Nashville Scene 7-23-20

CITY LIMITS: NASHVILLE’S ENDLESS COVID SUMMER PAGE 6

cover_7-23-20.indd 1

JULY 23–29, 2020 I VOLUME 39 I NUMBER 25 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE

METROPOLITIK: STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH COOP PAGE 7

7/20/20 6:23 PM

2

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

CONTENTS

JULY 23, 2020

6

23

Two Women Fight to Unseat Nashville Republican Steve Dickerson .....................6

The Paradise, the Grave, the City, the Wilderness

CITY LIMITS

Competitive Democratic primary centers on ‘electability’ debate

BOOKS

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

The characters of Katy Simpson Smith’s The Everlasting span the long, winding history of Rome

Nashville’s Endless COVID Summer .........6

BY EMILY CHOATE AND CHAPTER 16

The pandemic is worse in the city now than ever before

‘The Instant Before It Collapses And Is Promptly Forgotten’

BY STEVEN HALE

A poem by Meg Wade, illustrated by Alicia Waters

Metropolitik: Stuck in the Middle With Coop ............................................................7 The right wants to recall the mayor and undo the property tax increase. The left is, at best, indifferent to him. Welcome to the next three years.

25

BY GEOFFREY HIMES

8

With a Cause ............................................26

32nd Annual ‘You Are So Nashville If ...’

Another Look ........................................... 26

See all the winners, ‘weirdies’ and honorable mentions of our annual YASNI contest

Our music scribes recommend releases you can buy right now from Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay, Juan Solorzano, Engine IX and more

CRITICS’ PICKS Build your own streaming Paul Verhoeven film fest, fall in love with a cast-iron skillet, explore Rivergate’s surprising food scene, read Third Man Books’ digital titles, curate an evening of innovative theater, unfollow terrible people on social media and more

The Spin ................................................... 28 The Scene’s live-review column checks out livestreams by The Medium and Billy Strings

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER AND BRITTNEY McKENNA

29 FILM

Primal Stream XVIII ................................ 29

To-Go, Boldly

Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down ................ 30

What four local restaurants have learned from pivoting to takeout

Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets simulates an alltoo-familiar kind of loss

BY STEVE CAVENDISH

BY NATHAN SMITH

20

31

Nashville Artists Pay Homage to George Floyd

31

Portraits by Ashley Doggett, Wayne Brezinka and Paul Collins depict the Black Lives Matter icon

ON THE COVER:

Illustration by XPayne

BY BRITTNEY McKENNA

19

ART

Humanities Tennessee Reveals More Southern Festival of Books Authors

Liza Anne focuses on emotional well-being on Bad Vacation

Far-out horror, an astrologer-icon doc and more, now available to stream

FOOD AND DRINK

“

“

This Town Is a Woman ............................ 25

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

15

Mayor Announces ‘Transpotainment’Vehicle Shutdown

MUSIC

Lori McKenna gently unfolds the layers of human relationships on The Balladeer

COVER STORY

Talking With the National Museum of African American Music’s Dr. Steven Lewis

Pie Town Tacos Coming to Downtown

Pith in the Wind .........................................7

BY STEVE CAVENDISH

THIS WEEK ON THE WEB:

BY JASON SHAWHAN

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

MARKETPLACE

BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

CIGARS FROM A. Fuente Ashton CAO Cohiba Davidoff Montecristo Padron Tatauje Zino & Many More

BELLE MEADE

䴀䄀匀䬀匀 刀䔀儀唀䤀刀䔀䐀

䤀一 匀吀伀刀䔀℀

PREMIUM CIGARS & GIFTS Belle Meade Plaza 4518 Harding Road, Nashville, TN

615-297-7963

nashvillescene.com | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

contents_7-23-20.indd 3

3

7/20/20 6:18 PM

PET OF THE WEEK!

FROM BILL FREEMAN

HI FRIENDS – THE NAME IS ADAM! I’m 2 years old, weigh 60 pounds and my NHA nick-name is “Mr Happy Handsome Boy” I’m a bit of a clown and just a total fun, playful, goofy guy to be around! I’m full of life and bring the party with me wherever I go! Spoiler Alert: It’s basically impossible not to smile when you’re around me. And I totally promise that when you adopt me I will make you smile 24/7. So if you’re looking for happiness in your life - Here I am! Thanks, Love Adam Call 615.352.1010 or visit nashvillehumane.org Located at 213 Oceola Ave., Nashville, TN 37209

Adopt. Bark. Meow.

Microchip. Neuter. Spay.

Shop online at parnassusbooks.net Curbside pickup available!

@parnassusbooks1 @parnassusbooks @parnassusbooks1

UPCOMING VIRTUAL EVENTS VIRTUAL WHERE’S WALDO UNTIL JULY 31 #FINDWALDOLOCAL

THURSDAY JUL 23

6:00PM BOOKSHOP AUTHORS UNITE! a conversation with Jeff Kinney, Ann Patchett, & Peter Reynolds

TUESDAY JUL 28

2:00PM FACEBOOK LIVE with EMILY ARROW Studio: A Place for Art to Start

LEARN MORE AT PARNASSUSBOOKS.NET/EVENT

4

DESPITE COVID-19’S HEARTBREAKING IMPACT ON THE ELDERLY, OUR POLICY MAKERS HAVE NOT PRIORITIZED FEDERAL SUPPORT FOR ELDER CARE Before COVID-19 hit our country — and hit it hard — nursing facilities and our elderly were seldom on our minds. At least, they weren’t top-of-mind. During this pandemic, we have seen thousands of nursing facility residents die. These losses are tragic, even more so because it seems that the risks to our elderly remain, but the answers of what is being done to protect them are hard to find.

Nursing facilities were challenged by the nature of the virus in the early days of the pandemic, and those challenges continue every day. It began with the simple fact that nursing facilities have many visitors and caregivers. Prior to our awareness that asymptomatic carriers of the virus may — and very likely did — heavily contribute to the spread of the virus, our nursing facilities were especially hard hit. We can now all see that — in part due to a high volume of visitors, medical professionals and caregivers — our nursing facilities and our elderly were put in an increasingly vulnerable position. Even when it became apparent that our elderly were suffering the most, our federal government did not make nursing facilities a priority for funding and supplies — especially PPE and testing supplies. There was no immediate response or sense of urgency.

Finally, after months of lagging attention, the federal government began providing supplies, according to NPR, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency was scheduled to send two weeks’ worth of PPE supplies to every nursing facility in the nation by July 4. The CARES Act has provided the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with nearly $4.9 billion for nursing facilities — much less than the $10 billion requested by the health care industry. Through as late as May, supply kits delivered by FEMA did not include N-95 masks, nor provide supplies for assistedliving communities.

HHS has recognized the life-threatening risks facing the elderly, stating, “During this pandemic, nursing homes have faced unique challenges as their population of high-risk seniors are more vulnerable to respiratory pathogens like COVID-19.” And the numbers show that, while most young people recover, the elderly are dying.

According to Stat News, immunologists

have identified some of the specific ways the immune system changes with age, which provides some insight into why the virus’s impact on the elderly is so severe. As we age, our bodies produce fewer T cells, which normally generate virus-fighting chemicals after being called into action by another group of cells. Like a captain leading his soldiers, these other cells point out the enemy (in this case, coronavirus) and direct the T cells to generate their virus-fighting chemicals. As we age, the “captain” of cells becomes almost inaudible. By the time the T cells get the message, it too often means that too few virus-fighting chemicals are created, and are created too slowly. It is not surprising, therefore, that the elderly — from a scientific standpoint alone — are more vulnerable than every other age category.

Mark Parkinson, the president and CEO of the American Health Care Association, echoed a similar concern in a recent column he wrote for Morning Consult, the data and analysis information tech company: “For too long, the public health system has ignored long-term care providers. The results are tragic, but predictable. We have been calling for help from the beginning of the pandemic. Long-term care facilities are doing everything possible to stop the spread of this virus. But we need help. It means saving the lives of the greatest generation.

We owe them everything we can muster, and we must do it together.”

Knowing that our elderly are our most vulnerable citizens, our government needs to respond with everything possible to fix the original mistake of not responding quickly enough. Sufficient volumes of PPE and testing supplies need to be dispersed promptly, as do additional funds.

Considering the surging infection rates we’ve seen as we have attempted the rocky reopening of our economy and communities, how can nursing facilities continue to provide for our elderly without these items and without the necessary funding?

Editor-in-Chief D. Patrick Rodgers Senior Editor Dana Kopp Franklin Associate Editor Alejandro Ramirez Arts Editor Laura Hutson Hunter Culture Editor Erica Ciccarone Music and Listings Editor Stephen Trageser Contributing Editors Jack Silverman, Abby White Staff Writers Stephen Elliott, Nancy Floyd, Steven Hale, Kara Hartnett, J.R. Lind, William Williams Contributing Writers Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Steve Erickson, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steve Haruch, Geoffrey Himes, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Katy Lindenmuth, Craig D. Lindsey, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Chris Parton, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Megan Seling, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Cy Winstanley, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian Art Director Elizabeth Jones Photographers Eric England, Daniel Meigs Graphic Designers Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck Production Coordinator Christie Passarello Events and Marketing Director Olivia Moye Promotions Coordinator Caroline Poole Publisher Mike Smith Senior Advertising Solutions Managers Maggie Bond, Debbie Deboer, Sue Falls, Michael Jezewski, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Stevan Steinhart, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright Advertising Solutions Manager William Shutes Sales Operations Manager Chelon Hill Hasty Advertising Solutions Associates Emma Benjamin, Price Waltman Special Projects Coordinator Susan Torregrossa President Frank Daniels III Chief Financial Officer Todd Patton Corporate Production Director Elizabeth Jones Vice President of Marketing Mike Smith IT Director John Schaeffer Circulation and Distribution Director Gary Minnis For advertising information please contact: Mike Smith, msmith@nashvillescene.com or 615-844-9238 FW PUBLISHING LLC Owner Bill Freeman VOICE MEDIA GROUP National Advertising 1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com

Copyright©2020, Nashville Scene.

210 12th Ave. S., Ste. 100, Nashville, TN 37203.

Phone: 615-244-7989.

The Nashville Scene is published weekly by FW Publishing LLC. The publication is free, one per reader. Removal of more than one paper from any distribution point constitutes theft, and violators are subject to prosecution. Back issues are available at our office. Email: All email addresses consist of the employee’s first initial and last name (no space between) followed by @nashvillescene.com; to reach contributing writers, email editor@nashvillescene.com.

Editorial Policy: The Nashville Scene covers news, art and entertainment. In our pages appear divergent views from across the community. Those views do not necessarily represent those of the publishers. Subscriptions: Subscriptions are available at $150 per year for 52 issues.

Subscriptions will be posted every Thursday and delivered by third-class mail in usually five to seven days. Please note: Due to the nature of third-class mail and postal regulations, any issue(s) could be delayed by as much as two or three weeks. There will be no refunds issued. Please allow four to six weeks for processing new subscriptions and address changes. Send your check or Visa/MC/AmEx number with expiration date to the above address.

In memory of Jim Ridley, editor 2009-2016

Bill Freeman Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post and Home Page Media Group in Williamson County.

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

letter_7-23-20.indd 4

7/20/20 5:37 PM

Landscape paintings by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), widely regarded as Britain’s greatest painter, are now on view at the Frist. Come witness the power of Turner’s palpable atmospheres, stormy seascapes, transcendent effects of light, and epic scenes of history.

THROUGH SEPTEMBER 7

Downtown Nashville, 919 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203 FristArtMuseum.org #TheFrist

Currently closing every day at 5:30 p.m.

Get your required advance timed tickets at FristArtMuseum.org/tickets.

Learn more about our new safety procedures at FristArtMuseum.org/reopening.

J.M.W. Turner: Quest for the Sublime was organized in cooperation with Tate.

This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Platinum Sponsor

Silver Supporter

This exhibition is supported in part by the 2020 FRIST GALA PATRONS

Supporting Sponsor

Hospitality Sponsor

Education and Community Engagement Supporter

The Frist Art Museum is supported in part by

JULYFund 23 – (with JULY 29, 2020 | NASHVILLE nashvillescene.com J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851). The Blue Rigi, Sunrise, 1842. Watercolor on paper, 11 3/4 x 17 3/4 in. Tate: Purchased with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the| Art a contribution from theSCENE Wolfson Foundation and including generous support from David and Susan Gradel, and from other members of the public through the Save the Blue Rigi appeal), Tate Members and other donors 2007. Photo © Tate, 2019

FC002204-008_Mrr_JMWTurner-Sep7_NashvilleScene_10.75x12.5.indd 1

5

7/15/20 11:35 AM

CITY LIMITS

TWO WOMEN FIGHT TO UNSEAT NASHVILLE REPUBLICAN STEVE DICKERSON Competitive Democratic primary centers on ‘electability’ debate

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

W

hen Democratic organizers established Emerge Tennessee in the wake of Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory, the goal was to train Democratic women to run for office.

The training program has produced a handful of winners across the state, including in the legislature and in local offices.

Now the network of dozens of alumnae is robust enough that graduates are facing off against each other in Democratic primaries.

That’s the case in Davidson County’s Senate District 20, where two women are vying for the chance to challenge incumbent GOP Sen. Steve Dickerson, the only Nashvillebased Republican in the state House or Senate. The district nearly encircles the county, and includes wealthy areas in Belle Meade and Green Hills as well as more rural areas to the north. Tennessee Democrats have long eyed it as a top pickup opportunity as they seek to grow their small caucus in the GOP-dominated legislature.

One of the candidates, Kimi Abernathy, touts her professional experience as an educational administrator and consultant — as well as her personal experience as the godmother of a teenager who died from an opioid overdose — in making the case that she is best-suited to take on Dickerson.

The senator, an anesthesiologist, founded and co-owned Comprehensive Pain Specialists, a group of pain clinics whose CEO John Davis was recently sentenced to 42 months in jail in a multimillion-dollar kickback case. The company faces federal and state fraud charges for which Dickerson denies involvement. (Dickerson did not respond to multiple interview requests for this article.)

“I know the way to beat Steve Dickerson is two-fold,” Abernathy says. “I will beat him because I have the experience and the talent and the passion and the grit to take him, but primarily I can take him at [where] he is most vulnerable, and that is his pill mills. It incenses me that we have a state legislator — the company he founded and co-owned is being sued by the Department of Justice for $25 million in fraud.”

In the Aug. 6 Democratic primary, for which early voting is underway, Abernathy faces Heidi Campbell, who is touting both her business background and her tenure as mayor of Davidson County satellite city Oak Hill as she seeks to unseat Dickerson.

She says that experience winning elections and holding public office makes her the most viable candidate to take on Dickerson.

(In the 2018 Oak Hill elections, Campbell won nearly 800 votes, putting her second

6

of the three winning commissioners; in 2016 Dickerson won nearly 53,000 votes in the district.) Campbell also argues that she has prioritized fiscal responsibility in her leadership of Oak Hill and highlights her campaign support from more conservative mayors in satellite cities Belle Meade and Forest Hills.

“This primary contest is about electability, plain and simple,” Campbell said in a forum hosted by the Davidson County Democratic Party. “My opponent is a loving mother and Army wife, a tireless advocate for children and a good Democrat with whom I align on almost everything. But the choice voters in this primary have to make is which of the two women running for the Democratic nomination for Senate [District] 20 is the most prepared to run and win in a general election against a two-term Republican incumbent, and which is the most qualified to serve her state in the legislature once she gets there. I’m that woman. This is going to be a tough race and an expensive one. …

As a two-time candidate, I know how to run and win an election.”

Campbell also points to her fundraising success — she’s outpacing Abernathy, though it’s not a complete blowout. In 2016, Dickerson’s GOP allies around the state pumped nearly $1 million into his re-election bid, a total that Democrats haven’t come close to matching anywhere in the state in recent cycles. In that contest, Dickerson beat Democratic challenger Erin Coleman by more than 12 percentage points, even as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary

NASHVILLE’S ENDLESS COVID SUMMER The pandemic is worse in the city now than ever before

BY STEVEN HALE

D

on’t call it a comeback.

The coronavirus pandemic never went away — not in Nashville or Tennessee, nor in the United States. The so-called first wave never broke or fully receded. From late April through May and into early June, Nashville largely flattened the curve, thanks in no small part to orders for businesses to shut down and residents to stay at home as much as possible. That was enough for city leaders to decide it was time to reopen. Case

HEIDI CAMPBELL

KIMI ABERNATHY

Clinton carried the district. In 2018, Democrats Phil Bredesen and Karl Dean carried the district in their unsuccessful statewide races for U.S. Senate and governor, respectively.

The Abernathy team objected to Campbell’s electability claims, calling them unfounded. They pointed to Abernathy’s work on a judicial foster-care review board and a school board in another state, as well as her support from more mainstream local leaders like former Mayor Karl Dean, some of whose campaign team is working for Abernathy. (Campbell too has tallied endorsements from state leaders like Democratic Sen. Brenda Gilmore and Rep. Vincent Dixie.)

Regardless of which candidate takes the nomination, she will face an uphill battle against Dickerson, who far outpaced Trump at the top of the ticket in 2016 and is sure to be backed by deep-pocketed allies once again. And if successful in November, she will face another uphill battle in the legislature, where the Senate Democratic Caucus currently stands at just five members in the

33-member body. Both Campbell and Abernathy largely hew to the same Democratic positions on education, health care, LGBTQ and women’s rights, and Confederate statues. In order to push policy priorities like Medicaid expansion and medical marijuana forward, though, she would need to build a new coalition after repeated failures in recent years.

Dickerson himself has supported many of those same positions — like medical marijuana, abortion rights and protecting Nashville from state meddling. But both Abernathy and Campbell say that’s not enough, and both point to Dickerson missing a vote last month on a Republican anti-abortion bill and his inability over the years to pass medical marijuana bills he has sponsored.

“He doesn’t advocate, he doesn’t get it out of committee, he doesn’t move things forward,” Abernathy says. “He votes with us when it’s convenient, but it’s not going to pass, so that it makes it look like he’s the Democratic ally, but he’s not really there. ...

He’ll take the easy votes.”

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

numbers began to rise again, but Metro kept moving forward, easing regulations and allowing more businesses and parts of the economy to reopen. The virus predictably spread, and case numbers surged.

This brought about some temporary shutdowns as restaurants responded to cases among staff, and the city retreated to a modified phase two of its reopening plan.

But COVID-19 does not respond immediately to subtle shifts in policy. Widely available evidence — reports from area grocery stores, or the nearly nightly videos of a packed Lower Broadway, some of which have gone viral — suggests that many Nashvillians and tourists have thrown caution to the infected wind.

The city has struggled to achieve widespread compliance with a mask mandate.

Now the pandemic is worse in Nashville than ever before. The city’s four-day average of new cases has remained above the previous high point for the entire month of July. As of July 19, the average number of new COVID-19 cases for the prior two weeks was 353.93 per day. The city has set new records for positivity rates this month, and hospitalization rates have

at times reached concerning levels, according to the metrics used by Metro’s Coronavirus Task Force.

On July 20, the Metro Public Health Department reported that the city had added more than 3,000 new cases in the past week. At press time, a total of 159 deaths have been attributed to the virus in Nashville.

Dr. Marie Griffin of Vanderbilt University’s Department of Health Policy is technically retired now — but, well, suffice it to say she’s still working. After serving as an integral part of the team who wrote Nashville’s reopening plan, she’s staying on part-time at Vandy through the summer. She also sits on some boards, including the National Institutes of Health Data and Safety Monitoring Board for vaccine trials.

Asked whether the city reopened too soon, Griffin says it’s hard to say and acknowledges that there will be some trial and error.

“It could be that if people complied with the guidelines that maybe we would’ve been OK,” she says.

“There’s two things going on. There’s the guidelines, and then there’s whether people believe in them or are willing to comply with them.”

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

citylimits_7-23-20.indd 6

7/20/20 6:19 PM

CITY LIMITS Griffin adds: “I think two things. One is there’s a responsibility even if you don’t feel vulnerable yourself, because you’re young and healthy. There is a responsibility to protect other people. And I think the businesses also need to enforce that in their patrons. Those two things have to happen, or this is gonna spread.”

A cursory glance at the data is enough to give one a sense of whether Nashville has collectively accomplished those two goals. And as we’ve all learned during our four-month course in exponential math, the more the virus spreads, the more the virus spreads.

“We’re now at a point where the background rate in Nashville is like 1 to 2 percent,” Griffin says. “So that means if you go out and you’re in a group with 100 people, there’s very likely to be somebody there that’s positive that may not know it.”

That scenario would be worrisome enough, but it’s only more so when the crowd is indoors. One infected person alone can do a lot of damage.

“Although we think of this virus as one person

generally spreads to two or maybe three other people, in a big group under the right circumstances, they can spread it to a large portion of the people in the group,” Griffin says. “And then those people go out and spread it to other people. So it really can grow very rapidly.”

That’s among the obvious reasons why images of crowded honky-tonks are alarming to public health officials, along with reasonably informed laypeople.

Even the pedal taverns — a distressing sight with or without a pandemic — were still running until last week, when Mayor John Cooper said use of such so-called transpotainment would be suspended at least through the end of July. Yet over the weekend the Lower Broad bars were crowded enough to attract the attention of TMZ, which reported that “everyone partied liked it WASN’T 2020.”

“I guess we’re not getting the message across, or people don’t want to hear the message,” Griffin says when asked about the scenes downtown. “I’m not sure why people continue to do this.”

The concern, Griffin emphasizes, is ultimately about overwhelming the hospitals. Any case is bad, as is any death. But if the hospitals become overrun, we can quickly find ourselves in the middle of a runaway catastrophe, effectively expanding the pandemic’s reach by using up resources that would otherwise be directed toward other needs. Nashville isn’t there yet. But the city is experiencing a sustained stretch of alarming trends, with a public resistant to guidelines and a new school year set to begin soon.

The virus is also outpacing the city’s efforts at contact tracing and isolation — efforts that are only further hindered by long wait times for test results.

“What the health department’s supposed to do with every new case is call them, interview them, find out who they were in contact with, let those people know that they’re at risk, quarantine them,” says Griffin. “That’s very hard to do with 300 cases a day. Once it gets like that, it’s very difficult to contain it.”

THIS WEEK ON OUR NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG:

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

METr0P0LITIK

STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH COOP

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

The right wants to recall the mayor and undo the property tax increase. The left is, at best, indifferent to him. Welcome to the next three years.

BY STEVE CAVENDISH

J

ohn Cooper has a problem.

The local left doesn’t like him.

After Cooper’s four years in the Metro Council as the body’s resident Dr. No, progressives in Nashville were never going trust him, especially after his first round of cuts came at the expense of the affordable housing fund. And in spite of his appeals to the fiscalresponsibility sensibilities of conservatives, most of the right voted for wingnut professor Carol Swain in the August mayoral election last year.

Cooper’s lopsided victory in the next month’s runoff, with almost 70 percent of the vote, was interpreted in some circles — including by some Cooper advisers — as a mandate of sorts. But for what? Restructuring long-term debt? Not giving incentive deals? Neither of those is the kind of issue that builds broad coalitions. What’s clear after almost a year in office, however, is that the only mandate Cooper has is to not be David Briley — a task he fulfilled roughly the minute he took his oath of office.

This predicament Cooper finds himself in was evident in the recently passed budget.

Staring down at a huge, coronavirussized hole in the Metro budget, Cooper and 85 percent of the council agreed on a large property tax increase. It’s something he campaigned against, even though we’ve known since last summer that a tax increase of some size was necessary following the last round of tax assessments. But when the virus knocked the economy out, Nashville’s fiscal problems were taken to a different level.

COOPER IN 2019 The vote angered conservatives, who launched two different efforts against Cooper and the council. First, attorney Jim Roberts and a group of shadowy funders launched the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act, a referendum that would limit the ability of the mayor and council to raise property taxes in the future (as well as a host of other limits, including sale of public land and bond issues for some projects).

And second, many of the same people also began a recall petition against the tax increase supporters.

The referendum is, frankly, an awful idea.

There is already a mechanism in place to accomplish everything that its supporters want — tax repeal, a limit on sports stadiums, reduced capital spending — and it’s called an election. Roberts and council conservatives like Steve Glover are mad they can’t actually win a governing majority for their ideology, so they will try to do an end run. The vote, which would be in December, promises to have all of the tricks of the campaign they ran against the transit referendum: opaque nonprofits silently funded

by Lower Broad business owners, months of attack ads and a distillation of complex pieces of government finance into bite-size slogans. It’s a battlefield that’s much more favorable to them than an election in which they have to affirmatively support something or someone.

But the adjacent recall effort was doomed

from the start. Getting the required 15 percent of Davidson County’s registered qualified voters to sign a petition to remove a countywide official would have been tough enough. But entrusting it to a ragtag band of failed political candidates, anti-mask proponents and Trump supporters meant the average Nashville voter, a Democrat, was never going to join in.

The recall drive may live on in one very important way, though: A July 16 robocall to Davidson County voters may have run afoul of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The fines, which run from $500 to $1,500 per call, could end up costing the recall leaders millions of dollars as a result of two classaction suits filed against them this week.

Which brings us back to the mayor. Between COVID-19, tensions over opening tourist attractions, more long-term financial issues that will require effort (but not really win him any support), infrastructure needs, transit problems, expectations raised

by Black Lives Matter protests and a halfdozen other issues, whatever job Cooper thought he had a mandate for a year ago has been blown right out of the water. The right is trying to remove him from office and limit his ability to operate. The left is, at best, indifferent to him.

Cooper’s strategy of owning the middle a year ago was genius. But it might not leave him a lot of room to be mayor.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

Gov. Bill Lee granted a reprieve to death row prisoner Harold Nichols, who was scheduled to be executed Aug. 4, due to “challenges and disruptions” caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the first time Lee has intervened to stop an execution — since becoming governor in January 2019, he has allowed four men to be executed. Nichols’ reprieve will last until the end of the year. … A coalition of more than 2,000 Tennessee medical professionals is calling some school districts’ plans to resume in-person classes “insane and irresponsible.” The coalition warns that sending kids back to school too early would put teachers and families at risk. The group, ProtectMyCare, is also pushing for the state to create a “unified battle plan,” which would include mask mandates, reopening proposals drafted by public health officials and other provisions, rather than leaving it to Tennessee’s 95 individual counties to decide when to resume in-person classes.

Some of those districts could resume in-person classes in just a few weeks.

On a local level, Metro Nashville Public Schools will offer remote learning until at least Labor Day. … Mayor John Cooper issued a shutdown order on pedal taverns and other so-called transpotainment vehicles, infamous for ferrying hooting tourists and bachelorettes throughout downtown. Don’t get too excited, though: The order is only for the remainder of July, as the city attempts to curb the spread COVID-19.

The order also extends the closure of bars and limited-service restaurants through the end of the month. Cooper had previously sought regulations on transpotainment vehicles, but the attempt never made it out of state legislature committees after the pandemic hit. … Another employee of the Tyson Foods plant in Goodlettsville has died after being hospitalized with COVID-19. Sha Myan Kaw Bu, a 51-yearold refugee from the Kachin region of Myanmar, died on July 6, highlighting the elevated risk immigrants and refugee workers are facing during the pandemic.

Kaw Bu caught the disease in April and technically recovered during her threemonth hospital stay — but friends say her lungs remained weak. Hundreds of workers at the Goodlettsville plant tested positive around the same time Kaw Bu became sick.

Two other employees of the plant died after contracting the virus. While Metro Health Director Michael Caldwell praised Tyson for adding precautions last month, workers at the plant have recently complained to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, alleging that Tyson still was not following Centers for Disease Control guidance.

NASHVILLESCENE.COM/PITHINTHEWIND EMAIL: PITH@NASHVILLESCENE.COM TWEET: @PITHINTHEWIND

nashvillescene.com | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

citylimits_7-23-20.indd 7

7

7/20/20 6:19 PM

32nd Annual

See all the winners, ‘weirdies’ and honorable mentions of our annual YASNI contest

8

ILLUSTRATION: XPAYNE

W

ho’d have thought.

Who’d have thought this time last year that instead of e-scooters and tall-andskinnies, we’d be talking about global pandemics and nationwide protests.

Don’t get us wrong: The submissions for our 32nd annual “You Are So Nashville If …” contest still included mentions of scooters and gentrification. But last year’s popular submission topics seem almost quaint in comparison to the horrors of 2020. The Tennessee state House speaker sending deeply inappropriate texts? A scandal involving cherry trees and the NFL Draft? How adorable!

Amid this year’s 1,344 reader submissions, COVID-19 was mentioned 128 times. (The word “virus” was misspelled 14 times as “virous,” for what it’s worth.) There were 45 references to the tornado that wreaked havoc upon Nashville in early March, along with 29 mentions of Kid Rock and nine references to widely loathed Lower Broadway honkytonk owner Steve Smith. Thirty-nine submissions referred to the recent Black Lives Matter protests, while the word “mayor” appeared 36 times, and references to the city’s approved property tax increase came up in 24 instances.

More evergreen Nashville issues appeared as well, of course. Thirteen people referenced pedal taverns, and 12 brought up Dolly Parton. There was talk of murals and guitars and hot chicken, with throwback references to Old Nashville relics like “Techs” — a robot cowboy that used to creep the shit out of patrons at 100 Oaks Mall — and disgraced former Mayor Bill Boner. A handful of Opryland mentions even crept in there, as did some earnest submissions about what an aw-shucks-swell and neighborly town Nashville can be.

But by and large, this year’s YASNI submissions were different from those of years past, because 2020 has been quite different from years past. Even with the ongoing pandemic and civil unrest we see throughout the nation and here in our city, however, YASNI has once again shown us that Nashville knows how to have a laugh at itself. So join us in having a chuckle, and see what made the cut for this year’s “You Are So Nashville If …” issue.

—D. PATRICK RODGERS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

first place

YOUR IDEA OF CONTACT TRACING IS CHECKING FOR HAND STAMPS FROM KID ROCK’S BIG ASS HONKY TONK & ROCK ’N’ ROLL STEAKHOUSE. — MEGAN MINARICH ABOUT THE WINNER:

Megan Minarich says she loves writing You Are So Nashville If entries. She looks forward to submitting every year.

“But it was hard to write them this year,” she says. “Really hard.”

You know the timeline: The March 3 tornado hit, the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Davidson County, the city went on lockdown, and the world went dark. “Then, among all of these things,” says Minarich, “we have rampant, unchecked state violence against Black people. It was hard to sit down and try to channel this very validated sadness and rage into something that is constructively critical.”

But she did, and her winning entry stood out from a pool of similarly themed jabs directed at Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk & Rock ’N’ Roll Steakhouse (yes, that’s it’s real, full name). The Lower Broadway meat market and disease emporium was among the local establishments cited last month for failure to comply with public health emergency orders designed to slow the spread of COVID-19. One photo that made its way around social media not long before the citation was issued showed the club crowded with seemingly science-phobic maskless patrons — with a masked bartender in the middle of the crowd, working her shift.

“I think that speaks to how many people are being forgotten and are not being considered,” says Minarich.

“Maybe that bartender needs that job and can’t lose that job. I don’t think we categorize bartenders as essential workers, but moving out to folks who are working in grocery stores, folks who are working in health care — can’t we all just make decisions that help make their lives safer? I don’t know what is so hard about that.”

Hats off to Minarich for hitting the nail on the head. ERICA CICCARONE

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

coverstory_7-23-20.indd 8

7/20/20 5:03 PM

honorable mentions

Instead of playgrounds, you take your kids to the dinosaur statue farm in Bellevue.

— ALEX DAUGHERTY You stood outside Metro Council for 12 hours to demand funding for the @NashSevereWx Twitter account.

— WES BOLING

You bought Vanderbilt season tickets because you miss football but still want to social distance. — BRIAN BATES You’ve had more mayors than sexual partners since 2018. — DANIEL RYAN

You’re grateful for everyone over at @NashvilleSevereWX, because a twitter account that saves actual lives is a bright spot for us all. — ANDY GASPARINI

You receive a Confederate flag mask as a gift, but won’t wear it because the idea of wearing a mask offends you. — ANDY LOGAN

You’re both saddened and impressed by the way Kid Rock is able to out-douchebag himself every year. — ANDY GASPARINI

Your bagel shop went full Pizzagate.

— CHARLIE HARRIS

You’d been avoiding Steve Smith’s Big Honky Tonk Disease Vectors way before COVID. — LAUREN MACLEOD ILLUSTRATION: XPAYNE

Your city just had its greatest civil rights protest in half a century, and all you got were these lousy Boot Barn kicks.

— CINDI BROWN Your state-issued mask not only helps you protect the well-being of others, but kills all the weeds in your garden.

— ANDY GASPARINI You hoped the East Nashville tornado was powerful enough to take out the East Nashville Facebook page. — HILARY JONES You changed your 12-string guitar to a 6-string guitar for social distancing reasons. — GREGORY DELZER

and the rest A tornado cut your city in half in the middle of the night and you thought, “Well, this year can only get better …” — ANDY GASPARINI Your property tax opinion is formed by the experiences of your favorite whole-hog BBQ restaurant. — JADE SWAFFORD

second place YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY BUY A VIBRATOR NOW THAT 440 IS SMOOTH. — ASHLEY H.

third place THE PANDEMIC LOCKDOWN REDUCED YOU TO A MEAT-AND-ONE. — ALLISON LUND Coronavirus wasn’t the worst virus you contracted at Kid Rock’s Honky Tonk.

— ASHLEY H. You’ve both lost and found a thong on Broadway. — MIKE HAMMONTREE

You voted for Cooper for mayor BECAUSE of his eyebrows. — ERIK THORSON

During the pandemic, you change the Music City Hot Tub water twice a week instead of once. — ALLISON LUND

You wish they would put a little step stool behind the podium for Mayor Cooper.

— ALLISON LUND

You reminisce about a time when scooters were the biggest threat to downtown. — ALEX DAUGHERTY

You’re an ICU nurse taking care of COVID-19 patients by day, and partying at Tin Roof by night. — BRIAN SISKIND

You think Steve Smith is a dick. — JAMIE YOST

You think ham comes in two flavors, city and country. — TOM BATTLE

You are surprised it took COVID-19 to finally land Kid Rock’s bar a health department citation. — ALLISON LUND

You make pedestrians wash their hands before they drop money into your guitar case. — HILARY JONES

You can identify the hierarchy within a bachelorette party on first sight. — SARAH FYE ILLUSTRATION: XPAYNE

You’re sure glad you’re not mayor anymore.

— TRENT HANNER

You’ll only go near Broadway during quarantine. — JESSE NEWKIRK “Bawitdaba da bang da bang diggy diggy diggy, shake the boogie said up jump the boogie,” is exactly the sound you made while getting a COVID-19 test after spending a night at Kid Rock’s bar during a pandemic. — DREW MAYNARD

You won’t let the government take away your right to hear covers of “Don’t Stop Believing” and “Sweet Home Alabama.”

— NATE GRIFFIN

You saw a mangled road barrier and thought it was another crazy city sculpture.

— RHONDA COOK

You think using Tootsie’s bathrooms has made you immune to COVID-19.

— JENNA LOOFBOURROW

You realize the neighborhood is really going to hell when Tomi Lahren moves in. — ALLISON LUND

nashvillescene.com | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

coverstory_7-23-20.indd 9

9

7/20/20 4:58 PM

Tomi Lahren moved here lol wtf.

— CHASE STEJSKAL Quit complaining Tomi, you just got here.

— NATE GRIFFIN Even after a year, you’re still wondering where the MCC roadrunner was.

— HILARY JONES You’ve seen more Nathan Bedford Forrest protests than bachelorette parties in 2020. — GARY POTAK You have been happily chanting “Build the wall!” … between I-65 and the Nathan Bedford Forrest statue. — CINDI BROWN You think pink is a good color for EVERY racist’s fake horse. — TRIPP SULLIVAN Jade Fuller, Nya Collins, Zee Thomas, Kennedy Green, Emma Rose Smith and Mikayla Smith are the only people you have ever been glad to see commuting from Franklin to Nashville. — DANIEL RYAN You are one of the city’s most effective social justice organizers, and you’re only 14 (or 15 or 16) years old. — CINDI BROWN The bigger your protest sign, the closer you are to God. — DANIEL SMITH You ask for the set list at a march or demonstration. — ELISA HERTZAN

You bought a Tennessee handgun carry permit with a Groupon. — RHONDA COOK You remember the days when Franklin had just one unsolved murder. — BRENT ANDREWS Your dog has more Instagram followers than your music account. — JAMIE YOST

honorable mention YOUR MAYOR LOOKS LIKE A WORRIED MUPPET CHARACTER. — MICHAEL ROBERTSON

You know what your favorite band’s living room looks like. — JOHN RODRIGUE

Your whiskey and hand sanitizer are both from Corsair. — GARY POTAK

You finally got a houseplant to live because you weren’t gone on tour. — JAMIE YOST

You blame Nashville traffic when you’re late to a Zoom meeting. — KAT ALEXANDER

You’ve started a GoFundMe so Jason Isbell can take some time off. — JESSE NEWKIRK

Your dog can go to a restaurant but not a dog park. — KEN LASS

Your quarantine schedule was arranged around Amanda Shires’ I So Lounging daily stream. — ANDY GASPARINI

Your vacant Airbnb became your doomsday prep facility. — ABBY GEORGE

I’m trapped! — HILARY JONES What day is it? — NATE GRIFFIN

You heard the CDC recommend men shave off their facial hair to fight the coronavirus, and you just hoped to God that Bob Mueller didn’t take their advice.

— ZACK BENNETT You’re pretty sure we should probably still be in phase one. — ANDY GASPARINI Coronavirus unemployment is the only time you’ve ever gotten paid for work as a creative. — ALISSA LINDEMANN You’ll trade a copy of your new EP for a roll of toilet paper. — HILARY JONES

10

ILLUSTRATION: XPAYNE

You think “No justice, no peace, no racist police” should be the CMA Song of the Year. — CINDI BROWN

You like to think of your at-home quarantine as the only private prison your government won’t throw money at.

— CHARLIE HARRIS You wish they would bring Snowbird back to give coronavirus updates. — ALLISON LUND During stay-at-home orders all you want is a goddamn Bushwacker. — JADE SWAFFORD Your mask says “essential business” but your hair says “quarantine.” — ALEX DAUGHERTY

You decided NOT to name your new country duo “The War of Northern Aggression.”

— DAN MCNAMARA Steve Glover tried to eliminate your job in his budget plan. — DANIEL RYAN You believe the only kind of art degree is a God-fearing art degree. — ALLISON LUND You’re wondering whatever happened to the White Bridge Road Happy Man. — JESSE NEWKIRK You thought “BDE” stood for Big Dolly Energy. — JAMIE YOST You watch Goodnight With Dolly and you don’t even have kids. — HILARY JONES You act like I built Fort Nashborough when I tell you I’ve been here for 12 years. — JESSE NEWKIRK

You’re sad you have to miss out on your birthday dog bowl at the Villager this year. — KATHERINE KLOCKENKEMPER You realize “it city” was just an old sign on Dickerson Road with a “T” burned out.

— LUCAS LEVERETT You still have nightmares about TECHS the robot cowboy. — MICHELLE MULDOON You’re pretty sure Miranda Lambert’s chickens live in a nicer place than your $1,400-a-month rental. — MINA WILLIS You love wearing a mask to Kroger because no one sees you singing along to Billy Ocean’s “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car.” — MATT NORTH Your tall/skinny house breaks social distancing rules. — RIE SCHAFFER

You’ve been following along to 2020 by reading the Book of Revelation. — DANIEL SPARTAN SMITH You prefer your shorts to be jorts. — STEVEN YOUNES

Help! — HILARY JONES

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

coverstory_7-23-20.indd 10

7/20/20 6:28 PM

WEST NASHVILLE

The Becanni thebecanni.com Located 10 minutes from downtown Nashville, the Becanni’s spacious luxury residences sit immediately adjacent to Charlotte Park in West Nashville – just a few blocks from Rock Harbor Marina and the peaceful waters of the Cumberland River.

EAST NASHVILLE

High View Flats highviewnashville.com Perched hillside at the northeastern border of Highland Heights. 88 urban flats offering studio, 1- and 2-bedroom plans. Only five minutes to Inglewood’s Riverside Village, Gallatin Corridor, and a short 10-minute commute to popular 5 Points and downtown Nashville.

EAST NASHVILLE

THE NATIONS

Edison Park

East Greenway Park

edisonparknashville.com

eastgreenwaypark.com

Centrally located in The Nations neighborhood, one of the hottest and fastest-growing in Nashville, are 80 Townhomes and Flats with Modern industrial styling, open floor plans, abundant natural light, and beautiful designer finishes.

East Greenway Park is Nashville’s first health & wellness community. 62 residences nestled between 5 Points & Shelby Bottoms Park. Beautiful community grounds with direct greenway access. Now selling Phase 4.

Pictured above: Mark Deutschmann, Newell Anderson, Danielle Helling, Crystal Atkinson, Caroline Dean, Callie Hughes, Deborah Vahle, Anna Dorris, Devin Mueller

HELPING YOU FIND VALUE IN NASHVILLE R E A L E S TAT E

2206 21st Avenue South Nashville, Tennessee 37212 615.383.6964

NashvilleCityLiving.com nashvillescene.com | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

11

Thank god Frugal MacDoogal is considered “essential.” — HILARY JONES

Even though you never really met him, you feel like you lost a good friend when John Prine died. — RON ARNETT

Taylor Swift totally misread your scooter ban. — ALLISON LUND

You miss David Olney. — CRAZIE ED

You wondered why Carlos Ghosn went to Lebanon instead of going straight to Franklin. — MARY WADE

You’re in a protest or a tornado and John Partipilo shows up. — CRAZIE ED You eat a plate of XXX Hot Chicken before the protest so the tear gas won’t even faze you. — AUNT TIFA

You think that if Lady A wanted to hearken back to a simpler, bygone era of Nashville, they should have changed their name to Lady AnteBoner. — CHARLIE HARRIS

It’s not Christmas until you see NewsChannel 5’s commercial.

— HILARY JONES

You’re fine with Lady A and The Chicks but think Keith Urban is just trying too hard.

— BRIAN BATES

You want to pitch-correct the 8 o’clock howl. — ALISON LOGAN

You twerked on the pews of the Ryman at the Lizzo show. — DANIEL RYAN

You don’t need more sophisticated contact tracing to know all West Nashville COVID cases are connected to the Sperry’s salad bar. — CHARLIE HARRIS

You feel like Dr. Jahangir is Dr. Fauci but in Sweet Tea form. — CLIFTON KAISER

ILLUSTRATION: XPAYNE

You kind of have a crush on Dr. Jahangir. — JACKIE HUGHES You’ve had to play Tetris with your car in the Brown’s Automotive parking lot. — JON LITTLE You ordered a piece of BNA carpet for a doormat. — LAUREN JACOBY You will start an uprising if the holy BNA carpet is ripped out during the airport expansion. — JOHNNY SMITH

honorable mention YOUR NEIGHBOR IS IN DISCUSSIONS WITH LIVE NATION TO MANAGE THEIR PORCH CONCERT. — ANNE MARIE DANKO

Your daughter used to walk up to Little Richard’s table at Piccadilly Cafeteria and spark up a conversation with him when she could barely talk. — DICKIE SOLOPERTO Your every decision triggers the General Assembly to pass a law against it. — SCOTT SPROUSE You see teenagers recording videos everywhere they go, but it will cost your police department $36 million to do the same. — STEPHEN YEARGIN Your Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority commissioner can’t keep tabs on his own damn airplane. — STEPHEN YEARGIN You call your dealer inquiring if he has senior hours. — TOM STILL Your city is worse with money than you are.

— TRENT HANNER You’re using your Nashville SC scarf as a makeshift face mask. — HILARY JONES You’ve been to Nissan Stadium for more soccer games than Titans games.

— HILARY JONES You watched Titans fans perfect social distancing inside Nissan Stadium for years. — DANIEL RYAN You realize everything went to hell after the Preds rolled out that pedal tavern on ice.

— ALEX DAUGHERTY

12

You lived through an EF-3 tornado, a pandemic, murder hornets, and somehow the most surprising thing to happen in 2020 is 440 being completed ahead of time. — KATY FRY Your phone STILL autocorrects “Canada” to “Casada.” — HILARY JONES You miss Area Bear. — TRENT HANNER The beeping of a backhoe in reverse is your morning wake-up alarm. — RHONDA COOK Your Gilligan’s Island arctic cruise nearly drowns the state Democratic party. — TRIPP SULLIVAN You Googled “How to Zoombomb the YASNI submission meeting.” — HILARY JONES

You ran a chess pie down the road to that nice Pekka Reeny when he moved in up the way. — BELINDA ROLLINS

You can’t stop coughing from all the smoke everyone’s blowing up each other’s buttholes around here. — SARAH FYE

Taylor Lewan’s new back tattoo has more ink than The Tennessean’s news section.

— DANIEL RYAN

No, really, there’s nothing like the Belcourt popcorn. — TRENT HANNER

You traded your Project 615 T-shirts for NASCAR T-shirts. — ASHLEY H.

You would like it — nay, love it — if Tim McGraw challenged human tongue depressor Bill Hagerty for U.S. Senate.

— CLIFF MEYER

Your name is Jason Marsden and you just can’t stand John Rich and thought this would be the perfect platform to announce that. — JASON MARSDEN

You still think about that crane operator, and hope he’s doing ok. — ANDY GASPARINI

You are still waiting for Demetria Kalodimos to come back and kick some ass. — JEFF SHEARER You’re sad to see the Schermerhorn become the next country star’s bar. — KAT ALEXANDER Your state Senate confused commemorating women’s suffrage with inflicting women’s suffering. — MEGAN MINARICH Your state legislature can’t decide which is less important: racism or poverty. — ROB ROBINSON Well, rip that state budget right out of my uterus! — MEGAN MINARICH

The Doordash guy is the lead singer of your favorite band. — HILARY JONES You didn’t enter YASNI this year because The Tennessean told you the world was ending July 18. — BRIAN BATES You survived the July 18, 2020, nuclear attack on Nashville. — STACY HARRIS Your daughter’s driver’s ed teacher is former Mayor Bill Boner.

— COURTNEY PETERSON You can’t shake dreaming about cigarettes that are nine miles long. — JEFF SHEARER You handled the tornadoes, the pandemic shutdowns, but lost it when John Prine died. — CHRIS ADAMS

You ... welp … umm … just … I got nuthin’.

— MICHAEL WILLIAMS EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

weirdies YOUR MOTHER MADE YOUR PROM DRESS OUT OF POTATO CHIP BAGS. Your doctor has a plaque on his wall that says “we cured Travis Tritt’s pink eye.”

You were pissed that last year’s Weirdies were printed anonymously; ’cuz one of your entries made it on that list and now you can’t prove it was yours!

You refuse to buy peaches from those “Georgia Peach Stands” because YOU ALWAYS BUY LOCAL !! you wait until Saturday morning at 10 am to have a huge personal argument with your teenager in the checkout line at Kroger you cant find your butt with both hands!

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

coverstory_7-23-20.indd 12

7/20/20 5:00 PM

past winners 1989:

You think our Parthenon is better because the other one fell apart.

— Susan Fenton

1990:

Your mayor is married and engaged at the same time.

— Maralee Self

1991:

1992:

You say to the person behind the counter at the Hot Stop, “We really kicked y’all’s ass in that Desert Storm.” — Willie D. Sweet Jr. You go to a Hank Williams Jr. concert at Starwood and pass out before Hank does. — Ted W. Davis III

1993:

Your church congregation is referred to as “the studio audience.”

— Sharon Kasserman

1994:

You think that the H.O.V. lane is for people with AIDS. — Paul Allen

2005:

Your governor gives TennCare beneficiaries McDonald’s instead of health care coverage.

— Ken Lass

2006:

You were a gay cowboy before being a gay cowboy was cool.

— Michael Williams

2007:

You saw Kenny Chesney in a Kroger reading Out & About.

— Michael Williams

2008:

Your DUI arrest gets a five-star rating on YouTube. — Roy Moore

2009:

Your local GOP makes the KKK look like the ACLU. — Jonathan Belcher

2010:

Your city flooded and all you got was a lousy T-shirt. — David Anthony

2011:

Gay gay gay, gay gay; gay gay gay gay gay. — Dana Delworth

2012:

You think Bart Durham should direct The Real Housewives of Nashville. — Holly Matthews

1995:

No winner

1996:

You never meant to stay here this long. — Robert Jetton

2013:

1997:

You’ve checked your flower bed for Janet March. — Terry Robertson

You think the TV show should have been called Mount Juliette.

— Bill Hench

2014:

Your amp goes to 11, but not to Belle Meade. — Zack Bennett

1998:

You’re the only one who doesn’t know you’re gay. — Diana Hecht

2015:

1999:

You dig up your mom. — Rick Hagey

You’re afraid Bob Mueller’s mustache will be torn down to build a high-rise apartment building. — Zack Bennett

2000:

You want to vote Brad Schmitt off the island. — Chad Tribble

2016:

Your therapist doesn’t know you’re gay. — Russell Ries Jr.

2001:

Your minister follows the Nine Commandments. — Ken Lass

2017:

2002:

Towns you’ve never heard of are going to be hit by a tornado at 6:51, 6:53 and 7:01 p.m.

— Rick Hagey

2003:

You returned a friendly Southern wave to Adam Dread as he veered across Franklin Pike.

— Cindy Parrish

In June, you were citing Rule No. 48.24-B that states a goal can be reviewed if an inadvertent whistle caused a stoppage in play. In January, you thought hockey was played with a ball.

— Brian Bates

2018:

Nashville is canceled. Also, the TV show was not renewed.

— Charlie Harris

2019:

Your idea of “light rail” means doing just a little bit of coke.

— Katie Wesolek

2004:

You need a war to sell records.

— Joe Scutella

POSTERS & APPAREL AVAILABLE NOW

HATCHSHOWPRINT.COM/SHOP

nashvillescene.com | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

coverstory_7-23-20.indd 13

13

7/20/20 5:03 PM

It’s one of the most popular It’s one one of the It’s of the covers around. most popular It’s one of the

most popular Masks.

They slow the spread of coronavirus. covers around. most popular But they only work when you wear ‘em. covers around.

covers around.

Masks. They slow the spread of coronavirus.

But they when you ‘em.

Masks.

Theyonly slowwork the spread of wear coronavirus.

Good to Go is encouraging Nashville workers, residents, and visitors to cover their faces when they are out and about. And we are grateful to all the Masks. slowNashville the spread of coronavirus.

Good to GoThey is encouraging workers, residents, and visitors to participating Good to Go businesses that are making Nashville a safer place coverBut their faces when they are out and about. And we wear are grateful to all the they only work when you ‘em.

Good to Go is encouraging Nashville workers, residents, and visitors tomusic note on a to live, work and visit. When you ourNashville signature green participating Good to Go businesses that aresee making a safer place cover their faces when they are out and about. And we are grateful to all the tobusiness, live, work and visit.

When see ourthe signature green music on a customers safe. you know it you is taking necessary stepsnote to keep participating Good to Go businesses that are making Nashville a safer place business, you know is taking the steps to keepNashville customers safe.

Good to Go isyou encouraging Nashville workers, and visitors to for everyone.

Thank forit working innecessary harmony toresidents, make safer

But they only work when you wear ‘em.

to live, work and visit. When you see our signature green music note on a

forwhen working in are harmony to make Nashville for everyone. coverThank theiryou faces they out and about.

And wesafer are grateful to all the business, you know it is taking the necessary steps to keep customers safe. participating Good to Go businesses that are making Nashville a safer place Thank you for working in harmony to make Nashville safer for everyone. to live, work and visit. When you see our signature green music note on a business, you know it is taking the necessary steps to keep customers safe.

Thank you for working in harmony to make Nashville safer for everyone.

14

NASHVILLE SCENE |

Thank you for making Nashville safer for everybody.

Thank you for making Nashville safer for everybody.

Visit GoodToGoNashville.com to learn more.

JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | nashvillescene.com Brought to you by:

Visit GoodToGoNashville.com to learn more.

Brought to you by:

Thank you for making Nashville safer for everybody.

Visit GoodToGoNashville.com to learn more.

Brought to you by:

CRITICS’ PICKS S O C I A L

D I S T A N C I N G

E D I T I O N

BOOKS

loved skillet. And just because you can’t just run that hunk of iron through the pots-andpans setting of a dishwasher doesn’t mean maintenance is as daunting as advertised — contrary to popular belief, you can actually use modern dish soap on the skillet to clean it, and oftentimes reseasoning it can be as simple as just cooking on it again. (Just don’t soak it.) And now that summer is here, you can even bring your favorite skillet outside and set it on the grill to make the perfect burger. If you don’t have one already given to you by a relative who has high hopes for your culinary skills, you can check local kitchen shops or even antique stores for a new or used model — just be sure to season it before use. ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

BUILD YOUR OWN STREAMING PAUL VERHOEVEN FILM FEST

This week marks the 19th installment in our ongoing build-your-own-streamingfilm-fest series — for this edition, let’s go with a filmmaker whose catalog is an absolute embarrassment of riches.

Dutch writer-director-producer Paul Verhoeven, who turned 82 this month, directed precisely four films per decade for four straight decades, and there’s a little something for everyone in those 16 features.

Unfortunately, most of Verhoeven’s earliest films aren’t available to stream, but a great spot to dive in is his first English-language feature, 1985’s Flesh+Blood (available for $4 via Amazon Prime). As Scene critic Jason Shawhan recently put it, that one is “violent, upsetting, pitiless and utterly remarkable.” From there, it’s blockbuster action time: Take your pick between 1987’s RoboCop ($4 on Vudu, iTunes and Prime) and 1990’s Total Recall (now on Netflix), a pair of imaginative and outlandish sci-fi films that have both wormed their way into the American subconscious in totally different ways. (Kurtwood Smith or Michael Ironside? Choose your fighter!) After that, another faceoff, but this time between wildly divergent erotic thrillers: 1992’s Basic Instinct (among the filmmaker’s most critically and commercially successful works; $4 on Prime) or 1995’s Showgirls (so weird and bad that it’s kind of amazing; free with HBO Max). Up next is an absolute must, and possibly my personal fave of Verhoeven’s works: 1997’s Starship Troopers, the ever-relevant military sci-fi satire based on Robert A. Heinlein’s 1959 novel. Also: more Ironside! That’s a great place to wrap up, but do consider bringing your film fest

home with 2006’s Black Book ($4 on Prime). skillet through overzealous cleaning, the As Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers once put replies are full of horrified reactions and it, “No movie about the Dutch Resistance mournful commiserations. But just because during World War II has any right to be people can be a bit performative about this wildly entertaining, not to mention something doesn’t mean it’s not this provocative and potently actually good. Cast-iron skillets erotic.” That’s Verhoeven, baby! are sturdy and versatile, meaning you can sauté, broil D. PATRICK RODGERS EDITOR’S NOTE: AS A RESPONSE TO THE and/or bake tons of meals ONGOING COVID-19 PANDEMIC, without worrying too much [HEAVY METAL] WE’VE CHANGED THE FOCUS OF THE about the main tool. From FALL IN LOVE WITH A CRITICS’ PICKS SECTION TO INCLUDE perfectly seared steaks CAST-IRON SKILLET ACTIVITIES YOU CAN PARTAKE IN WHILE YOU’RE AT HOME to crispy pizzas to rich There are a lot of jokes PRACTICING SOCIAL DISTANCE. meat and veggies roasts, online about people — often the skillet can handle all men — who are obsessed your cooking needs in quality with the care and maintenance fashion. I’m not saying you’ll of their cast-iron skillet. Hell, if never go back to other pots and pans, but anyone with decent Twitter clout posts you’ll never regret cooking with a wellabout a partner or roommate “ruining” their

There’s a good chance your regular book club meetings have either gone on hiatus or have moved to Zoom. Luckily, Brooklynbased indie publishing company A Public Space feels your pain, and has launched the virtual book club #APSTogether. It’s a free online series that hosts daily discussions on social media. Between now and October,

you can join fellow book nerds worldwide through guided readings of beloved works like James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room and Annie Dillard’s The Maytrees, all led by a who’s-who of today’s best writers, including novelist/poet Garth Greenwell, novelist Elizabeth McCracken and poet Carl Phillips.

Register at apublicspace.org — bring your own wine. BRITTNEY McKENNA MUSIC

[THANKS, I BOUGHT IT AT VERSACE]

JOIN FREE VIRTUAL BOOK CLUBS VIA A PUBLIC SPACE

FOOD & DRINK

FILM

STARSHIP TROOPERS

[SUMMER READING]

CAST-IRON SKILLET

[MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK]

WATCH THE CHANGE UP VIA ACME RADIO LIVE

Among the many great things about live music is the chance, more and more uncommon in recent years, to stumble

nashvillescene.com | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

criticspicks_7-23-20.indd 15

15

7/20/20 4:50 PM

CRITICS’ PICKS

Our Current Store Hours: Monday through Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm 2501 WEST END AVENUE (Across from Centennial Park)

I will spare you the rant about climate change and get to the point: It’s hot. There are endless ways to deal with the heat — some legal, some not — but one very loweffort way to get through this heatwave known as July is to pull the shades, make yourself an assortment of icy beverages, point a fan directly at the couch and get lost in some literally chilling cinematic magic.

There are frigid films to fit just about every theme. Critically acclaimed options include Fargo (streaming on Starz), Snowpiercer (Netflix), The Shining (Showtime and Amazon Prime) and Misery (Amazon Prime). For some action, see The Day After Tomorrow (Amazon Prime), The Mountain Between Us (Amazon Prime — and don’t worry, the dog survives!), The Revenant (Amazon Prime) and Vertical Limit (streaming on Starz or Amazon Prime), the oft-forgotten 2000 action film starring the world’s original favorite Chris (O’Donnell).

There’s plenty of horror if you hope to scare the sun away — John Carpenter’s 1982 classic The Thing (Starz or Amazon Prime), 30 Days of Night (Amazon Prime) and Let the Right One In (Hulu) — or for some especially brutal entertainment, cue up Alive (Amazon Prime).

The 1993 film starring Ethan Hawke will remind you there are worse things than a 70-degree dew point — like having to eat your dead, frozen rugby teammates, for example. If you go that route, maybe end the evening with March of the Penguins (Hulu) to lighten things up — pandemic nightmares are bad enough as it is. MEGAN SELING

16

MUSIC

DAISHA McBRIDE — performing live at the venue’s rooftop bar, with DJ sets from local producer A.B. Eastwood. On July 24, check out stellar MC Daisha McBride, fresh off the release of her EP Yafeelme, followed by a full-band set from pop-schooled singer Krysten Simone.

On July 31, look for rapper, beatmaster and percussionist Bammie Davis Jr. along with standout singer Bryant Taylorr and his band. The series wraps Aug. 7 with longtime local rap champ Tim Gent, whose In Every Fall EP was a highlight among late-spring releases, and singer-songwriter Jamiah, whose 2019 release 22 showcases wisdom well beyond her years. Set an alarm and catch the stream via Acme Radio’s Facebook page. If you want to get psyched up ahead of the next stream, go back and check out July 10’s session with hip-hop champ The BlackSon and singer John Tucker and July 16’s show with rap storyteller Chuck Indigo and mellifluous songsmith Ahmad. 6:30 p.m. on July 24, 31 and Aug. 7 STEPHEN TRAGESER

BUILD YOUR OWN ICE-COLD FILM FESTIVAL

[BLESS YOU BOYS]

LISTEN TO THE NEW PROTOMARTYR ALBUM

The CliffsNotes version of the Protomartyr origin story: A trio of native Detroiters in their 20s started a scrappy, off-kilter punk band, then recruited local barfly Joe Casey — slightly older and with

FOOD & DRINK

Proudly Serving Starbucks Coffee

[FREEZING FRAMES]

[TAKE ME TO THE RIVER]

EXPLORE RIVERGATE’S SURPRISING FOOD SCENE

Along the northeastern corner of Davidson County, hidden in plain sight among the drive-thrus, chain restaurants and what’s left of Rivergate Mall, a small world of cheap culinary delights awaits. If you don’t frequent the area, this might come as a surprise, so let me tell you: Pupusas at El Pulgarcito, ramen and udon at Sapporo, potent Indian at Green Chili and the sole operational branch of local fave Thai Phooket (the flagship location by Nissan Stadium was damaged by a fire last year and hasn’t reopened) are all super legit, and just a stone’s throw from each other near where Gallatin Pike and Rivergate Parkway intersect. Writing about Pulgarcito in the Scene’s 2018 Best of Nashville issue, I called the Salvadoran spot someplace that the late, great L.A. Times columnist Jonathan Gold would’ve loved.

(Gold often used his platform to highlight Southern California’s endless hole-in-thewall eateries slinging food from around the globe, and the stories and traditions behind them.) The same goes for the others mentioned here. All are doing takeout and deserve your support — take a trip up I-65 and make a feast of it. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN BOOKS

NOW OPEN! B&N Cafe´

on new music and fall in love with it. The pandemic has put the vast majority of shows you can see in person on hold, limiting those opportunities even more; you have to make your own luck by picking streams to check out from artists you might not be familiar with. A new series organized by Black music promotions group Lovenoise along with Acme Radio Live, the online broadcasting arm of Lower Broadway bar and venue Acme Feed & Seed, is a great place to start.

Friday nights, The Change Up showcases outstanding local rappers and R&B singersongwriters — who don’t have nearly the infrastructure afforded to country, Americana and rock musicians in town

FILM

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN

no prior musical experience, but lots to say and nothing to lose — to front it. That was in 2008. But what began on a lark has since blossomed into a world-class post-punk juggernaut. Protomartyr tours hard and works quickly, making sure each record tops the last. Motor City folklore is a constant in Casey’s lyrics, but 2017’s Relatives in Descent also offered powerful, sobering commentary on Trump, #MeToo and how we got there. Artists who’d just completed new records when the pandemic struck have faced the conundrum of whether to go ahead with the release, even if the album now resembles an alien transmission. But Protomartyr’s music has always been colored with creeping dread, and so the foursome’s fifth album, Ultimate Success Today, seems eerily clairvoyant. “This is the dawning of the day without end,” Casey declares on opener “Day Without End.” What follows is dense and experimental, pretty (the ominously groovy “June 13th”) and pissed-off (the anti-surveillance screed “Processed by the Boys”). Like Leonard Cohen’s, Casey’s baritone gets deeper with each album, and on several songs, auxiliary alto sax and bass clarinet conjure a free-jazz racket appropriate for a world gone amok. It’ll take time to unpack, as with every Protomartyr record — but at a moment in time when so much is superficial, that’s something to savor. Protomartyr’s Ultimate Success Today can be streamed on Bandcamp and Spotify, and is available on LP and CD via Domino Records. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

[DIGITAL UNDERGROUND]

READ THIRD MAN BOOKS’ DIGITAL TITLES

Thank God all of the blogs stopped suggesting physical exercise and “clean eating” to ward off “the COVID 15” weight gain. Fuck diet culture. Let’s nourish our bodies with feel-good activities and noregrets indulgences, and nourish our souls with literature. Third Man Books, the

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

criticspicks_7-23-20.indd 16

7/20/20 4:52 PM

CRITICS’ PICKS literary imprint of Third Man Records, has made many of its books available for digital download, and will point you in the right direction to purchase ebooks elsewhere.

If your attention span is suffering at the moment, TMB has shorter works to quench your thirst, like the Cormac McCarthyesque collection of short stories The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers; Scene contributor Betsy Phillips’ fantastical — and fantastic — Jesus Crawdad Death; and Nine Bar Blues, a

in October 2019 with Francesco Turrisi and the haunting There Is No Other. Or perhaps South African cellist Thapelo Masita’s beautiful World Music Day performance, which was filmed in June in the Unicorn Tapestries Room at The Cloisters. And lit nerds won’t want to miss the digital premiere of The Ninth Hour: The Beowulf Story — a “rock-noir reimagining” of the epic Old English tale, which offers a unique take on themes of power and violence.

Visit metmuseum.org for complete details.

: Winners’ Reader poll

PRESENT THIS COUPON FOR

20% OFF YOUR TO-GO ORDER ONLY

THEATER

AMY STUMPFL

THEATER

ERICA CICCARONE [CELEBRATE WITH THE MET]

DISCOVER INSPIRING PERFORMANCES FROM THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

Since closing its doors in March, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has been hard at work, connecting art lovers — and honoring its 150th anniversary — through an impressive menu of digital resources.

But beyond the cool virtual gallery visits, engaging guest lectures and blogs, there’s also a wide-ranging collection of stellar performances. You might start with folk musician and MacArthur Fellow Rhiannon Giddens, who made her MetLiveArts debut

MUST BE PRESENT AT SITAR (EXP. 4/30/20)

[THEATER THAT MAKES YOU THINK]

CURATE AN EVENING OF INNOVATIVE THEATER

Theater is more than just a form of escapism — it’s a way to process what’s happening in the world around us.

Thankfully, there are plenty of innovative theater companies leading the way with online programming that often takes on tough issues and challenges its audiences along the way. For example, The New Group has put together a free digital festival called Facing the Rising Tide, which includes online readings of new plays and conversations about “environmental racism, the climate crisis and hope.” Likewise, Irish Repertory Theatre’s first digital summer season includes The Gifts You Gave to the Dark — a gut-wrenching piece written in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that is available to stream through October — and a new production of Conor McPherson’s The Weir, filmed remotely and designed specifically for digital media, available through July 25. And Brooklyn’s Brick Theater has put together an archival streaming series that includes everything from dark comedies, experimental performance pieces, movement and more.

vegan with gluten-free options

East Nashville

WE DELIVER WITH: GRUBHUB...POSTMATE DOOR DASH...UBER

Closed on Tuesdays Open 11am-10pm all other days

116 21st Ave. N. | 321-8889 | SitarNashville.com

Follow us on facebook or twitter to see daily specials!

FREE PARKING!

We Deliver: Call @ 526-9100

nashvillescene.com Call for take-out!

Authentic Mexican Cuisine & Bakery...Side by Side!

615-669-8144 PanaderiayPasteleriaLopez

AMY STUMPFL

SELF-CARE

short-story collection by Memphis-based writer Sheree Renée Thomas. If you crave something more meditative, I recommend poetry by some of our local luminaries. I long searched for a copy of Ciona Rouse’s limited-run chapbook VANTABLACK, and it’s now available as digital download.

Rouse’s poems are at once intimate and broad-ranging, as she applies a personal analysis to topics of identity, colorism and family history with striking imagery and pulsating lines. Also available is Lucy Negro, Redux, in which Caroline Randall Williams proposes that the Dark Lady — who figures prominently in Shakespeare’s Sonnets — was a historical figure named Black Luce, the madam of a brothel during Shakespeare’s time. The result is a sexy, audacious, beautiful volume of poetry that reflects Williams’ recent viral New York Times op-ed “You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument.” On the nonfiction front, protopunk heads will appreciate Total Chaos: The Story of The Stooges / As Told by Iggy Pop by erainsider Jeff Gold. Find all of the available titles at thirdmanbooks.com/digital-books.

VOTED BEST FOR 15 YEARS!

[TO THE LEFT]

UNFOLLOW TERRIBLE PEOPLE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

According to a report in The New York Times, social media use in the U.S. skyrocketed after the start of this pandemic. Sure, it began innocently enough — constantly checking Twitter helped us stay up to date on what was happening with the spread of COVID-19, and interacting with internet pals helped offset the feelings of isolation that come with quarantining. But there are also multiple studies out there that suggest too much social media (and screen time, for that matter) can be damaging to our mental health and overall well-being.

And that rage you feel as you scroll through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok? That restlessness that makes it hard to sleep or concentrate on other tasks? It’s only going to get stronger the deeper we plunge into this pandemic and the closer we get to the November election. Simply put: You need to purge your feed. There is no room for bullshit in a pandemic. Pick your people wisely. Fill your social media accounts with smart, inspiring, passionate folks who inspire, teach, inform or just plain make you laugh or post cute animal pics. The bigots, the devil’s advocates, the people you hatefollow for their mockably bad takes … leave ’em all to drown in the cesspool. MEGAN SELING

615-865-2646 TacosyMariscosLindoMexico

917A Gallatin Pike S, Madison, TN

A Division of The Heritage Foundation of Williamson County

(615) 538-2076 • WWW.FRANKLINTHEATRE.COM •419 MAIN STREET, FRANKLIN, TN 37064

OUR 2 LAST SHOWS OF 2020

WATCH BY LIVE STREAM!

GATLIN BROTHERS FAN FAVORITES

SAT, JULY 25 | 8 PM

MAC MCANALLY FRI, JULY 31 | 8 PM

VISIT FRANKLINTHEATRE.COM nashvillescene.com | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

criticspicks_7-23-20.indd 17

17

7/20/20 4:52 PM

Take the

PLUNGE

MICHELE TRUEBA

downtown expert REALTOR®

CALL FOR INFO

(615) 424-0400

JOANNE GAUTHIER

luxury specialist

REALTOR®

CALL FOR INFO

(615) 423-9813

Now is the time invest, there are only a few select developer condos remaining…

Looking for the perfect pied-à-terre or a primary residence in Nashville?

You may want to take a look at 505 High-Rise Condominiums.

This exclusive luxury high-rise with endless views, was designed to create an inspired living experience for its residents.

505 offers room to breathe with spacious floors of exceptional indoor & outdoor amenities.

Come and see for yourself what makes 505 so distinct!

BUY • SELL • INVEST • SELL 18

office NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

5107 Maryland Way Suite 100 Brentwood, TN 37027 (615) 661-7800

FOOD AND DRINK

TO-GO, BOLDLY

What four local restaurants have learned from pivoting to takeout

BY STEVE CAVENDISH

1. REINVENT YOUR MENU Fine-dining menus don’t work without a kitchen firing out courses in a deliberate, well-timed fashion, and all of that goes out the window the minute you package food and send it to a customer’s home. For Prasad, that has meant changing more than 50 percent of Miel’s menu, jettisoning crudos and adding low-country boils. And you can’t just design it for date night, because bringing food home means bringing it for everyone in the family.

“You have to be thinking about children more and having something that appeals to them too,” she says.

At Arnold’s Country Kitchen, pivoting to takeout has meant selling roast-beef sliders instead of sliced roast beef at the end of a buffet line. And chef Khalil Arnold says they’ve been experimenting with a burger too, which they hope to roll out soon.

“It’s Bear Creek Farms beef, and it’s delicious,” he says. “You learn to adapt your menu.”

At Sinema, general manager Q-Juan Taylor says everything has changed.

“If you go to Sinema now versus this time last year, there’s only two items that were on there last year,” Taylor says. “Our charcuterie board and our scallop entrée.

We changed 90 percent of it. It’s a great menu, but it’s more geared toward the family. We’ve kept the seasonal aspect, but it’s a fresh, simple menu geared toward people you’ve been around this entire time.”

2. RETHINK YOUR BUSINESS Around this time last year, Nicky’s Coal

PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

W

hen the pandemic struck, it hit West Nashville’s Miel especially hard. If 70 percent of your business is built around fine dining and the rest is built around an event space and catering, there’s no easy way back.

Owner Seema Prasad and her crew decided to lean hard into takeout — something they had never done in the 12-year history of the restaurant.

“It’s been a challenge, and there are a bunch of things that we wouldn’t have done before,” Prasad says. “We learned what we could do and what people would get excited about. People don’t think about Miel as a burger place, but people asked us about our happy-hour burger. It’s not the same price, because we’re not serving drinks, but it’s a favorite.”

Instead of seasonal, French-inspired food, it’s cheeseburgers and soft-shell crab po’ boys. Nashville restaurants have morphed into hybrids, doing anything they can to generate cash flow. Without higher margin supports like a pricey wine list or a bar, they are reinventing their menus and service to survive. Below are some lessons that four local restaurants have learned about coping with the coronavirus over the past four months.

Fired was awash in bar patrons looking for an Aperol spritz or some other summer cocktail, while seats facing the open kitchen were packed with pizza lovers enjoying pies from Enrico, the giant coal oven. Fast-forward to today, and the entire restaurant has changed from table service to fast-casual, with diners placing their orders before finding a seat in the reduced-capacity dining room or patio.

That space in front of the kitchen? It’s been converted into a takeout prep space.

“Prior to closing, takeout was 1 percent of our business, and now it’s almost 50 percent,” says co-owner Caroline Galzin. The restaurant, which had been designed for maximum seating, now reflects the duality of the business — half of her customers are eating at home.

The pandemic also forced Nicky’s and many other restaurants to evaluate their technology. Point-of-sale systems that don’t mesh with takeout and delivery options are out. Galzin says Nicky’s chose Tock, a system created by the owners of Alinea in Chicago, because “you can tell it was designed by people who worked in a restaurant before.” Now the system talks with Postmates.

Taylor says the pandemic has caused a wholesale re-evaluation of who their customers will be at Sinema. Previously, he and his staff could count on after-work meetings turning into a $100 tab at the bar or renting out one of the several private dining options.

Now, in addition to blowing up the menu, the restaurant has had to figure out a way to make its very popular weekend brunch available in homes.

“The flip side is that our consumer base dines differently at home than when they go out,” Taylor says. “Lost parties are huge for Sinema. What we’re trying to focus on is how people gather and what we can do to

meet them.” Taylor says Sinema has partnered with a delivery service, Uber Eats, for the first time.

Arnold says gearing toward takeout is much different from serving a line. It’s meant changing not just what he’s cooking, but the amounts as well. “We’re doing things in smaller batches and gearing toward running out,” he says, as they attempt to keep a lid on food costs.

3. PACKAGING MATTERS There’s nothing worse than having dinner spoiled by the container it came in. Restaurants have learned the hard way that chucking an entire meal into a foam container is a recipe for disaster.

“You just can’t take it lightly or for granted,” Taylor says. “What I’ve learned is that it gives people more comfort in the return ordering.”

For Miel, it took some trial and error — and getting into the takeout game weeks after everyone else didn’t help matters.

“A lot of it was out — brown paper bags were all of a sudden gone,” says Prasad. And the oversized containers that were available took two bags to carry. When you’ve been thinking only in terms of plates — Miel allowed zero delivery services to take their food before the shutdown — adapting can be hard.

“The majority of the menu didn’t allow for takeout,” Prasad says. “And we had to figure out how to design a menu such that your packaging costs are contained from the get-go. We had to identify what packaging was out there. In a car, it could be on its side or, oops, we dropped it. It has to withstand some jostling to make sure it looks good. I don’t like plastic packaging, so we try to use as much compostable as possible.”

Arnold’s switched to aluminum pans instead of foam to keep things hot.

4. INSPIRE CONFIDENCE Almost every restaurateur agrees that anything approaching normal won’t happen until consumers feel confident enough to return en masse. Arnold notes that he sold more food before the phased reopening started adding capacity to his dining room.

Sinema has a dedicated staffer just to disinfect surfaces throughout the course of an evening. “All he does is clock in and clean,” Taylor says. “He doesn’t talk to anyone, he doesn’t run food, he doesn’t bus tables. Once people feel more comfortable, we’ll be OK.” For Galzin, it’s been a matter of finding ways to show that the restaurant is providing a level of service comparable to five months ago — sometimes that means hopping in your car.

“The thing we always forget is drinks,” Galzin says. “But we have made it up to people. We’ll drive it to them. Most people are cool. People put a lot more expectation on takeout than they used to, so it’s important to put in a lot of effort like you would when they’re in the restaurant.”

It’s something Prasad finds curbside when she takes orders out to people. The little interactions with regulars — finding out what’s working as well as what they can do better — can make a big difference in whether they buy enough takeout in the next six months to keep Miel open. Ultimately, those relationships will determine the future of her restaurant.

“I’m so reminded how loyal and gracious and what amazing people our regulars are,” she says. “The first few weeks, they came out in such force to support us that it made me emotional, and I’m not an emotional person. A couple of times it brought tears to my eyes.”

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

foodanddrink_7-23-20.indd 19

19

7/20/20 5:15 PM

ART

NASHVILLE ARTISTS PAY HOMAGE TO GEORGE FLOYD Portraits by Ashley Doggett, Wayne Brezinka and Paul Collins depict the Black Lives Matter icon

“GEORGE FLOYD,” WAYNE BREZINKA art_7-23-20.indd 20

[footage of Floyd’s death] — I felt like I was watching a close relative die.”

Doggett’s painting is currently in the racks at David Lusk Gallery on Hagan Street, and is slated for an upcoming exhibition at the gallery.

In East Nashville’s Red Arrow Gallery, an exhibit titled Breathless deals directly with the aftermath of Floyd’s death — its title is a reference to his last words, as he told officers he couldn’t breathe. Among the works in the exhibit is a portrait of Floyd by Paul Collins. The painting’s wash of red is a dreamlike interpretation of its subject, and the word “REMEMBER” floats above him like a dying wish. Breathless opens Aug. 1, and also includes work by Marcus Maddox, Nuveen Barwari, Jodi Hays, Marlos E’van, Pam Marlene Taylor and many others. The exhibit will be viewable online or in the gallery by appointment through Sept. 26.

Artist Wayne Brezinka’s assemblages often depict wholesome, iconic figures — Fred Rogers, Abraham Lincoln and Johnny Cash are among those in the artist’s oeuvre. His idiosyncratic method of portraiture involves assembling cardboard, newsprint, fabric, rope and other materials onto a wood panel with precision, and the overlapping images emphasize the historical relevance of his subjects. In Brezinka’s portrait, the word “breathtaking” is clipped from a newspaper headline and collaged onto Floyd’s forehead, and familiar names of other victims of police brutality surround him.

“Art has always been a key to unlocking conversations, thoughts and ideas that lead

to revelation and change,” Brezinka writes in an artist’s statement that accompanies

“REMEMBER GEORGE FLOYD,” PAUL COLLINS

E

ven amid the cataclysmic events of 2020, George Floyd’s death is extraordinary. The 46-year-old Black man was killed May 25 when white Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for several minutes. Floyd’s death, which was filmed by witnesses, has become the subject of countless conversations, protests, political examinations and works of art.

Several artists based in Nashville have created their own portraits of Floyd, among them Ashley Doggett, Wayne Brezinka and Paul Collins. The three artists made their works independently of each other, but they all speak to the power of art to translate outrage into cultural change.

Ashley Doggett’s painting, “Tribute to George Floyd,” shows Floyd in swirls of regal colors and a halo, much like a portrait of a saint.

“I equate his death with martyrdom,” she tells the Scene.

Doggett, who is Black, is an alumnus of Nashville’s Watkins College of Art, and her work often depicts the history of racism in America. Her portrait is reverent and loving toward its subject — an indication of the closeness Doggett feels to Floyd.

“When I was making the portrait of George, I wanted to not only pay my respects to him and how he’s changed the world, but also to contribute to history, which I see as my role as an artist. What happened to George could very well happen to me. I broke down in tears when I watched

“TRIBUTE TO GEORGE FLOYD,” ASHLEY DOGGETT

BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

the piece. “Art is also a form of reordering the chaos of emotions in the midst of culture and personal shifts. This image of George Floyd is both.”

A high-resolution scan of the work is available as a free download on Brezinka’s website — it’s large enough for prints to double as protest signs, and Brezinka includes photos of the work being carried by protesters on his site.

Doggett has often said an artist’s role is to be a historian of the times they live in, and there are artists throughout Nashville who have made work about police brutality and gun violence. Brandon Donahue, another artist represented by David Lusk Gallery, made airbrush-based installations at both Elephant Gallery and the Frist Art Museum, each memorializing the names of Middle Tennesseeans who died by gun violence. A 2016 exhibit at Rymer Gallery showcased work by Sam Dunson, whose paintings have long dealt with the injustices faced by Black Americans, and Black men in particular.

“Any artist’s job, if they were truly touched by this moment, is to respond,” Doggett says. “And I find that, when people are faced with the things that they’ve theorized about for so long, and it’s time to make those decisions — now that it’s actually happening, now that we’re here in this moment of social despair on all fronts, I want to ask this: What are we going to do now?”

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

7/20/20 5:16 PM

We are so Nashville...

30 YEARS OF SERVICE

THANK YOU

We are here for you now, and forever.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

2 0 1 0 8 t h A v e n u e S o u t h Na s h v i l l e , T N 3 7 2 0 4

(615) 292-3552 office

WILLIAMSON COUNTY

5 1 0 7 Ma r y l a n d Wa y S u i t e 1 0 0 B r e n t wo o d , T N 3 7 0 2 7

(615) 661-7800 office

nashvillescene.com | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

21

BURGER WEEK SURE WAS JUICY!

BurgEr  Week J ulY 13-19

ConGratS to our BurGeR WeeK 2020 chAmpiOns! Our reaDers votEd aNd cRownEd theSe bUrgs the besT i n towN.

preSentEd bY

BesT buRger Ov eRall

ThaNk yOu tO alL of our parTiciPatiNg rEstaUranTs, DediCateD reaDers and burGer Lov eRs fOr makIng #SceNebuRgerWeEk20 sucH a SuccEss! ThaNks To oUr pArtiCipaTing ResTaurAnts

The LosT PadDy The LosT paDdY BurGeR

BesT unIque TopPingS buRger

BurGeR & ComPaNy FriEd pIcklE BurGeR

BesT trAditIonaL BurGeR

JacK brOwn’s BeeR anD BurGer joi nT The ClaSsic JacK to |our Sponsor JULY 23 Presenting – JULY 29, 2020 | nashvillescene.com 22Thanks NASHVILLE SCENE

for keeping #SceneBurgerWeek20 all about the beef!

BOOKS

THE PARADISE, THE GRAVE, THE CITY, THE WILDERNESS The characters of Katy Simpson Smith’s The Everlasting span the long, winding history of Rome

T

he epigraph of Katy Simpson Smith’s ambitious third novel, The Everlasting, invokes a portion of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s elegy to the poet John Keats: “Go thou to Rome, — at once the Paradise, / The grave, the city, and the wilderness.” Readers who are drawn to history for its grand, sweeping scale will find Smith’s premise irresistible: a quartet of characters whose stories span almost 2,000 years and whose experiences delve into the chaotic, multilayered, enduring heart of Rome.

In Smith’s novel, Shelley’s four ways of characterizing Rome act as more than a colorful swirl of imagery. They provide a structural conceit that allows Smith to organize two millennia’s worth of material about Rome’s history and people.

In the section titled “The Wilderness,” which features the novel’s modern-day storyline, American biologist Tom has undertaken a research study of Rome’s waters.

Tom is captivated by his study’s subjects — tiny crustaceans that appear to survive nearly any condition — and views everything he encounters through his vocation’s scientific THE EVERLASTING

BY KATY SIMPSON SMITH HARPER 352 PAGES, $28.99 lens. That analytical eye roves across every aspect of his daily life: the teeming Roman streets, his daughter’s face through the distance of a computer screen, a fascinating woman he meets by strange chance, and a series of alarming new physical symptoms that threaten his sense of order (and possibly his life).

“The City” takes place in the 16th century, the time of the Medici dynasty. Giulia is a shrewd, rebellious Medici whose clout and fortune make her a target almost as much as her African heritage does. When she first arrives, Rome dazzles and vexes her: “Its clutter, its stink, the hodgepodge of stone and brick, the vines turning the ruins into gardens, stage sets.” Giulia must negotiate a crush of threats, including her interfering lady’s maid, her second husband, an inscrutable portrait painter, the clergymen who’ve banked on winning her patronage, and the unexpected pregnancy that fills her with dread.

“The Grave” follows Felix, a ninth-cen-

tury monk whose new task involves keeping watch over the corpses in the monastery crypt. At 60, Felix has served his poor brotherhood for decades, and now he keeps vigil, guarding against “heathen raid.” Occupying this strange threshold between the living and the dead, his thoughts roam the memories of his distant past. The novel’s most lovable character, Felix extends tender care to others, but toward himself he inflicts a harsher standard. A “daily litany of slights, cowardice, impure thoughts, haste” batters his conscience: “He would repeat all these to a confessor, but forgiveness is a private creature, born at home.”

Rounding out the quartet of storylines is “The Paradise,” which unfolds around a 12-year-old child martyr named Prisca living in the year 165 A.D. Observant and inquisitive, Prisca searches the people around her for understanding. Why is she treated differently — and worse — than the boys her age? Why is the local drought worsening, no matter how much the adults sacrifice and assign blame? She puzzles over her father’s interest in a visitor bringing tales of a replacement for the gods she’s always known: “Christ, she said to herself, and imagined a boy’s face, but better.”

Sprinkled throughout these four narratives is the presence of Satan himself, offering his perspective on these humans’ choices and motives. These passages are sidebars, set off in the text with brackets.

Whether the novel is enhanced by Satan’s commentary is open to debate.

Some readers may find the bracketed asides an unnecessary device, while others will likely delight in Satan’s wit and insight into the novel’s protagonists. Still others may argue that Satan becomes a protagonist. But there’s no denying that the substance of his commentary sparks and surprises. The Everlasting tips its hat to that long-held adage, “The Devil has all the best tunes.”

After a languid start, The Everlasting builds cohesion and momentum through small but surprising moments of linkage among the characters’ stories and the eras in which they live. A gifted stylist, Smith crafts the novel with a greater emphasis on lyricism than on any particular plotline, spinning a complex, memorable tale of the vast universe contained in the life of a single city.

For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

‘THE INSTANT BEFORE IT COLLAPSES AND IS PROMPTLY FORGOTTEN’ A poem by Meg Wade, illustrated by Alicia Waters

BY MEG WADE 1.

3.

We understand the noise silence makes inside our nervous kingdom.

I want to tell you something but my throat is full of snow.

The sound of water only apparent when the river disappears.

You see, landscape calculates itself to make the figures stand out.

My long, black hair tangled around the faucet bleeds moonlight into the kitchen, me sitting on the counter by the half-full sink the last time I let you run your hands up my legs.

My throat bandaged so as not to reveal too much.

—Everything the light touches accepts a shadow.

4.

There is no one else in the room where I am, only fists against a wall like my body clamoring loudly.

I’d like a trapdoor to escape through.

Whatever is growling in the attic to stop.

I’ve left a little trail of words along the floor in hopes that you might find them, in hopes that when you find them you’ll know what the letters say—

Against a wall of oleander anyone can look like a miracle.

I’m sorry

I’m sorry

2.

Maybe I will sing for you tomorrow.

The field braids a darkness (in me) I cannot contain.

You want my failures flung skyward, each one skeet-shot, fastened with zip ties and string.

There are a million ways to smolder and none of them feel careful.

Yes, I’m at the airport bar.

No, I’m not flying today.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Wade’s collection of poetry, Slick Like Dark, is available via Tupelo Press.

nashvillescene.com | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

books_7-23-20.indd 23

ILLUSTRATION: ALICIA WATERS

BY EMILY CHOATE

23

7/20/20 4:48 PM

ANNOUNCING OUR 2020 LINEUP! AUGUST 6

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

AUGUST 13

LITTLE WOMEN

AUGUST 20

STAR WARS: EPISODE V — THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

AUGUST 27

IT’S BACK! This August, join us at oneC1ty, where — instead of bringing a blanket or a chair — you can pull up your car and enjoy four movies under the stars!

9 TO 5

FRE E FUN FILM S

The Nashville Scene is excited to announce our new drive-in movie series, Movies in the Park-ing Lot! Each week we’ll be screening a fan-favorite film FOR FREE, and guests can order a delicious picnic dinner and sweet treats.

V I S I T W W W. N A S H V I L L E M O V I E S I N T H E PA R K . C O M F O R D E TA I L S O N H O W T O W I N PA S S E S A N D T O L E A R N M O R E !

I N PA R T N E R S H I P W I T H

24

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

SPONSORED BY

MUSIC

THIS TOWN IS A WOMAN Lori McKenna gently unfolds the layers of human relationships on The Balladeer

L

ori McKenna was talking on the phone last year with her producer Dave Cobb, rehashing the old complaints about the treatment of female artists by country radio. Women, they agreed, bear the responsibility for tackling the touchy subjects, but rarely are they rewarded for taking those risks. Just like women in families.

“I was thinking about that conversation while I was driving my daughter to school the next day,” McKenna remembers. “I was thinking that storms and sailing ships have names, and often they’re women. The thought occurred to me, ‘What if a town had a gender, what else could it be but THE BALLADEER OUT FRIDAY, JULY 24, VIA CN a woman?’ Like RECORDS; PLAYING JULY a mother, a town 24 VIA CLUB PASSIM ON raises you up to go FACEBOOK AND YOUTUBE off and pursue your dream, and if it doesn’t work out, the town will welcome you back.”

Not everyone’s mind works like that, but McKenna’s does. That chain of thoughts led her to a song called “This Town Is a Woman,” the lead track on this year’s The Balladeer, her third straight album produced by the ubiquitous Cobb. “The way you talk is partly her fault,” McKenna sings over an acoustic-guitar strum that lands halfway between her folk music roots and the country music world in which she’s won so many awards. “She knows you’ll leave ’cause they always do,” she adds on the piano-reinforced chorus. “She’ll wish you well and wait for you right here.”

The lyrics don’t specify a particular town or region — although they mention a freeway and a sugarcane field — but the two crucial towns in McKenna’s life have been her hometown of Stoughton, Mass., and her adopted town of Nashville. Although her primary residence is still Stoughton (pronounced “STOE-ten”), for years she has been coming to Nashville twice a month to practice her profession. In the fall, she finally bought a townhouse here. But her work has been put on hold by the coronavirus, and she’s staying in Stoughton for the present.

“I’ve never really lived in Nashville,” she says, “so I have this magical sense of the city. I love the idea that at any moment, a great song is being written somewhere in town. When I could, before the pandemic, I went every other week, first flight out on Monday and last flight home on Wednesday.

Two of our kids, my oldest Brian and thirdoldest Chris, are living over in East Nashville, writing a song a day or two songs a day.

I miss Nashville.”

But Stoughton is still home. That’s where she married Gene McKenna as a teenager and raised five kids. She married early and found her career late. She didn’t perform in public till she was 27, but when she did, she was quickly embraced by Boston’s lively folk music scene. Fellow performers such as Mary Gauthier recognized that McKenna’s songs could vividly evoke a scene and make

the listener feel the characters’ joy and pain.

And because McKenna had already been married for eight years when she started playing out, the songs’ characters were usually married, too.

If rock ’n’ roll is music for dating, country was once music for marriage. That’s not as true as it used to be, and as a result, the need for good marriage songs is more dire than ever, especially in the mainstream. Both stages of romance are important, but the music industry has overemphasized the former at the expense of the latter. As a result, McKenna’s songs were more valuable than ever — especially in Nashville, where the tradition of country music as marriage music needed a revival.

“Maybe it’s because I’ve been married for so long,” she says, “but there’s a lot more going on in those adult relationships. I like talking about difficult things that turn out OK, about the way your failures get you to your next step. ‘Good Fight,’ another song on the new album, is like that. I’m not a person who likes confrontation — I’ll avoid it at all costs — but I’ve come to realize that we’ve grown the most from things that were really hard, when we didn’t know if we were going to make it through to the next step.”

“Don’t try to kiss me yet,” the song’s narrator says to her husband after a quarrel, “ ’cause I ain’t over it.” Over the chunky, catchy country-rock of the band, McKenna adds, “Whatever you do, don’t make me laugh, ’cause you ain’t gonna win.”

“Good Fight” plays on the double meaning of its title, which can refer to either a fight for a good cause or to a fight fairly fought.

McKenna means it both ways: a fight to keep a marriage going and a fight fought to find common ground, not to score points. It’s one of two songs on the new album that she co-wrote with Liz Rose and Hillary Lindsey. (McKenna wrote the other eight by herself.) The three women have written so many hits together that they call themselves The Love Junkies.

“Liz has grandchildren; [my children] are starting to leave home, and Hillary’s daughter is 4,” says McKenna. “So we’re at different stages of our lives as mothers, as partners. But certain interactions are universal, even if we each bring our own perspective. That’s the best way to write a song: approaching the same experience from three different angles.”

The Love Junkies have written such hits as “Girl Crush” for Little Big Town, “It All Comes Out in the Wash” for Miranda Lambert and “Cry Pretty” for Carrie Underwood. Without Rose and Lindsey, McKenna has written such hits as “Humble and Kind” for Tim McGraw, “God and Country” for George Strait and “Fireflies” for Faith Hill.

It was Hill who unlocked the door to Nashville for McKenna. When producer Byron Gallimore played a McKenna demo for Hill in 2004, the singer was so impressed that she asked to hear everything the songwriter had ever written. Hill ended up using three McKenna songs on 2005’s Fireflies, including the title track and the single “Stealing

PHOTO: BECKY FLUKE

BY GEOFFREY HIMES

Kisses.” After that, McKenna left the openmic nights at folk clubs behind and started making regular trips to Nashville.

“I love the language that country music speaks,” McKenna says. “It’s very descriptive — less poetic perhaps than folk music, but maybe more profound. I love the stories about ordinary people’s lives. I love those songs that pull apart those little details. I love that moment in a country song when you go, ‘That’s exactly how I would say it if I were at that table in that moment of crisis.’ ” If mainstream radio focuses on the dialogues between young lovers and shortchanges the conversations between spouses, radio is even stingier when it comes to the conversations between siblings and between parents and children. Once again McKenna addresses that imbalance on the new record by offering a sibling-to-sibling song, a child-to-parent song and two parent-to-child songs. The message of the two latter numbers is pretty obvious from the titles, “When You’re My Age” and “ ’Till You’re Grown,” but the tone is less, “Then you’ll thank me,” and more, “It’ll be OK, because it happened to me too.”

“The Dream” is an ingenious fantasy in which the narrator imagines the father who died before her wedding finally getting to meet her husband in a dreamworld. In reality, it was McKenna’s mother who died when she was a child, but the gender switch works when the father tells the husband a story: “Using his hands to mark out something / Maybe the size of his love / He never really spelled that out / When he was down here on the ground.”

The new album’s highlight is “Marie,” named for McKenna’s sister, who is older by four years. Like many of the songs on the new album, this one takes on a hymn-like quality, thanks to Philip Towns’ churchy piano. McKenna acknowledges all the ways the two sisters are different, and how much

that matters when you’re young. But the singer concludes: “She knows bigger words than I do / But we both got the same size shoes / And no one’s ever walked in mine / But me and Marie.”

“She was always right there when I needed her,” McKenna says quietly. “We have different perspectives on our own childhood and on our dad, the man who raised both of us. We may not agree with the other’s interpretation, but we’ve listened enough that we understand it.”

In September, as part of AmericanaFest, McKenna played a showcase at the Anchor Fellowship, a church on Third Avenue South.

Backed by a four-piece band led by guitarist Mark Erelli and strumming her own acoustic guitar, McKenna wore a black vinyl skirt with her brown hair rolling over the shoulders of her pink-print blouse. She sang some of the hits she wrote for country stars — “Stealing Kisses,” “Humble and Kind” and “Girl Crush ” — but she also sang “People Get Old” from her 2018 album The Tree.

Two nights earlier at the Ryman, she performed the song during the Americana Honors and Awards ceremony — it was a nominee for Song of the Year. She also previewed “When You’re My Age” from this year’s album. She had hoped to be playing that song at many a live show this summer, but the coronavirus had other plans. So now she’s stuck in Massachusetts, performing less but writing more. She is set to play a livestream on Friday, marking The Balladeer’s release and supporting Club Passim, a nonprofit venue in Cambridge, Mass.

At the Anchor, after she’d finished singing “The Bird and the Rifle,” the title song of her 2016 album, she told a joke. It’s as revealing as it is funny: “My kids always ask me, ‘Why do you only write sad songs?’ ‘Because of the rhymes,’ I tell them. ‘Only sad words rhyme.’ ” EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

music_7-23-20.indd 25

25

7/20/20 4:47 PM

MUSIC

WITH A CAUSE

Liza Anne focuses on emotional well-being on Bad Vacation

BY BRITTNEY McKENNA

Our music scribes recommend releases you can buy right now from Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay, Juan Solorzano, Engine IX and more

BY KELSEY BEYELER, ABBY LEE HOOD, EDD HURT, P.J. KINZER, STEPHEN TRAGESER, RON WYNN, CHARLIE ZAILLIAN AND JACQUELINE ZEISLOFT

W

hile the COVID-19 pandemic continues to make it unsafe to gather for live shows or shop normally at local record stores, our music writers have periodically revisited local releases from the past year or so that deserve a closer look. Find FIND LINKS TO BUY THESE RECORDS AT eight new recommenNASHVILLESCENE.COM/MUSIC dations below.

26

She had a helpful conversation with friend and fellow musician Becca Mancari, who was preparing to release her own new album, The Greatest Part. Liza Anne decided it was time to share her new music, even though the idea made her uncomfortable at first.

“It feels so weird to talk about music when people are dying,” Liza Anne explains. “But then you start to look back at these historic cultural moments where pain was at the forefront of the human experience, and music was a healing mechanism. And I’m not on some ego trip where I think my music is going to heal the people. … But if I were a listener — and I am in a lot of ways, still — I’d want to hear from artists right now.”

Bad Vacation is precisely the sort of record one wants in a chaotic time. The music itself is melodic and hook-driven, with eclectic sonic touchpoints that range from Masseduction-era St. Vincent (“Bad Vacation”) to driving, punky power pop (“Oops”) to ’90s slacker rock (“Bummer Days”).

The lyrics are razor-sharp explorations of emotional ills and growing pains, often addressing issues of mental health in ways that acknowledge their seriousness without being overwhelmed by it — hear the humorous and delightfully titled “I Shouldn’t Ghost My Therapist.”

Liza Anne has long been a vocal proponent of mental health and wellness, and she’s been taking action on that passion outside of her music too. During the pandemic, she’s hosted an Instagram Live series on Tuesday evenings titled #EmotionalHealth2020. In each episode, she speaks with another friend or collaborator (Mancari, Caroline Rose and Shamir have been past guests) about how they care for themselves emotionally.

“Before the world shut down, I made Tshirts that said ‘Emotional Health 2020,’ kind of as a joke,” she says. “My plan with touring Bad Vacation was to do these ‘emotional health rallies’ before shows where [fans and I] would do a yoga flow, or talk about how to

LAGNAJITA MUKHOPADHYAY, I DON’T KNOW ANYONE HERE (SELF-RELEASED) While i don’t know anyone here, the February release from Nashville’s inaugural Youth Poet Laureate Lagnajita Mukhopadhyay, is definitely a poetry album, the musical setting isn’t an afterthought. Each poem is accompanied by compositions drawn from jazz, hip-hop, folk and Indian traditional music, as well as a variety of audio effects and snippets of speech. As Mukhopadhyay explained in a January interview, her goal was to explore themes of identity and alienation through a collage of textures, and it results in one of the most creative works to come out of Nashville this year. KELSEY BEYELER

this six-track set. ABBY LEE HOOD

TIMBO, BRAND NEW FEELING (SELF-RELEASED) Timbo has deep connections to the bluegrass world on both sides of his family, but his own work — as you’ll hear on his new EP Brand New Feeling — is a heartfelt mix of honky-tonk and folk, built around acoustic guitars and pedal steel. The arresting through line is Timbo’s voice. Though he’s young, it’s worn smooth and gentle and conveys enough loneliness to conjure an imaginary lover out of thin air on

BILLY PRINE, A PLACE I USED TO KNOW (MEMPHIS INTERNATIONAL RECORDS) Billy Prine, who is the youngest of the late John Prine’s three brothers, makes a strong comeback on his EP A Place I Used to Know, his first collection in seven years. He does fine with John’s “Paradise” and “If You Don’t Want My Love,” but the record peaks with the Who-meets-Americana rocker “Young Man Old Man Blues.” Billy Prine wrote it in 1980 after hearing ELO’s 1979 hit “Don’t Bring Me Down,” which proves that inspiration often comes from unexpected places.

Michael Dinallo’s production style suits Prine’s gruff, slightly fogged-in voice, and A Place suggests Prine could shine as a flat-out rocker in an Americana mode. EDD HURT JUAN SOLORZANO, DIFFERENT LIGHT (SELFRELEASED) Even if you don’t recognize Juan Solorzano’s name, you probably know his work: playing guitar or other instruments with or producing records for outstanding locals, like longtime musical partner Becca Mancari. In

be active politically in their own city. When the pandemic happened and touring stopped, I was still really excited about it. … So I wanted to give people a view into people I already know and have learned from.”

While the release of Bad Vacation has certainly not gone as she had planned, Liza Anne has found the months she’s spent getting ready for its release to be a time of great growth. She’s also been grateful to have time to learn more about racial injustice and participate in the movement to change it.

“Modern life doesn’t leave a lot of room for rest and regulation of the health of our collective whole,” she says. “On a personal level, I feel like I’ve grown a lot emotionally this year, especially in this last month of the current iteration of the Black Lives Matter movement. I am addicted to learning more in the places in my life where I can learn more. And I have time to do that now, because I’m not touring.”

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

PHOTO: ROBBY STAEBLER

ANOTHER LOOK

PHOTO: BRETT WARREN

L

iza Anne’s new album Bad Vacation, which is out via Arts & Crafts on Friday, went through many iterations before finding its final form. The Georgiaborn singer, songwriter and musician began writBAD VACATION OUT ing the songs that FRIDAY, JULY 24, VIA ARTS would become the LP & CRAFTS three years ago, but didn’t feel then that she had the musical vocabulary to bring her vision to fruition.

“I felt like I hadn’t yet met the version of myself, musically and creatively, that could carry out what I was feeling intuitively,” Liza Anne tells the Scene, calling from her home in Nashville. “So I just left a lot of room for myself to grow.”

At that time, she was on the cusp of releasing Fine But Dying, a breakout LP that brought her great acclaim both for its trenchant, clear-eyed songwriting and its gauzy, infectious hooks. That album sent Liza Anne on more than a year of relentless touring, during which she gained the experience she needed to bring Bad Vacation to life.

In January, Liza Anne spent just short of three weeks in the studio with co-producers Kyle Ryan and Micah Tawlks. Thrilled by how the tracks turned out, she mapped out an extensive tour that would allow her to present her new music live, the way she’d intended to the whole time she was working on it. Then COVID-19 hit. She canceled her tour and was unsure how to proceed.

“At first there was the big question mark of when [the pandemic] would end,” she explains. “Then by the time we all realized this was a big pause to everything, I had to grieve not being able to tour this record — and start from the ground up [planning] how to present something that I wrote to be toured.”

JUAN SOLORZANO

June, he released his second solo record, the EP Different Light. It’s fluid and propulsive, but the blend of folk, pop-rock and experimental electronic influences (reminiscent of Halcyon Digest-era Deerhunter) makes space for contemplating how to handle the complexities of a relationship. STEPHEN TRAGESER

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

music_7-23-20.indd 26

7/20/20 4:47 PM

PHOTO: @ NATURALISTSCUMBAG

MUSIC

Shop + Donate To Help Our Veterans 615-248-2447 1125 12th Ave. S.

s, Thanks for your! vote Nashville

IN TOWN HOTTEST CHICKEN l, Too!) (Most Flavorfu 624 MAIN ST. · 254-8015 NOW OPEN: 1135 BELL RD. , STE 313A , ANTIOCH · 615-739-8359

We Cater Let Us Bring Our Truck To Your Next Event! Visit Us on Facebook

THE SPIN

YOUR TICKET TO SHOWS...

REVIEWED nashvillescene.com/music/spin

THE SPIN I STREAM, YOU STREAM

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER AND BRITTNEY McKENNA

NEHODA

NEHODA, “DEAR MR. PRESIDENT” BACKED WITH “ETERNAL SUNSHINE” (SELF-RELEASED) The refrain to the smoldering A-side of the debut 7-inch from Patrick Nehoda’s four-piece band — “You don’t give a damn about our country” — is delivered with a deep sadness and incredulity at our leader’s false patriotism and willingness to sell out his own citizens. Protest songs walk a fine line between lugubrious and dead-on, but on “Mr. President,” the sound and subject matter line up nicely, with swells of organ adding color to a monolithic backdrop of somber chords and marching-band snare rolls. The clouds part for the flipside “Eternal Sunshine,” a ragged, bluesy waltz recalling Pearl Jam’s Neil Young collabs from the mid-’90s. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN DON ALIQUO AND MICHAEL JEFRY STEVENS, THE INNOCENCE OF SPRING (SELF-RELEASED) The collective excellence of saxophonist Don Aliquo and pianist Michael Jefry Stevens is constantly reaffirmed throughout this nine-song recording, cut live in 2018 at Middle Tennessee State University. Aliquo has long been a valued member of both the Nashville and MTSU jazz scenes. His tenor sax has a warm, compelling sound, while he smoothly and easily executes difficult passages on soprano sax, an instrument many have trouble keeping in tune. Stevens is a thoughtful accompanist and an equally strong soloist. Hearing them react and respond to each other is a joy throughout. The Innocence of Spring is a fine example of how great jazz truly represents both spontaneous creation and precise execution. RON WYNN ENGINE IX: DIM (TO-GO RECORDS) These pogo junkies are going to have a lot of pentup rage when they can finally play in public again: They had to cancel their cassette release party at Drkmttr because of the March 3 tornado, and the pandemic has prevented rescheduling. The quartet produces a chaotic, ultra-low-fidelity stew that embraces the wretched side of punk. This seven-song tape is perfect if you don’t feel like responding to terrifying times with melody or hooks. The group wades right into the brilliant nihilism of Bay Area masters Filth, the aural anarchy of Chaos UK and the gloomy heaviness of the Japanese crasher crust scene. P.J. KINZER JUSTIN AND JENEISHA FOREVER (VARIOUS ARTISTS, SELF-RELEASED) This record — named for two of Nashville’s prominent young Black activists, Justin Jones and Jeneisha Harris — was originally compiled to raise money for Jones’ challenge to Rep. Jim Cooper in the August primary, but was shelved along with Jones’ campaign.

It was finally released in June, after warrants were obtained for Jones’ and Harris’ arrests on charges of felony aggravated rioting following a protest. The warrants were recalled within hours, so the organizers of the comp are instead donating proceeds to a great nonprofit working for racial justice: the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. That’s reason enough to buy the album, but the music speaks for itself. It’s an adroit sonic trip through the more experimental side of Nashville’s underground scenes, with songs and spoken-word pieces from JayVe Montgomery, Styrofoam Winos, Dream Chambers, A.M. Ringwalt and more. JACQUELINE ZEISLOFT EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

28

D

espite Nashville feeling like the inside of a rice steamer on Thursday afternoon, The Medium (and a couple of assistants) piled gamely into their practice space for the latest installment of the Scene’s No-Contact Shows series. The pop-schooled rock quartet met the very contemporary challenge of streaming a show from their house in a very old-school way.

They pared back their multiinstrument arsenal and arranged themselves around the computer, like late-19th-century players cutting a wax cylinder with a recording horn. Sam Silva switched off between acoustic guitar and banjo, while Shane Parry played keys and percussion. The two swapped lead vocal duties, so they sat nearest

AT LARGE: THE MEDIUM the microphone, while Michael Brudi, on acoustic and electric guitars, and Jared Hicks, on kick drum and towel-draped snare, sat as far back as possible.

“We’re happy to be performing for you in some capacity, and we hope everybody’s staying safe, being responsible and looking out for each other,” said Silva at the top of the set.

“We hope to see you very soon.”

As has been the case since livestreams supplanted live shows in response to COVID-19, the situation wasn’t exactly ideal. Though a little volume riding was required to hear the between-song banter, the unconventional setup felt appropriate for the band’s music, a breezy blend that includes ’60s- and ’70s-vintage rock and pop styles (with little tinges of surf rock, Latin jazz, theatrical music and more), played just loosely enough to feel casual, with delightful doses of bright, convivial harmony.

The set included several tunes from The Medium’s debut LP Get It While It’s Hot, released in September, as well as “Sugar Shark,” the B-side from their follow-up single. There were also a couple of as-yet-unreleased songs, “No Tomatoes” and “Space Horse.” The song that might resonate the most as we navigate a chaotic time is the Get It

song “Have a Happy Day,” which is about helping each other stay as positive as possible. The narrator relies on his partner to help him keep his focus in a stressful, frustrating world, as the group sings in the call-and-response chorus: “Don’t say goodbye / (It’s temporary) / Try not to be sad / (It’s hard for me to do) / Keep up the good thoughts / (We’ll see the light of day).”

In late March, Billy Strings began plotting Streaming Strings, a nine-show virtual tour of some of Nashville’s best-loved (and currently closed) venues. The COVID-19 pandemic cut short Strings’ partially sold-out tour in support of his latest album Home, and the virtuosic young bluegrasser and rocker, who has toured relentlessly for several years now, needed an outlet for his passion for live music.

Thursday night, Strings performed the first show of the virtual tour at the new Brooklyn Bowl Nashville. The gig was streamed via Fans, a platform that allows viewers at home to participate in shows virtually using Zoom. Brooklyn Bowl set up a number of screens throughout the venue showing fans dancing and singing along in their homes, to boot. Maybe it’s not quite like having an audience in the flesh, but Strings didn’t seem fazed.

He began with the standout Home song “Watch It Fall,” a socially conscious piece about the destructive power of hubris and greed that takes on new relevance in today’s news cycle. Other highlights included a barn-burning, solo-heavy take on Home’s “Hollow Heart,” and the deep cut “Slow Train,” a lonesome, trad-bluegrassinspired number that appeared on Strings’ 2016 debut self-titled EP. Strings & Co. also included a handful of covers in the set, including a high-octane take on “I’m Going Fishing,” a version of “Fishing Blues” that Doc Watson originally brewed up. Strings introduced it by sharing that he’d spent much of his time during the pandemic out on the water fishing.

Strings played with his full band, who all quarantined together in the days leading up to the tour to ensure safe performances.

In a recent interview with the Scene (in a segment that didn’t make it into our feature story), Strings said of his band: “We’re like a V-8 engine. One person is the torque converter, one person is the drive shaft, one person’s a piston, one person’s a carburetor.

Together we can jam. … I couldn’t imagine playing with anybody else.”

He did have a chance to play with one other person on Thursday. Fellow phenomenal young guitarist Marcus King came out for renditions of Gershwin’s “Summertime” and Jimmy Reed’s “Big Boss Man” near the end of the second set.

The tour continues with shows at City Winery (July 23), Exit/In (July 24-25) and 3rd and Lindsley (July 26).

EMAIL THESPIN@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

music_7-23-20.indd 28

7/20/20 4:47 PM

FILM

PRIMAL STREAM XVIII Far-out horror, an astrologer-icon doc and more, now available to stream

BY JASON SHAWHAN

and icon Walter Mercado, whose force of will and genial, unconventional personality helped shape millions of lives for decades on Spanish-language television. To use modern terminology, Mercado was nonbinary and asexual. And if global culture during his reign sought to dismiss him or use gay jokes at his expense (it did), he kept going with a deliriously flamboyant style (contrast points: Siegfried and Roy, Liberace) and a lot of kindness. To non-Spanish speakers, watching this film is a testament to how important it is to never stop experiencing and learning about new things. There’s a traditional show-biz documentary formula to Amor’s structure: rise; financial/legal crisis; measured rise again; triumph; devastating text coda. But with such a fascinating subject, you accept it and move on. If nothing else, the outfits are going to instill strong feelings in you, and I implore anyone with a sense for fabric and jewelry, for sparkle and shape, to get into this film, because Walter Mercado was a sartorial icon who is more than worthy of your attention.

PALM SPRINGS ON HULU

PSYCHO GRANNY

S

chool boards all over the country seem determined to turn our educational system into a Joseph Conrad novel. If you’re just looking for something to stream so you can take a break from the insanity, or if you’ve given up on humanity entirely and are looking for some form of digital otherspace to occupy, hopefully I can help. Please wear a mask. Think of other folks, I beg of you.

As always, below is our list of recommended streaming titles for the week. Look back at past issues of the Scene for more recommendations.

PSYCHO GRANNY ON HULU Look, if the title alone isn’t enough for you, I don’t know what to say. Maybe you’re the kind of person who is burned out on the world and its myriad cruelties; it’s possible that a murder mystery isn’t where you need to be right now, and that’s understandable.

But if you’re not at least intrigued by a film called Psycho Granny, then I just feel sad for you. Director Rebekah McKendry (she did that video introduction for Amityville II at the Belcourt’s 12 Hours of Terror last year) has a gift for creative mayhem and clever setups that distinguish this film from Lifetime’s array of women-in-jeopardy films (see also: A Deadly Adoption and May director Lucky McKee’s Kindred Spirits).

And in star Robin Riker (Alligator, Get a Life), McKendry and her crew have a neutron star of ice-cold wit giving a dynamite performance that reads as both subversively camp and deeply unsettling. Some folks have never wanted to serve a meal to a full table and tell each and every person how they’ve failed as a human being, and that’s sad. Psycho Granny delivers that and more.

MUCHO MUCHO AMOR ON NETFLIX Mucho Mucho Amor is a fascinating look at late, beloved Puerto Rican astrologer

Palm Springs has a Groundhog Day foundation with millennial-anxiety accents and knows how to layer in some genuinely surprising developments. It also benefits from uncertain times by claiming at-home (and drive-in) space without the theatrical battle that likely would have seen it swept aside by one of the in-limbo tentpoles gunning for prime summer box office. Andy Samberg (charmingly acerbic) and Cristin Milioti (delivering a truly complex performance that haunts) are our amiable stars, working through all sorts of issues in a desertparadise time loop. Too often, the plot can get in the way of the story, but there are a lot of interesting flourishes (sexplorations, unexpected fauna) that allow us to understand facets of the human mind that most comedies don’t delve into. (Relevant point to today’s quarantine audience: How big is ennui as a motivating factor in the decisions that you make?) Also, the cast is game to get weird with it — seriously, I could watch a whole movie of an entire wedding party dancing to Patrick Cowley’s spaced-out Frisco Disco. In theaters, this kind of brainy weirdo comedy nearly always underperforms. But in the arena of the streaming world, it breaks through and offers you a psychic daiquiri. Good enough.

SEA FEVER ON HULU An uncompromising movie about the ethics of quarantine as well as a confrontation with a goopy, drippy, betentacled, bioluminescent sea sphincter, Sea Fever is a great

MUCHO MUCHO AMOR

Irish tale of the sea. It’s got a lot on its plate, and keeps all its juggling materials in the air, and its refusal to play out as expected from scene to scene is a captivating choice.

Writer-director Neasa Hardiman knows the vast majority of audiences have seen the foundational texts of this kind of Infiltrating Creature Horror, so the zigs and zags we’re given hit hard. Maritime tragedy and misfortune are commonplace enough that there are countless shanties and dirges of the sadness that humanity finds on the sea, so the addition of advanced cellular biology and mechanical engineering meshes quite well with the established setting. Hermione Corfield (as the redheaded doctoral candidate Siobhán) is an intriguing presence, and her adherence to scientific protocols allows her to be a signifier of certainty and propriety. Or rather, you know how the original Ghostbusters is so caught up in its libertarian fantasies and demonizing the character from the EPA that it made the weakening and destruction of that agency all too easy over the intervening decades? Sea Fever is the opposite of that. As enjoyable as the 1989 Leviathan, but very much rooted in The Now.

LAKE OF DEATH ON SHUDDER Lake of Death is a new take on one of the seminal Norwegian horror texts — 1942’s De Dødes Tjern, made into the 1958 film Lake of the Dead, which is sadly not streaming anywhere but I am absolutely dying to see. This atmospheric psycho-thriller delivers exquisite design and photography and a truly immersive dreamscape stuffed to the gills with family secrets, surprise trapdoors, old legends, dreams of slime and slasher archetypes filtered through contemporary “youth” society. Podcaster Bernhard (Jakob Schøyen Andersen, looking like Thomas Kretschmann in The Stendhal Syndrome) makes a good impression, and star Iben Akerlie is quite good as the troubled somnambulist Lillian, with a very delicate role and a lot of emotional heavy lifting to do to make the whole film work. American editor Bob Murawski (The Other Side of the Wind, the first Spider-Man trilogy) keeps that flow lush and tense, and it’s a good entry for domestic viewers to discover Norwegian horror. It’s always fascinating when horror archetypes cross-pollinate with other traditions, and adapter/director Nini Bull Robsahm has a gift for balancing uncertain spaces with universal tropes — she lets the physical space of the lake house interact with the frayed edges of Lillian’s experience.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

LAKE OF DEATH

nashvillescene.com | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

film_7-23-20.indd 29

29

7/20/20 6:40 PM

FILM

Couples that play together MORNIN’ stay SUNDAY COMIN’ DOWN together Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets simulates

$20 off $50 or more in store & online

an all-too-familiar kind of loss

BY NATHAN SMITH

I

615-810-9625 | MyPleasureStore.com *Offer Ends 9/25/2020. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Discount Code: NSPL2G

PRB_NS_QuarterB_070120.indd 1

6/18/20 9:19 PM

ABS EXPERTS

$ 89 99

$ 59 99 FREE 07/31/20.

30

07/31/20.

$15

OFF $ 10 OFF 07/31/20.

07/31/20.

07/31/20.

t may not have been God who made honky-tonk angels, but anyone who has ever frequented a dive bar or juke joint knows that few spaces feel as holy to the people who patronize them. A bar is a place where the unloved, unwanted and unwashed can go BLOODY NOSE, EMPTY POCKETS on Saturday night to NR, 98 MINUTES feel what others find AVAILABLE FRIDAY, JULY 24, at church Sunday VIA BELCOURT.ORG morning: acceptance, community, connection. When your family is estranged, your friends have forsaken you, and your faith in the world is lost, to be a regular, to be recognized and respected among a legion of faceless customers, is powerful stuff.

The new movie Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is a tribute to this kind of space: the Platonic ideal of an American dive bar, where the Bud is cold and cheap, the patrons are lovably crusty, and chain-smoking is still accepted — nay, even encouraged. It’s the last day in the life of Roaring 20s, a dive bar on the sprawling margins of Las Vegas, a city where businesses come and go quicker than you can shuffle a deck of cards. You’ve probably been in dozens of places like this, where the Christmas lights twinkle all year long, the TouchTunes jukebox is stuffed with everything from Kenny Rogers to Gucci Mane, and the bartenders don’t take bullshit but will still call you a cab if you need it. The bar’s regulars — from grizzled but gentle veterans to horny old hippies to hard-drinking millennials — have come to wish it well one last time, and the funeral they throw is an utterly Viking affair.

The films that brothers Bill and Turner Ross make are categorized as documentaries — their best-known work is 2016’s Contemporary Color, a documentation of David Byrne’s collaboration with color-guard performers — but Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets defies exact classification. That doesn’t mean it’s inaccessible, though. In fact, Bloody Nose is downright uncanny in how true and familiar it feels. It’s a fascinat-

ing synthesis of fiction and nonfiction, a film that somehow comes closer to reality by bending it. Roaring 20s is a real bar — in New Orleans, not Las Vegas. The “regulars” are, in fact, regulars of bars, but not this bar — they’re a mostly street-cast medley of nonprofessionals, many of whom the Rosses met in real life over the years in actual dives. Over an 18-hour shooting day, this strange ensemble of individuals, who really do feel like they could have been hanging out in bars for years, unfold in a loosely improvisatory manner, fueled by real alcohol and even realer feelings.

To call Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets a simulation makes it sound cold and mechanical, but a simulation is essentially what it is: an immersive re-creation of a material environment that moves forward in time, designed to capture a specific set of sensations and experiences. Bloody Nose captures a thousand little emotions associated with public intoxication — the halfhumorous, half-obnoxious experience of listening to belligerent drunks when you’re starting to sober up, the divine intimacy of two wasted strangers divulging their most deeply repressed secrets to one another, the bleary-eyed euphoria of sticking around until closing time.

It feels so horribly clichéd to put it this way, and there’s no way the Rosses could have ever predicted the resonance their film would take on due to being released during a pandemic, but there’s an additional bittersweetness to Bloody Nose given pretty much everything currently occurring in our world. Though there’s deep tragedy in losing a space where you once found a sense of home, at least the regulars of Roaring 20s are able to say goodbye to their little hideaway — many similar establishments that unexpectedly closed their doors overnight four months ago may never be so lucky. But sometimes a simulation can be even better than the real thing, as it is in the case of Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets — all the local flavor, none of the hangover.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 23 – JULY 29, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

film_7-23-20.indd 30

7/20/20 2:23 PM

CROSSWORD EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ ACROSS 1 6 10 14

15 16 17 19 20 21 23 25 26 31 34 35 37 38 39

40 41 42 43

44 46 48 49 50 55 60 61 63 64 65 66 67 68

Cosmic force Start to come apart Line in an expense report: Abbr.

Company whose business rarely goes off without a hitch Prefix with -nautics Biblical preposition Possible cause of a 61-Across Vega, for one Offering at a pier restaurant Bit of unfinished business Dog tag owners, in brief Brita competitor Hogwash Celebrity chef Gordon ___ Remember this!

Bunch of romantics? ___ the line Ones on cases: Abbr.

[Ugh, we’ve been stuck here for an hour …]

Veal ___ (informal dish) Terminate Game of chance Rocky Mountain city once home to the Anaconda Copper Mining Company Producer of Hot Wheels Polish, e.g.

Bonehead Padre’s hermano Group working with an anchor Goes off the wall Loads Situation depicted at 39-Across Bog Grain location One of the McMahons of WWE Cries of faux terror Bulldogs’ home Basketball game DOWN

1

2

“___ and the Two Strings” (2016 animated film) Call for all hands on deck?

1

2

3

4

5

6

14

9

10

27

28

29 35

vs.

31

32

36 40 43

45

46

48 51

33

37

42

44

LEGALS

JAMES BROWN

39

41

47 49

52

53

54

55

56

60

61

63

64

65

66

67

68

57

58

59

62

4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 18 22 24 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 36 39

Cry sometimes made with a snap of the fingers A little of this, a little of that Brisk, musically Cooler Show evidence of shock West Coast gas brand “Oh ___!” (song from Lennon’s “Imagine” album) The Getty, for one Bad place for a 61-Across Lee known for his cameos Parachute part ___ the Red Places for baths Minor role in many a Shakespeare play ___ President One setting an alarm, maybe What a 61-Across might make you Alarm clock settings, for short California’s ___ Valley Visual puzzle Blood line Arab Spring nation Had a bad at-bat Winter air

40 42 43 45 47 50 51 52

53

Small part of a pound Remaining Uncivilized Preferences Expound (on) “You ___ it” Writer Wiesel Place to order handmade goods “Brava!” elicitor

GENEVA HOUSTON In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon GENEVA HOUSTON. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after August 13, 2020 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on Setpember 14, 2020. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Richard R. Rooker, Clerk Deputy Clerk By: W. North Date: July 16, 2020 Jessica Simpson Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 7/23, 7/30, 8/6, 8/13/20

2000

EMPLOYMENT naviHealth, Inc. seeks a Senior Business Intelligence Developer at our Brentwood, TN facility to analyze business needs to produce data warehouse/business intelligence solutions in support of company BI strategy. Req. MS+3 or BS+5. To apply, mail resume to: naviHealth, HR, Attn: Kelsey Jaquish, 210 Westwood Place, Suite 400, Brentwood, TN 37027.

Must reference Job Title: Senior Business Intelligence Developer

3000

SERVICES

Rocky McElhaney Law Firm InjuRy

EARN YOUR HS DIPLOMA TODAY For more info call 1.800.470.4723 Or visit our website: www.diplomaathome.com

4000

Auto ACCIdEnts WRongFul dEAth

BUY-SELL-TRADE 2006 Honda Odyssey Vin# 5FNRL38436B079553 2004 Mercury Mountaineer Vin# 4M2ZU66K74UJ15324 Auction date: 7/28/2020 at 3561 Dickerson pk. Nashville Tn. 37207 at 10:30 am

dAngERous And dEFECtIvE dRugs

Voted Best Attorney in Nashville Call 615-425-2500 for FREE Consultation

www.rockylawfirm.com

Looking for a good granita?

SICK OF SOUS VIDE?

NashvilleScene.com

Richard R. Rooker, Clerk Deputy Clerk By: W. North Date: July 16, 2020

PUZZLE BY RICKY CRUZ

3

910 Non-Resident Notice Fourth Circuit Docket No. 20D156

25 30

38

13

22

24

34

12

19 21

23

11

16

18

20

50

8

15

17

26

7

NO. 0618

satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon GENEVA HOUSTON. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after August 13, 2020 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on Setpember 14, 2020. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

54

56 57 58 59 62

The world’s largest one is in Chengdu, China (covering 18 million square feet) Delta follower Cracked open Neighbor of Nebr.

Mr. ___ (“Peter Pan” character) One of “them”

Jessica Simpson Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 7/23, 7/30, 8/6, 8/13/20

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE G E M A D O F E H

R I G S O P R A H C O A T I

T A S E D A W A K E T A T E R

S E E M B F I G U I D O S N A M E C H E S H O R P O R O Y A N O L T C H E S

T O A R I R E D M Y S L T S A T O P U L L D E S S

E S R C A S H U A C S T E T E E A I M U S M A E A D C

FE RL AV NI KS

SP IR NE AS TL RE AY

E S T A I N W A Y O S E H A P R A R R E A T A T S P E

A N T R A

K A S E M

M I L N E

S C E N E

Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/ crosswords ($39.95 a year).

Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/ studentcrosswords.

nashvillescene.com | JULY 23 -JULY 29, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

crossword_7-23-20.indd 31

31

7/20/20 5:04 PM

NowWe Serving Regret That We Need to Featuring

monellstn.com

Close Our 3 Nashville SATURDAYS: Southern Country Locations At This Time.

Midnight to 3 Breakfast We Look Forward To Serving A.M. BREAKFAST 7 Days a Week!

You Again Very (Germantown Location Only)

Soon!

BOTH LOCATIONS OPEN DAILY 11-8 FOR TAKE-OUT YOUR FAVORITE MEXICAN FOOD & ‘RITA, TOO! 2330 8th AVE. SOUTH 615-988-0404

TAKE-OUT SPECIALS

ille Nashv ! e Fuer t

BIG BOY BREAKFAST SANDWICH* $6.99 CHICKEN or BEEF KEBAB* $6.99 *”House-Cut” Fries Included

EAST/Five Points: 972 Main St. (615) 434-6000 Nashv ill stron e g!

Athens Family Restaurant 2526 Franklin Rd. Melrose 615-383-2848 Open Since 2004

MUSIC CITY

PSYCHIC

20 special SPECIAL $

615-915-0515

284 White Bridge Rd

thank you

THE SPIN

to our nurses, doctors, medical personnel and support staff on the front lines helping keep us safe!

YOUR TICKET TO SHOWS...

REVIEWED nashvillescene.com/music/spin

WE !

ER DELIV

OUR LARGE & SPACIOUS DINING ROOM IS NOW OPEN! WRITERS’ R: CH NE

AUTHENTIC ASIAN CUISINE

CE OI

WI N

luchador regular is the font

20 18

SICHUAN & CANTONESE

OPEN DAILY FOR LUNCH & DINNER: SUN. THRU THURS. 11-9 | FRI./SAT. 11-10 32

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 23 -JULY 29, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

readers ’p ER: NN

WI

l ol

facebook/Luckybamboonash | B.Y.O.B. No Corking Fee! | ORDER ONLINE: luckybamboochinabistro.com 5855 Charlotte Pike | 760-5930 | 1/2 Mile West of White Bridge Rd. (“Up The Ramp on Left”)

20 18