886-5243. www.smph.org Mardi Gras Ball 9 p.m. Chattanooga Choo Choo Imperial Ballroom. (423) 698-0029.

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

SUNDAY 37th Annual Houston Museum Antiques Show 10 a.m. Houston Museum of Decorative Arts, 201 High St. (423) 267-7176. www.thehoustonmuseum.com Doubt 2:30 p.m. Covenant College, Sanderson Hall, 14049 Scenic Hwy., Lookout Mountain. (706) 419-1051.

A Year With Frog and Toad 2:30 p.m. Chattanooga Theatre Centre, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534. www.theatrecentre.com The Vagina Monologues 3 p.m. UTC University Center, 615 McCallie Ave. (423) 425-4455.

2011 Addy Awards Banquet 6 p.m. The Chattanoogan Hotel, 1201 Broad St. www.aafchattanooga.com Denim & Diamonds: Footloose 7 p.m. Chattanooga Convention Center, 1150 Carter St. (423) 756-0001 7th Annual Black History Month Step Show 7 p.m. Memorial Auditorium, 399 McCallie Ave. (423) 757-5156. www.chattanooga.gov Thunder Nationals Monster Trucks 7:30 p.m. UTC McKenzie Arena, 720 East 4th St. (423) 266-6627.

Opera Theatre 7:30 p.m. Lee University, 1120 N Ocoee St., Cleveland.

(423) 614-8000. www.leeuniversity.edu Chattanooga Ghost Tour 7:30 p.m. Walnut Street Bridge, 1 Walnut St. (423) 821-7125. www.chattanoogaghosttours.com Etta May 7:30, 10 p.m. The Comedy Catch & Giggles Grille,3224 Brainerd Rd. (423) 629-2233. www.thecomedycatch.com The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later 8 p.m. Grace Episcopal Church, 20 Belvoir Ave. (423) 698-2433. www. saygrace.net The Diary of Anne Frank 8 p.m. Chattanooga Theatre Centre, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534. www.theatrecentre.com Leading Ladies 8 p.m. Signal Mountain Playhouse, 809 Kentucky Ave. (423) 886-5243. www.smph.org Female Impersonation Show Midnight. Images, 6065 Lee Hwy. (423) 855-8210. www.imagesbar.com

The Pulse | Volume 8, Issue 8 | February 24, 2011 | www.chattanoogapulse.com

CSO Chamber Series: “Family Ties: From Bach to Mozart”

Maestro Bob Bernhardt conducts.

$15 3 p.m.

Sheraton Read House, Silver Ballroom, 827 Broad St. (423) 267-8583. www.chattanoogasymphony.org

We’ve Come This Far By Faith 2 p.m. Washington Hills United Methodist Church, 6216 Hadley Dr. (423) 892-8050.

The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later 2 p.m. Grace Episcopal Church, 20 Belvoir Ave. (423) 698-2433. www. saygrace.net A Year With Frog and Toad 2:30 p.m. Chattanooga Theatre Centre, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534. www.theatrecentre.com The Diary of Anne Frank 2:30 p.m. Chattanooga Theatre Centre, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534. www.theatrecentre.com Opera Theatre 3 p.m. Lee University, 1120 N Ocoee St., Cleveland, TN. (423) 614-8000. www.leeuniversity.edu Senior Recital 3 p.m. UTC Cadek Recital Hall, 725 Oak St. (423)425-4601.

Portraits of Hope 6 p.m. CreateHere, 55 E. Main St. www.portraitsofhope.org Kyle Cease Charity Comedy Special 7 p.m. Memorial Auditorium, 399 McCallie Ave. (423) 757-5156. www.chattanooga.gov

ARTS

Events Calendar

MONDAY Booksigning: Broken Back Axle— Unspeakable Events in Biafra 5 p.m. UTC University Center, Room 350.

46th Annual Greater Chattanooga Sports Hall of Fame Banquet 6:30 p.m. Chattanooga Convention Center, 1150 Carter St. (423) 875-9282.

Chattanooga Chamber Orchestra 7:30 p.m. Lee University, 1120 N Ocoee St., Cleveland. (423) 614-8000. www. leeuniversity.edu “Heirloom” Shuptrine Fine Art Group, 2646 Broad St. (423) 266-4453. www.shuptrinefineartgroup.com “Living Daylights” Cress Gallery of Art, 725 Vine St. (423) 425-460. www.utc.edu “Needleworks, Cultural and Contemporary” Jewish Cultural Center, 5461 N. Terrace Rd. (423) 493-0270. www.jewishchattanooga.com “From Africa to America” Mosaic Gallery, 412 Market St. (423) 320-67638.

TUESDAY 2011 Chef Nights 6:30 p.m. Brown Academy, 718 E 8th St. (423) 209-5653.

Heartstrings for Hope 7 p.m. Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad St. (423) 757-5050. www.chattanooga.gov Live Team Trivia 7:30 p.m. McHale’s Brewhouse, 724 Ashland Ter. (423) 877-2124. www.chattanoogatrivia.com Live Team Trivia 7:30 p.m. Raw Sushi Bar, 409 Market St., (423) 756-1919. www.chattanoogatrivia.com “Wrapped in Pride” Bessie Smith Cultural Center, 200 E. Martin Luther King Blvd.

(423) 266-8658.

“Jellies: Living Art” 10 a.m. Hunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View. (423) 266-0944. www.huntermuseum.org “Water Works” Exum Gallery, 305 W. 7th St. (423) 593-4265.

“Good for You: Healthy Fun on the Run” Creative Discovery Museum, 321 Chestnut St. (423) 648-6043.

WEDNESDAY

EDITOR'S PICK: FEATURED EVENT

Main Street Farmers Market 4 p.m. Main St. at Williams St. www. mainstfarmersmarket.com T’ai Ji Class 5:30 p.m. Call for address.

(423) 821-8947. www.web.me.com/timefortaiji Speak Easy: Spoken Word and Poetry 8 p.m. The Office, 901 Carter St. facebook.com/theofficechatt “Loïs Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color” Hunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View. (423) 266-0944. www.huntermuseum.org “Whispers” Shuptrine Fine Art Group, 2646 Broad St. (423) 266-4453.

“Bokeh & Zen” In-Town Gallery, 26A Frazier Ave. (423)267-9214. www.intowngallery.com AEC Independent Film Series Majestic Theatre, 311 Broad St. www.artsedcouncil.org “Exchange” Tanner-Hill Art Gallery, 3069 South Broad St. (423) 280-7182.

The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later

The Grace Players present this follow-up script to The Laramie Project, describing how Matthew Shephard’s murder and the play that resulted from it have changed the community of Laramie—and the country.

$10 8 p.m. Friday, February 25, Saturday, February 26 2 p.m. Sunday, February 27 Grace Episcopal Church, 20 Belvoir Ave.(at Brainerd Road) (423) 243-3250. graceplayers@saygrace.net

www.chattanoogapulse.com | February 24, 2011 | Volume 8, Issue 8 | The Pulse

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The Pulse | Volume 8, Issue 8 | February 24, 2011 | www.chattanoogapulse.com

OPINION

Life In The ‘Noog

Putting Together A Midlife Bucket List A

s a man who’s well within middle age (according to current life expectancy statistics), I’m at the point when one not only reflects upon what they’ve already done with their life, but is starting to think about what else is left on the old “someday I’d like to do that” list. Some call it a “bucket list” because you obviously want to experience desired achievements before you kick life’s proverbial “bucket.” And although the term seems a little terminal to me, I guess you could call my life’s remaining wish list just that.

I’ve never been very shy about trying new, “what the hell?” experiences—especially when I was younger. I always wanted to travel the world. I’ve made it as far as ten countries in Europe and most of the continental United States. Like many, I wanted to settle down, get married and have children. I did that (although like half of those who achieve that goal, I’m looking for that next opportunity to this time marry the right person). I always wanted to take a house that hadn’t been touched in several decades and remodel it. I did that. And I’ve always wanted to work for myself as a freelance writer.

I’m doing that now (finally). But as I look at what I’ve completed in my life, there are still many things on the list left unchecked.

Now, bucket list line items don’t typically include things that further build upon the life you’ve already built for yourself. So I’ve decided to up the ante a little.

Instead of tame and lame aspirations like travel more, go see the Rolling Stones for the sixth time or become “Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire, I own a mansion and a

yacht,” I’ve considered some list items that might indeed place my foot a little closer to kicking my life’s bucket.

First, I’d like to go to Bonnaroo on acid, naked. Now, those who know me know there are two things you don’t want to see: me on acid or me naked.

I’ve never done acid, but if I did, I’d likely be the most obnoxious tripper on the planet. I laugh at everything now. Imagine those things I don’t think are funny suddenly becoming hilarious— and in front of 70,000 people who are just trying to listen to some music and squelch the mental image of my hairy lackluster physique. Nobody wants to see that. I’d end up stranded on I-24 with a sign around my neck that says, “If found, lose.”

Next, I want to base jump off of one of Chattanooga’s three “skyscrapers.” Just me and a parachute, with a quarter in my hand to feed the meter below that’s dangerously close to an $11 ticket because of my prolonged apprehensiveness to make the leap. I’d eventually do it though, because nobody wants to pay a parking ticket— at any cost. I’ll wave at ya on my way down.

After that, I’d feel invigorated to do all of those things that your mother told you never, ever to do. I’m gonna spoil my supper with Little Debbies, sit too close to the television and look only one way before crossing traffic. I’m gonna run around the house with scissors, swim ten minutes after eating, pick up a hitchhiker and then, after he steals my car and money, hitchhike back home. Yeah, life’s too short to be careful.

Thankfully the items on my real bucket list aren’t the

Chuck Crowder

kind that will likely find me in traction with a freshly pumped stomach. They’re a little more reasonable in the big scheme of things. In fact, I’d never really placed much thought into my compilation of such a list until some friends expressed their amazement that one even existed on my iPhone.

The one thing on my bucket list that seems to intrigue those who’ve seen it is that I someday want to try stand-up comedy in front of a modest crowd.

Although I may not be as funny as I am funny looking, I’ve taken a stab at writing some material. I even ran my initial “set” by a local comic. He wasn’t impressed (he didn’t say so as much as he didn’t laugh). However, he did give me some tips on generating a few laughs. So keep your eyes peeled for my name at some open mic night in the near future and come laugh with me—or at least AT me.

“I’ve never done acid, but if I did, I’d likely be the most obnoxious tripper on the planet.”

I guess the only take-away from this (perpetually) self-serving column would be that everyone should have a list of things they’d like to do someday. But make that someday happen. Don’t settle for where you are now or what you might be doing.

Keep dreaming.

And keep that pencil sharp for checking off your bucket list items, one by one.

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 at www.thenoog.com

www.chattanoogapulse.com | February 24, 2011 | Volume 8, Issue 8 | The Pulse

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SCREEN

Film Feature

Not Good News for All Good Things

By Phillip Johnston, Pulse Film Critic

A

ndrew Jarecki’s All Good Things (this week’s selection in the Arts and Education Council’s Independent Film Series) is a mess. It is a film that tries to tell a true story, but gets embroiled in so many histrionics that it becomes a laughingstock. With all the directorial subtlety of a Lifetime miniseries, All Good Things goes down every cheap byway possible to achieve its ends, presenting a panoply of soul-less characters to an audience that would be reluctant to care at all about any them.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

All Good Things is inspired by one of the most notorious missing person’s cases in New York history—the disappearance of Kathie Durst in 1982. Kathie Durst was married to Robert Durst, the son of a wealthy New York real estate developer.

Though the film begins with a mysterious and unknown woman casting a body into a lake in the dead of night, Robert and Kathie’s love story is told in extended flashback at the start. This manufactured innocence is one of the most achingly annoying features of All Good Things.

of their love for each other to move off and become nomads.

They relocate to the countryside and set up an organic food store called—you guess it—“All Good Things.”

Since there is no money in this business, Robert eventually comes under the sheltering wings of his father’s (Frank Langella) real estate industry. Here he finds success, money and a fair share of shady dealings that don’t seem to bother him. A chasm grows between Kathie and him, and, when the subject of children is breached, Robert hits the wall. This is a topic he can’t face after seeing his own mother commit suicide when he was young.

And then, suddenly, Robert turns into a crazed lunatic. Most of the audience will be totally unprepared for this reversal but that’s certainly not because All Good Things is measured to give the revelations of its plot bit by bit. By now we’ve become weary of these undeveloped characters who speak in clichés and have relational bonds as thick as silly string. The only thing that keeps us watching is the mild suspense of who the woman we see dumping a body into the lake at the beginning of the film might be.

It is certainly difficult to blame such fine actors as Ryan Gosling and Frank Langella for the failure of All Good Things.

They do the best they can, but in the face of poor direction and a pedestrian script, it’s simply not good enough. Plus, Kirsten Dunst (who seems to have disap-

“A knowing director and a finely tuned script can coax a winning performance out of the most illprepared actor, but nowhere does this happen in All Good Things.”

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It is 1971 and Robert Durst (Ryan Gosling) is on his way to a dinner party hosted by his father when he stops by Kathie’s (Kirsten Dunst) apartment to fix some leaky pipes. The two have never met before but they immediately fall for one another. Robert, a strapping young man who has a reluctant attitude toward his father’s multi-million dollar industry, takes Kathie to the party on a whim and this, it seems, makes them aware enough The Pulse | Volume 8, Issue 8 | February 24, 2011 | www.chattanoogapulse.com

peared from the silver screen along with Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man) is powerless in the face of Gosling’s profound ability to embody a character even in the worst of films. She smiles, whines and weeps her way through All Good Things and I’d by lying to say I wasn’t just a bit thankful when she disappeared three-quarters of the way through.

And this, of course, is the transgression of most bad films—that they cause us to care more about our own personal preferences than about story or character. I do not enjoy Kirsten Dunst, but I enjoyed Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, lush and girly as it was. Mila Kunis rarely acts when she is on screen, but she was sultry perfection in Black Swan. A knowing director and a finely tuned script can coax a winning performance out of the most ill-prepared actor, but nowhere does this happen in All Good Things.

Instead, the romance turns into hackneyed madness, the tension to melodrama, the fascinating true story into dime novel pulp fiction. In the end, All Good Things is bad news for everybody.

All Good Things Directed by Andrew Jarecki Starring Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, Frank Langella Rated R Running time: I hour, 41 minutes

www.chattanoogapulse.com | February 24, 2011 | Volume 8, Issue 8 | The Pulse

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The Pulse | Volume 8, Issue 8 | February 24, 2011 | www.chattanoogapulse.com

WINE & SPIRITS

Riley's Spirits Within

Organic Bubbly from Korbel

By Joshua Hurley, Riley's Wine & Spirits

Welcome to the last of a three-part series featuring organic wine great buys, brought to you by the folks at Riley’s Wine and Spirits on Hixson Pike in Hixson— Chattanooga’s favorite wine and spirits store. If you are new to my column, in it, I feature”Great Buys” at Riley’s, picking something special from the area’s largest selection of wine and spirits from around the world and then sharing it with The Pulse’s readership. This week’s pick is Korbel Organic Brut.

Korbel is the twelfthlargest wine producer in the United States. It was founded in 1882 by two Czechoslovakian brothers named Korbel. In 1954, it was purchased by Adolf Heck, with his son Gary assuming control 20 years later in 1974. The son soon increased production from 150,000 cases to 1.5 million annually, putting Korbel at number 12 in the U.S. Korbel Champagne is the most recognized champagne in the world and has been served at the last six presidential inaugurations, including President Barack Obama’s. It is also the official champagne of New York’s New Year’s Eve Big Apple Drop Party.

Korbel embraces the “methode champenoise” process of fermentation for every bottle and variety of champagne it produces. This makes Korbel a cut above many others in its price range. Methode champenoise is what gives Korbel its sparkle or bubbles. This is a process that involves a secondary fermentation. After regular fermentation, a sugar and yeast dose is added before the bottle is corked. During this second fermentation, the dose turns into carbon dioxide, i.e. bubbles. This process

can take 1 1/2 to 3 years.

What is brut champagne? The term “brut” originated in France and is used to describe dry, sparkling wines or champagnes that are drier than sec, demi-sec and even extra-dry. Korbel Organic Brut is made using only the best organically grown grapes cultivated in the premier California growing areas: The Chalk Hill area provides the white grape, colombard; Mendocino, the chardonnay grapes, and a touch of sangiovese from Sonoma is added. Each vineyard employs strict adherence to organic farming regulations, which disallow the use of artificially made herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers.

Korbel’s Organic Brut delivers very fresh aromas and flavors of green apples, pears and peaches with a medium-dry finish. A side-byside taste test of Organic Brut and Korbel’s regular brut results in the organic label delivering an overall fresher fruit taste and a finish that is a tad less dry. Pair this brut with chicken, seafood and Asian dishes and give chocolate and popcorn a try with it as well.

Available at Riley’s Wine and Spirits for $12.99 plus tax. www.chattanoogapulse.com | February 24, 2011 | Volume 8, Issue 8 | The Pulse

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Solution To Last Week's Crossword

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The Pulse | Volume 8, Issue 8 | February 24, 2011 | www.chattanoogapulse.com

ENTERTAINMENT

Jonesin' Crossword & Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I’m hoping that you will grant your ego more permission to shine in the coming weeks, Pisces. I’m hoping you will allow it to unveil more flash, feel more zeal, and exert more force. After all your earnest bouts of self-sacrifice, you deserve a poetic license to brag like a hip-hop millionaire. After putting in such tireless devotion to maintaining an oceanic sense of self, you have every right to bust out a crisp, ferocious blast of “I am!”

is becoming more fragrant. Scientists say that as carbon dioxide levels rise, plants will release more aromatic chemicals known as “biogenic volatile organic compounds.” The smell of growing vegetation could intensify by as much as 40 percent in the coming decades. This situation is not a precise metaphorical match for your upcoming destiny, Virgo, but I do see some similarities. Things are going to be getting hotter for you, emotionally speaking—and that will be stimulating, often even pleasurable, to your senses.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization,” said George Bernard Shaw more than six decades ago—and it’s still true. It’s very important that you be more discerning than newspapers in the coming weeks, Aries. You can’t afford to confuse a minor mess with a major snafu; it would be a big mistake to treat a small temporary detour as a permanent loss of momentum. Please keep your melodramatic tendencies in check, even as you appreciate the entertainment value of your ever-shifting story.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): An interviewer asked me, “What is the most difficult aspect of what you do?” Here’s what I said: “Not repeating myself is the hardest thing.

And yet it’s also a lot of fun. There’s nothing more exciting for me than to keep being surprised by what I write.

It’s deeply enjoyable to be able to feed people clues they haven’t heard from me before. And when I focus on doing what gives me pleasure, the horoscopes write themselves.”

I hope this testimony helps you in your own life right now, Libra. If you’re afraid that you’re in danger of repeating yourself, start playing more. Look for what amuses you, for what scrambles your expectations in entertaining ways.

Decide that you’re going to put the emphasis on provoking delight in yourself, not preserving your image.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I know many Tauruses who are skilled at selling products and services, but less adept at presenting themselves. They don’t mind being pushy and strategic when it comes to shaping the opinions of others, as long as they can remain a bit shy about showing others exactly who they are. If this is true about you, I propose that you work on changing it. The coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to be bold about expressing the totality of your beauty and making sure that everyone who matters to you gets to see it in its full glory.

Across 1 Some gas stations 4 Melodic offshoot of punk rock 7 Pirate, slangily 13 MTV’s VMA statuette 15 Do something as a favor 16 It was big for everyone to have one in the 1990s 17 Sewing machine foot pedal 18 ___ Esurance (cartoon spy in TV ads) 19 Actress Nicollette 20 Training subject for a 60-down 22 They’re paired up in science classes 24 Honduras home 26 It may be hard to follow 27 King, in Cancun 28 Tropical 1980s Robin Williams comedy 34 Ron behind the Pocket Fisherman 35 Triply 39 Kansas State’s all-time winningest women’s

basketball coach 43 “Children ___ Lesser God” 46 Ear-related prefix 47 Missile storage building 48 Oregon senator who resigned in 1995 over sexual harassment charges 54 Viking achievements, for short 55 Behind closed doors 56 “I Love You (___ Least I Like You)” 58 Bombshell 59 What this grid is decidedly not (but babysafe plastics are) 62 Picks apart a sentence 63 Where mad villains get locked away 64 Like the kid who rarely gets hand-me-downs 65 Prefix before -topian 66 “And many more” Down 1 Rolls-Royce’s parent company

2 Eerie Edgar 3 Recovers from a night on the town 4 Forwarded item 5 ___ Carta 6 Capital ___ (credit card company) 7 More in need of massage 8 Roger who left “At the Movies” 9 Actor Delon 10 Knight ___ (media company purchased by McClatchy in 2006) 11 Staring with an evil bearing 12 Minute 14 “Weekend Edition” network 17 “___ be awesome!”

19 Gp. with shelters 20 Letters on Soviet rockets 21 ___ Alto, CA 23 Place to belly up to 25 Troy’s buddy, on “Community” 29 Diner staple 30 Neighbor of Greece:

abbr.

31 “Addams Family” cousin 32 “Thar ___ blows!”

33 Makes a mistake 36 Question about a rumor 37 Chilly 38 “The Dukes of Hazzard” spinoff 40 Hands on the table 41 1.008, for hydrogen: abbr.

42 As well 43 San Luis ___, California 44 Franco-Italian cheese 45 Cockamamie 49 “Honi soit qui mal y ___” 50 Spotty breakouts 51 Family symbol 52 “___ daisy!”

53 Carts for hauling 57 Org. whose first champs were the Houston Oilers 59 Awesome, at one time 60 See 20-across 61 PC key

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You’re not scared of acquiring more clout and luster, right? You won’t get nervous if you suddenly have to deal with more success than usual, right?

You won’t run away if a power spot you’ve been cultivating for yourself finally starts providing you with the opportunities and responsibilities you’d been hoping for, right? I just hope you’re ready to handle the good stuff that’s available, Gemini. Please don’t confuse this enjoyable stress with the other kind.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): In her essay “The Possible Human,” Jean Houston describes amazing capacities that are within reach of any of us who are brazen and cagey enough to cultivate them. We can learn to thoroughly enjoy being in our bodies, for example. We can summon enormous power to heal ourselves; develop an acute memory; enter at will into the alpha and theta wave states that encourage meditation and creative reverie; cultivate an acute perceptual apparatus that can see “infinity in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower;” and practice the art of being deeply empathetic. Guess what, Cancerian: The next six months will be one of the best times ever for you to work on developing these superpowers. To get started, answer this question: Is there any attitude or belief you have that might be standing in the way? (Here’s Houston’s essay: tinyurl.com/PossibleHuman.)

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The depths are calling to you, Leo. Can you hear their subtle melodies? Don’t worry: I’m not referring to the icky, stinky, creepy depths; I don’t mean that you’ll have to lose yourself in a chaotic miasma, or wander speechless in a claustrophobic maze. No: The deep place I’m talking about is maybe the cleanest, most well-lit abyss you’ve ever had the complicated pleasure to explore.

I’m not saying there’ll be no hairy riddles to deal with; but I am saying that even the hairy riddles will be interesting, at least a little fun, and helpful in your efforts to purify yourself.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I’m no fan of the climate change that’s rocking every corner of the planet. In fact, Crossword created By Matt Jones. © 2011 Jonesin’ Crosswords. For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, I oppose it; I protest it; I resist it. However, I do need to 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-655-6548. Reference puzzle #0508. acknowledge that there is at least one upside: The world

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I am a big fan of your analytical intellect, and would never advise you to shove it out of the way so that your emotional intelligence can rule uncontested. But this is one time when I think the latter needs to get more say than the former; your emotional intelligence has license to take precedence over your analytical intellect. In that light, please consider the following counsel from my Facebook friend Sophia Veleda: “I do not consider emotions to be the dirty redheaded stepchild of the frontal cortex. Our emotional selves are more intuitive, faster, smarter (by means of being able to take in more data at once), and just as capable. The frontal cortex is as likely to make errors due to data omission as the emotional center is likely to get a degree of magnitude wrong.”

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): There are thousand of things in the world that provide you with only mediocre nourishment; the influences that deeply enrich you with their blessings are much smaller in number. To say it another way: You derive a bare amount of inspiration and teaching from the great majority of people, songs, images, words, stories, environments, and sights; whereas you draw life-sustaining illumination and spirit-ennobling motivation from just a precious few. Your task in the coming weeks, Sagittarius, is to identify that special minority, and to take aggressive steps to be in more ongoing communion with it.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Research suggests that more and more American high school students are getting good grades every year. The number of A’s doled out has been going up steadily. Does that mean kids are getting smarter or that teachers have relaxed their standards?

I don’t have a definitive answer for that. But I do have a theory that all over the world, the Capricorn tribe has been growing more intelligent in recent years. Your increase in 2010 was especially notable. There may have been a bit of tapering off lately, but I expect that to change soon. The omens say you’re due for another growth spurt in your ability to understand how the world works.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Is there anything you tend to hoard, Aquarius? Anything you store up in excessive amounts? Are there emotions you cling to past the time they’re doing you any good? Do you notice yourself feeling pangs of acquisitiveness when in the presence of particular treasures or symbols or pretty things? If so, this is an excellent time to work on dissipating those fixations. In the coming days, you will have cosmic assistance whenever you exert your willpower to undo your fanatical attachments to just about anything.

www.chattanoogapulse.com | February 24, 2011 | Volume 8, Issue 8 | The Pulse

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OPINION

Ask A Mexican

In Which We Do Not Jump to Conclusions Dear Mexican: The perception of Mexico having a defective culture has come up in your column several times. It’s most important to point out the historical differences.

The U.S was invaded by settlers who came to live here permanently. Mexico was conquered by gold-seeking thugs who wanted to return rich to Spain. The U.S. received the Protestant work ethic.

Mexico received Spanish feudalism and the authoritarian Catholic Church, which discouraged independent thought and dissent. Historically, Mexico has been dominated by a very small, overpowering, land-owning, abusive aristocracy—hence, lots of very poor people (essentially economic slaves) who could never get ahead. That’s what the 1910 revolution was all about. Here in the U.S., lots of people could own their own land after the Indian land was commandeered. Is it any wonder why many Mexicans seem to not take as much personal responsibility as gabachos would like? Family mattered more than civic involvement because you could only rely on your family.

— Amigo of Aliens

Dear AA, I appreciate your effort, but you’re committing the same sins I rail about constantly without even knowing it!

You nailed the economic analysis, but the false dichotomy of Mexicans weighed down by a Catholic-Spanish mindset and therefore not as predisposed to wealth as opposed to the rapacious capitalism inherent to the Protestant-English worldview is as clichéd as a Mexican sleeping underneath a cactus. Mexicans, no personal responsibility? What’s immigrating in search of a better life called? Mexicans, no civic involvement? Who do you think booted out the autocratic PRI party after decades of ruling Mexico—or beat the shit out of the Spaniards in 1810 and American industrialists in 1910? Who beat down Sharron Angle in Nevada? And hate to break it to you, broder, but we aren’t the only country in the Americas ruled by abusive elite— and I ain’t talking about Guatemala, either.

Gustavo Arellano

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The Pulse | Volume 8, Issue 8 | February 24, 2011 | www.chattanoogapulse.com

Dear Mexican, How come everything Mexican jumps? They got jumping cars, they jump the fence, and Mexican jumping beans.

— Confused Gabacho Dear Gabacho, You forgot the Mexican Hat Dance, lucha libre, the voladores of Papantla that fling themselves from 100-foot poles, Acapulco’s cliff divers, and our preferred way to deal with schoolyard bullies. Answer: A Freudian-Pavlovian response to life after undergoing a childhood of nalgadas.

GOOD MEXICAN OF THE WEEK: Daniel Hernández (the reporter, not the Tucson hero) is the reason why you’re reading this columna. His new book, Down & Delirious in Mexico City, is a dizzying, dazzling collection of essays about his experience in la mera capirucha. If you want to understand Mexico in all its twisted glory, this tome is a must-read. More information at Daniel’s website, danielhernandez.typepad.com.

Have a question? 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!

www.chattanoogapulse.com | February 24, 2011 | Volume 8, Issue 8 | The Pulse

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