Nashville Scene 8-17-23

STREET VIEW: ROAD CLOSURES AND SIDEWALK ACCESS IN GERMANTOWN

PAGE 7

CITY LIMITS: POST-COVENANT SPECIAL SESSION

BEGINS WITH LITTLE HOPE FOR GUN RESTRICTIONS

PAGE 9

FILM: DEFY FILM FESTIVAL CONTINUES TO EVOLVE BEYOND EXPECTATIONS

PAGE 31

As Metro begins another school year, we take a look at the challenges facing the district — from student safety to infrastructure needs and more

BY KELSEY BEYELER

AUGUST 18

CINDERELLA’S TOM KEIFER BAND WITH WINGER AND JOHN CORABI

SEPTEMBER 7

EDDIE IZZARD

SEPTEMBER 15

RHIANNON GIDDENS WITH ADIA VICTORIA

SEPTEMBER 29 & 30

LITTLE FEAT

NOVEMBER 11

WARD DAVIS WITH JOSH MELOY AND CLINT PARK

DECEMBER 8

CHARLES WESLEY GODWIN WITH WYATT FLORES AND COLE CHANEY ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM

DECEMBER 30 & 31

OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW

SEPTEMBER 10

DREAMCATCHER

SEPTEMBER 17

SQUEEZE AND THE PSYCHEDELIC FURS

SEPTEMBER 28

PEOPLE’S CHOICE COUNTRY AWARDS

HOSTED BY LITTLE BIG TOWN

OCTOBER 15

RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE

ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10 AM

OCTOBER 29

DISNEY JUNIOR

LIVE ON TOUR: COSTUME PALOOZA

NOVEMBER 19

JOHN CLEESE

DECEMBER 20, 21 & 22 FOR KING + COUNTRY

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FROM BILL FREEMAN

FREDDIE O’CONNELL WILL MAKE A FINE MAYOR FOR NASHVILLE

Nashvillians have an important job in the coming runoff election. We must elect the right person to lead our city. That person is Metro Councilmember Freddie O’Connell.

O’Connell’s experience on the Metro Council is one of his strongest accomplishments. He clearly knows how to best help Nashville thrive. His campaign message — “Nashville for Nashvillians” — strikes a chord, and his campaign notes that his main priorities will be “trash, transit and trust.” Not many notice when a municipal function works well, but everyone notices when it struggles: If your trash isn’t picked up, you notice pretty quickly! O’Connell also knows critical infrastructure will ease everyday traffic congestion and allow everyone access to transportation. Mass transit remains an urgent necessity — implementation costs and limited choices can’t be our excuses any longer. Nashville has desperately needed strong mass transit for decades, and O’Connell aims to finally provide Nashville with an affordable, actual mass transit system. Trash and transit are definitely needed, but the most important is O’Connell’s final plank: trust. Trust in our elected officials is key — trust that they can be counted on to do the right thing, be honest with us and represent Nashville honorably.

Recent political analysis has generated some well-reasoned points that Nashvillians should hear. The first comes from the Nashville Scene and our partnership with the Nashville Banner. Steve Cavendish’s exceptionally good piece analyzing the election shows a depth of knowledge that comes only with experience. He writes: “O’Connell had tapped into a sentiment lingering in the city for a couple of years now, that a place that once puffed out its chest as ‘It City’ had gone too far in becoming a playground for outsiders instead of focusing on the livability of its residents.” The article also thoroughly explores the backstory of the election drama and its plethora of candidates. Mayor John Cooper’s last-minute decision to refrain from running for reelection and the ensuing shenanigans of this election cycle have been covered by many political pundits, yet this piece did so with a voice full of experience that is lacking from much of Nashville’s political analysis.

The election was fraught with an especially large pool whose size cannibalized candidates, splitting key voter blocs and forcing a shotgun approach with key endorsements. Stephen Elliott’s recent piece for the Nashville Post on political endorsements reminded me that the shotgun approach fails every time. Nearly every notable leader and key endorsement group chose a different candidate. When the field of candidates is so large, the power of endorsements is worrisomely weakened. Now that so many leaders and groups backed a losing candidate, they must choose a second candidate to endorse in the runoff. Second endorsements never ring as loudly.

The differences between O’Connell’s campaign and Alice Rolli’s campaign are more stark than nearly any in Nashville’s recent history. As The Tennessean’s Cassandra Stephenson notes, O’Connell

says he wants to ensure that Nashville is even more welcoming to residents than it is to visitors and big business. O’Connell wrote to supporters on election night with an early call for help: “A Nashville for Nashvillians — and the future of our city — will depend on what we do in the next six weeks. If you can make calls, and knock doors, we need you. The road ahead will be tough, but we can win.”

O’Connell has received solid endorsements, but to me the most striking comes from Rosetta Miller Perry, publisher of The Tennessee Tribune and a well-respected leader of Nashville’s Black community and Black press. Her endorsement of O’Connell notes his leadership skills and sincere support of the city’s minority communities. However, her most frank assessment is of Rolli. Here are her powerful words on O’Connell’s competitor: “This is the first time in our 33 years on Jefferson Street that a candidate for mayor has not asked to talk about issues affecting the Black community with the Black press.” Her subsequent endorsement of O’Connell speaks volumes.

I wholeheartedly support O’Connell in his bid for the office of mayor of Metro Nashville. He is dedicated to all of Nashville. He knows how the Metro government operates, and he knows how to fix what’s broken. More importantly, he knows how to not fix what isn’t broken. Community support, public education and fighting to preserve Nashville for Nashvillians — those things need expansion and support. O’Connell has promised to do just that: fight to keep Nashville for Nashvillians.

If you agree with me, cast your vote for Freddie O’Connell on Sept. 14.

Bill Freeman

Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post, and The News.

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FREDDIE O’CONNELL

SATURDAY | 9 AM - 10 PM

From morning to night, Cheekwood will celebrate Black artists with music, dance, spoken word, visual art and more. Southern home-cooked favorites made by local Black chefs will be available for purchase.

Reserve tickets at cheekwood.org.

CITY LIMITS

ROAD CLOSURES AND SIDEWALK ACCESS IN GERMANTOWN

BY LENA MAZEL

Street View is a monthly column in which we’ll take a close look at developmentrelated issues affecting different neighborhoods throughout the city.

Steadfast and True Yoga in Germantown strives to be an escape from the stress of the outside world. But lately, Germantown’s construction boom has made getting there anything but peaceful.

“We’ve definitely had more issues getting to the studio in the last year than we’ve had in the last five years — not from events, just from construction,” says Mary Beth Harding, an instructor and manager at the yoga studio. Closures on Third Avenue North have made both students and teachers late, says Harding, and often “students can’t find a way to the studio because everything except the alley will be closed.”

Over the past few years, Steadfast and True has been pretty much surrounded by construction, including development at nearby Peyton Stakes apartments, Taylor Germantown apartments, The Flats at

Taylor Place, and a property at 1414 Third Ave. N. In early August, a three-building complex on nearby Sixth Avenue sold for $7.1 million. And east of the studio, there’s the Neuhoff District, a 14-acre mixed-use project including hundreds of new rental units, retail space and more.

For some Germantown businesses, road closures and delays are an inconvenience. For others, they’re also a financial liability. Harding says Steadfast and True has lost students because of street closures, and she’s canceled workshops because clients say getting to Germantown is too complicated. Lately, students have shown up to classes with traffic on their minds. “By the time they get here, they’re really stressed, or they’re worried about leaving the studio,” Harding says. “And especially for a yoga studio, we would like everyone to be limited in their stress.”

While road closures affect drivers in Germantown, they can also be dangerous for pedestrians, cyclists and people who use wheelchairs and other mobility devices. In August 2022, Nashville’s Department of Transportation and Multimodal

Infrastructure introduced a multimodal access closure policy to help make construction safer for these groups. NDOT’s new rules limit sidewalk closures to seven days unless the contractor provides a safe alternative walkway.

To implement the multimodal access policy, NDOT increased staff and created a working group called the Multimodal Access Committee. NDOT spokesperson Cortnye Stone says the committee “convenes regularly to oversee and evaluate the impact of long-term closures exceeding six days,” making sure construction can accommodate pedestrians, cyclists and mobility-device users. Enforcing the policy was initially challenging, but Stone says NDOT has created additional reference materials to help contractors better understand how much detail they should provide to the city about their closure plans.

Germantown is an interesting case study for NDOT’s policy, because some areas lacked multimodal access to begin with.

“The area of Germantown with the most ongoing construction was previously industrial-based,” says Stone. “There were few sidewalks, if any, and even fewer pedestrians.” She says in this way construction can bring about positive change, by making more areas of Germantown walkable. “Multimodal connectivity is the heart of that ‘feel’ that has made Germantown so unique over the years,” Stone says.

In quieter parts of Germantown, things are a little calmer. Bruce Baker is the general manager of Plaza Artist Materials and Picture Framing on Second Avenue North. The store moved from a previous location in downtown Nashville, which Baker describes as an “absolute nightmare.”

“For me this is an improvement,” he says

— though he notes that he’s punctured tires by driving over three nails this month in their new neighborhood.

Baker says Second Avenue’s walkable structure helps with pedestrian access. “In most cases, if one side of the sidewalk is closed, the other side’s open,” he says. The only issue he’s noticed is when pedestrians ignore the safe options developers build, choosing to simply walk along construction instead of crossing the street.

But a few blocks away from Plaza Arts, significant development is underway at the Neuhoff District, a project built around the former Neuhoff meatpacking plant on the Cumberland River.

Matt Vineyard is vice president at JE Dunn Construction, the general contractors for the Neuhoff District. Vineyard says JE Dunn has taken steps to minimize community disruption throughout the project, including guiding traffic, providing site security guards and limiting concrete trucks on busy roads by pouring concrete at night. Since New City Properties bought the parcel in 2019, the project’s construction has periodically closed private alleyways and main city roads. Local taproom Monday Night Preservation Co. sits directly across from Neuhoff’s construction and shares an entryway with Neuhoff — walkways to the brew house currently lack sidewalk access. Representatives from Monday Night declined to comment for this story.

The Neuhoff project began before NDOT’s sidewalk permit policy, so developers haven’t had to plan alternative walkways when they close sidewalks. But Vineyard says they’re trying to keep the area walkable by maintaining access to the nearby Cumberland River Greenway, which connects pedestrians to their site as well as to Monday Night Preservation Co. “We were very cognizant about keeping the greenway open and safe, but also keeping it neat and clean so it feels welcoming and safe for the public to be there,” says Vineyard. Walkability is “a major focus of the developer,” he says.

While construction continues in Germantown, developers can take steps to make it easier on their neighbors. Elsewhere in Nashville, BrandSafway and Urban Umbrella recently collaborated on pedestrian-friendly scaffolding at Paseo South Gulch apartments. Good communication helps too. Harding praises Steadfast and True’s neighbors, Peyton Stakes apartments, for their “proactive” communication about construction in shared areas.

And of course, better public transit access would decrease closure-related disruptions. Harding, for instance, lives in East Nashville; her commute to Steadfast and True typically takes 15 minutes by car, though that can vary based on road closures. She wants to ride a bus, she says, but the bus route currently takes an hour. As parts of Germantown transition from their industrial roots, they will hopefully become more accessible for pedestrians, cyclists and mobility device users. But in the meantime, Germantown will be full of scaffolding and barriers — construction isn’t going away anytime soon.

How the formerly industrial area’s construction boom is affecting businesses, pedestrians, cyclists and mobility device users

PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO

NASHVILLE ACTORS ARE ON STRIKE TOO

SAG members and others in local film production feel effects of the Hollywood work stoppages

BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

Ted Welch, a Hendersonville native, has appeared in shows like True Blood and films including The Help. Last year, he worked on Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which will be released in October, as well as the TV shows Women of the Movement and Manhunt

But despite those credits, he still didn’t earn enough payment to qualify for the actors union health insurance last year — he was $1,000 short of the required $26,470 income, he tells the Scene. His case isn’t unique, according to a local leader of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the union representing actors best known as SAG-AFTRA.

“Unfortunately, approximately 87 percent of our membership is not making their benefits,” says Carla Christina Contreras, vice president of the Nashville chapter of SAG-AFTRA.

While the frontline of the actors and writers strikes is in Hollywood, Nashvillians are also feeling the impact of the work stoppage and studios’ refusal to negotiate on key points. Contreras says there are approximately 1,605 members in Nashville’s SAG chapter, which also includes recording artists.

Contreras, who is part of the national SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee, identifies four major demands: higher residuals from streaming services; improved selftaped audition practices; higher minimum payments while shooting; and regulations on the use of artificial intelligence.

Welch says residuals used to pay well when broadcast was the dominant model, but over his 13 years as a SAG-AFTRA member the payouts have dwindled, especially with streaming services paying lower amounts after longer waits.

“You’d do an episode of Grey’s Anatomy and you’d get like $500 to $1,000 like every

four months,” says Welch. But his residuals for appearing on four episodes of 2022’s Women of the Movement on ABC was just $97 — “which is the biggest residual I’ve gotten in a hot minute.”

Contreras also describes the arduous practice of actors taping their own auditions to send into casting calls. The equipment needed for a professional recording can cost hundreds of dollars, and the process is timeconsuming. Audition calls often arrive on Friday with self-tapes due Monday, meaning the weekend is lost to work. And if they get the part, actors may need to cover their own travel expenses.

The use of artificial intelligence has been a contentious issue for writers and actors alike. One particularly notable concern is that some studios want to acquire the likeness rights of background actors to replace them with digital copies.

SAG-AFTRA member Dean Shortland isn’t a fan of AI in films — stressing it can’t replace the “real heartbeats” actors bring to meaningful stories — but thinks that if the technology won’t go away, then there “has to be better guidelines to protect our futures as entertainers.”

Non-SAG actors share the same frustrations about payments and self-taping. Randa Newman, Dajanae Cole and Ali Alsaleh, the co-founders of Typecast Pictures, express support for the strike and don’t plan on acting until it’s settled. Alsaleh had a role in the Disney+ superhero show Ms. Marvel and had to wait one year for a $1,200 residual payment — that’s before taxes and giving a percentage to his rep.

Cole, who appeared in Netflix’s They Cloned Tyrone, wants people to understand that many actors are underpaid workers — not everyone is an A-lister. “It looks glamorous, but that doesn’t mean you’re getting paid enough,” she says.

“The bookings are, if you’re lucky, maybe

once a month,” says Newman. “It’s just not sustainable.”

The strike doesn’t apply to all productions, only movies and shows affiliated with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, a bargaining unit that represents Disney, Paramount and other huge studios. Actors can still perform in plays, commercials, video games and more.

Indie films can also qualify for an interim agreement with SAG. While some movie fans may hope that means a rise in independent cinema during the strike, not all actors are fans of the exception.

Welch was working on the independent film Bob Trevino Likes It when the strike was called on July 13, and the production managed to get permission to continue filming after a brief halt. As excited as he is about the movie, Welch says he’s not sure he’d take part in another interim agreement. He instead plans to focus on the construction company he owns until the strike is over.

Although Tennessee is not a unionfriendly state, the strike doesn’t mean nonunion productions will flock here — incentives still play a big role in where productions choose to film.

Tennessee launched a new incentive program in 2022 that attracted big productions like Nicole Kidman’s Holland, Michigan via tax credits. Bob Raines, chair of the Tennessee Entertainment Commission, says those types of projects have paused this year — at that size, they’re usually union.

Raines says those productions could have meant $150 to $200 million spent locally, from payroll for Tennesseans working on set to the costs of equipment rentals.

The entertainment industry, including the larger music scene, also brings in a lot of tax dollars for the state: In 2022 it generated $365 million in taxes. “It’s a significant industry,” says Raines.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

CONTRACTOR DISAPPEARS, LEAVING 37 UNPAID WORKERS

Workers at Germantown construction site think their missing $53,000 is somewhere in Florida

BY ELI MOTYCKA

The late-summer sun is setting across the parking lot at Glencliff United Methodist Church. Inside, organizers from labor advocacy group Workers’ Dignity lead a weekly meetup for workers and volunteers. While a few dozen attendees move around the room, talking and making posters, six men sit around a table near the front of the room.

The crew’s younger members, Jose Ortiz and Salvador Izaguirre, are quieter, nodding in agreement as Angel, 45, shares details and stories about their job site in Germantown. They were hired together in the fall by Scott Hurwitz via Elevated Concrete,

Alice Rolli and Freddie O’Connell, the lucky two candidates still running for mayor, appeared together at a forum on Thursday hosted by the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce. According to now-available precinct-level voting data, Rolli won her votes at the edges of the county, while O’Connell tallied strong support in East Nashville and inside the I-440 loop. At the forum, Rolli emphasized her unconditional pledge not to raise taxes, while O’Connell talked about public-private collaboration and the importance of transit. It was the first major event in the extended race ahead of the Sept. 14 runoff election. … Outgoing Mayor John Cooper’s pick for one of Nashville’s fair commissioners has business ties to Bristol Motor Speedway, the racetrack operator jockeying for a city contract to overhaul The Fairgrounds Nashville Falon Veit Scott, whose events company has contracted with Bristol as far back as 2018, would replace Sheri Weiner on the five-member board that oversees the fairgrounds. Multiple members of the Metro Council have already spoken out against confirming Scott, one of Cooper’s last board and commissions choices before he leaves office. … State Rep. Gloria Johnson will explore a bid for U.S. Senate, according to paperwork filed with the Federal Election Commission. Johnson, a Democrat and former educator, avoided expulsion from the state House by a single vote earlier this year as Republicans in the legislature sought to punish members for leading a protest on the House floor in the wake of the Covenant School shooting. During the Republican power play, Johnson was among the “Tennessee Three,” along with Reps. Justin Pearson and Justin Jones. … Tennessee’s electoral maps have been challenged in court by plaintiffs alleging “unconstitutional racial gerrymanders” that disenfranchise nonwhite voters. The new lawsuit was filed last week in Nashville federal court. Plaintiffs include the Tennessee State Conference of the NAACP, the League of Women Voters of Tennessee and The Equity Alliance Tennessee’s cemeteries are critical registers of society, writes Scene contributor Betsy Phillips, particularly for Black Tennesseans tracing their history and communities back into the 19th and 20th centuries. Chronicling the roots and branches of Antioch’s Olive Branch Missionary Baptist Church and its cemetery, Phillips shares the story of one Nashville family and an intergenerational promise.

… Tennessee State University

President Glenda Glover announced Monday she will step down at the end of this school year after a decade leading the historically Black public university. The university has been scrutinized by lawmakers in recent years, including after the state comptroller issued a critical report identifying a range of financial issues at the school. An interim replacement has not yet been named.

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THIS WEEK ON OUR NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG:

PHOTO COURTESY OF SAG-AFTRA

a subcontractor, to work on 1231 Second Ave. N. — a 210-unit apartment building announced last year.

We communicate through Julio Quispe, a Workers’ Dignity staff member. Wearing a pink Lionel Messi jersey and flatbill hat, Jose Reyes, 19, speaks only to confirm his stake — about $900 — for work he did at the site in the fall. The group proudly identifies with the colloquial term chapines, a moniker for any Guatemalan but particularly those among its many Indigenous peoples.

They were the entire crew, raising the complex from the basement up for six months. Hurwitz covered their paychecks each week. Facebook posts from October and November show a smiling Hurwitz at the job site with workers in safety vests pouring concrete. Then he disappeared.

“The first week we didn’t get paid, we thought it was over,” Angel tells the Scene through a translator. “Then the second week, they said we would get $300 extra for waiting.”

The table — six of 37 workers missing compensation — estimates more than $50,000 is owed to the crew for three weeks of work in January and February. Angel says he last saw Hurwitz around Christmas 2022.

“Then the work got heavier,” Angel remembers, eliciting nods from the group. “Scott owed the crane company, so they came and took the crane away. We had to carry our materials up.”

Stories about Hurwitz got back to the workers while they waited. That he had a house for sale — once he sold it, they’d get paid. That he had fled to Miami for other work. He stopped answering his phone. The Scene tried two numbers for Hurwitz — one was discon-

nected, the other went to voicemail, which was full.

For many of the men and women at the Workers’ Dignity meeting at Glencliff, the workday ended a couple hours ago. Kids roam around the room, staying occupied on phones and iPads and refilling on orange soda and Sprite. A cooler in the corner is filled with individually wrapped baleadas, the Honduran tortilla staple filled with beans, cheese, eggs and avocado. At the front of the room, a few organizers pass out markers and discuss strategy on a white board. Armando Arzate, a Workers’ Dignity board member, checks in on a few groups. Arzate is still fighting to fully recover wages from work done at Vanderbilt.

The rest of the room is prepping for an upcoming action at Century Farms in Antioch. When TriStar Health built an emergency room off I-24 a few years ago, the family that installed its HVAC system didn’t get paid, they say. That family is here tonight, putting messages on poster boards alongside a couple dozen other vol-

PREDETERMINED

gun restrictions

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

Usually, when the Republican governor and the Republican leader of the state Senate want something to happen in the Republican state legislature, there’s a good chance of it happening. They can’t get everything they want, but at least it’ll be considered seriously. When the Tennessee General Assembly returns for a special session on Aug. 21, that will not be the case.

Gov. Bill Lee and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally have both expressed support for extreme risk protection orders in the wake of the Covenant School shooting that left dead three children and three staff members (including a friend of Lee and his wife) earlier this year. The ERPOs would allow courts to temporarily remove guns from the possession of people experiencing crises, and Lee, McNally, Democrats and some Covenant parents are in favor of the tool, supported by

unteers and workers. They’re waiting for a meeting with District 32 Councilmember Joy Styles, who represents the area. One poster reads, “Wage Theft Is Slavery,” in thick green marker.

“Typically a worker will get a text about when and where to show up for a job,” says Johnny Epstein, a Workers’ Dignity volunteer and law student at Belmont who has worked as a construction engineer and consultant for more than a decade. “They get picked up in the morning, go to a job site and work, and hope they get paid. An employer will say, ‘You missed a spot in the corner,’ and dock them half their wages. Or they’ll say, ‘You have to pay for transportation or materials,’ after the fact. Theoretically, contract law could protect them. But it costs money to go to court.”

Nashville construction sites turn prime real estate — like the chapines’ lot in Germantown — into hundred-unit apartment buildings with rooftop bars and swimming pools. Philadelphia-based Greenpointe Construction bought 1231 Second Ave. N. for $5.5 million in 2020, a per-square-foot sale record at the time. Greenpointe’s principal, Gagan Lakhmna, has developed high-dollar property across the country — he has also been dogged with protests and lawsuits over illegal evictions and construction issues, particularly in Philly. Greenpointe’s $42.5 million construction loan, reported by Scene sister publication the Nashville Post last year, is parceled out among contractors, subcontractors, lawyers, architects and — in theory — workers until the project is done.

Below Lakhmna is contractor James Arias of Associated Construction, senior construction project manager for the site. Arias says he paid subcontractor Scott Hur-

three-fourths of Tennessee voters according to recent Vanderbilt polling.

But any such legislation is dead on arrival for the special session, Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, House Speaker Cameron Sexton and dozens of other Republican lawmakers have decreed. Lee is not even including an ERPO proposal in his package of bills (though his special session call allows for a member to independently introduce a proposal).

Instead, Lee’s package includes seven items, to be taken up alongside member bills starting Aug. 21. The governor’s proposed legislation would require faster reporting by court clerks to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, seek a federal waiver to deploy Medicaid funds for mental illness and substance use disorders at institutions, boost the mental health workforce, allow advanced registered practice nurses with psychiatric training more latitude in treatment, require collection of DNA from anyone arrested for a felony, direct the TBI to write a report about human trafficking, and eliminate taxes on gun safes. The official call includes 18 topic areas in which lawmakers can file bills.

Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari, a Memphis Democrat, was part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who met for months with the governor to hash out a plan for the special session. She says she has “mixed feelings.” She appreciates some of the mental health proposals, is concerned by some of the juvenile justice possibilities and is “disappointed the scope is not wider.”

“At the end of the day, people want to feel safe,” she says.

Added Kramer Schmidt, a member of a group of Covenant parents who plan to be present at the special session: “As Tennesse-

witz of Elevated Concrete for the chapines’ wages.

“It wasn’t just the laborers who didn’t get paid,” Arias tells the Scene. “At a certain point, he stopped paying everyone — rebar, concrete, the crane, 15 vendors.”

When the chapines walked off the job in early February after three weeks of missed pay, Arias hired them back directly. That’s around when he last spoke with Hurwitz, Arias says. He says Hurwitz is somewhere in Florida, maybe Orlando.

“I can’t say too much more,” says Arias. “We’re hoping it gets worked out in court. We were shunned for a while because of Scott. We have several projects here, and we’re trying to maintain good relationships with the local community.” Depositions are coming up for a lawsuit Arias’ company filed against Hurwitz for more than a million dollars in unpaid invoices.

Many of the chapines have moved on to other construction sites across the city. One still works at 1231 Second Ave. N., where workers are close to finishing the third floor of seven. Others dropped off in April and June.

At the Glencliff gathering, other workers hear familiar elements in their story. Workers’ Dignity has run wage theft campaigns for individuals and crews across Nashville, and the group gets more reports of construction malpractice each month. In 2017, Nashville was named the most dangerous city in the South for construction workers. The city’s aggressive growth comes with tight timelines and jobsite tragedies, like the death of 16-year-old Gustavo Ramirez in 2020.

“In some form, yes, we will get our money back,” says Angel, speaking for the chapines. “Together, yes.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

ans, we have to ask ourselves, what kind of state do we want to raise our children in? A state that, in the aftermath of a mass shooting of children and educators and amidst soaring rates of gun violence, will sit idly by when the vast majority of Tennesseans are asking for real reform to firearm laws? Or a state that rises to the moment and takes action to keep firearms out of the hands of those who seek to do the most harm to our children and communities?”

Democrats in the legislature were touring the state last week in an effort to rally support for ERPO and other safety legislation. Sexton was among the Republicans scoffing at them and dismissing the need for gun restrictions.

“The only thing they’re focusing on is the guns, which we knew all along,” he told reporters last week. “... There’s other solutions other than that.”

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

Post-Covenant special session begins with little hope for

“AS TENNESSEANS, WE HAVE TO ASK OURSELVES, WHAT KIND OF STATE DO WE WANT TO RAISE OUR CHILDREN IN?”

—KRAMER SCHMIDT, COVENANT PARENT

PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

1231 SECOND AVE. N. PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

WITNESS HISTORY

Jimmie Rodgers acquired this custom Weymann guitar after his 1927 recording of “Blue Yodel” launched him into national stardom—and the Singing Brakeman would continue to influence the sound of country music nearly a century down the line.

From the exhibit Sing Me Back Home: Folk Roots to the Present

artifact photo: Bob Delevante

BY KELSEY BEYELER

So much is happening throughout the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools system at any given moment.

Around 80,000 students attend more than 160 schools in Davidson County. They represent an array of cultures, socioeconomic statuses, personalities and interests, all of which converge within the classroom. Every student, employee, parent and community member has their own unique perspective on the district, based on their own experiences. The range is drastic, especially in a large urban school system like MNPS. Some love their alma maters and credit their success to them. Others have had traumatizing experiences at public schools. An array of social issues intersect within classrooms, from adverse childhood experiences to political disputes and societal dangers — and so schools are much more than education centers. Sometimes

New School Year, Old Problems

they provide opportunities for triage for students who need it, with school staff helping families identify students’ disabilities, connecting those experiencing homelessness with resources or assisting people who come from other countries.

District leaders often paint a very different picture than do students, parents and educators. They tout growth and accomplishments, and while much of that is true, schools are failing some students for myriad reasons. There is also joy inside the classrooms, and many school employees are passionate and caring adults who teach because they feel called to do so. All of this is what makes the district so complicated. For each win to celebrate, there’s another difficulty to address, and finite resources to do it with.

TWO CAUSES FOR CELEBRATION come via a couple of shiny new schools. Bellevue’s James Lawson High School and the new and improved Goodlettsville Elementary School both had their first first day of school this year. Each has exciting new bells and whistles.

A replacement for Hillwood High School, James Lawson High is named after the minister and civil rights leader who helped train young activists including Diane Nash and John Lewis to participate in the Nashville Student Movement. The school has three Academies of Nashville — an esteemed program that has received national attention and is meant to prepare students for spe-

cific career paths. James Lawson High students can enter the academy of art, design and communication; business and hospitality; or health sciences. An ambulance was brought into one of the medical-oriented classrooms.

“We’re just fortunate that we have such a big, beautiful facility to start with,” James Lawson executive principal Stephen Sheaffer tells the Scene at the school’s ribboncutting event. “Now we’ve got to make it come alive.”

“It’s definitely nerve-racking, because I do miss Hillwood,” says Christine Tran, a Hillwood High School junior who will soon serve as a student school board member. “I think it’s a good opportunity to meet other people, which is really nice.”

Goodlettsville Elementary School was designed to emphasize social and emotional learning for its young students. Classrooms have “peace corners” where kids can calm down and self-regulate. If that doesn’t work, the school has built-in sensory supports to

As Metro begins another school year, we take a look at the challenges facing the district — from student safety to infrastructure needs and more

PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

STUDENTS ARRIVE AT JAMES LAWSON HIGH SCHOOL ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

JAMES LAWSON HIGH STUDENT CHRISTINE TRAN

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

utilize, plus a vending machine full of books and an indoor slide for fun.

Lamarra Robinson is a student at Goodlettsville Elementary who sang with the school’s choir during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. She shined while performing a solo during a song written by music teacher Latrice Stanley and her father: “I see greatness all around me / From my right to my left on the inside of me / I can be whatever I choose to be / ’Cause there is greatness on the inside of me.”

Lamarra tells the Scene that she wasn’t too nervous about singing the solo. She isn’t all that nervous to start the new year, either. She is “excited about a lot of things” in the coming school year, like meeting her new teacher, seeing her new classroom and making new friends. Her mom is also excited about the new school building.

For many students and staff members, the first weeks of school are accompanied by a mix of nerves and excitement as everyone familiarizes themselves with their new routines and classmates. “Getting into that new routine, that new normal for us, is a little nerveracking,” says Goodlettsville Elementary School assistant principal Alicia Peters.

Hillwood High School and Goodlettsville Elementary School students were in serious need of new school buildings. The former had been open for 64 years, and at the old Goodlettsville Elementary, tiles regularly fell from the ceiling. Peters was a teacher back then, and she says she had to put a kiddie pool in her classroom for the debris. She was teaching when then-U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper and former school board member Jill Speering came to see the school’s Veterans Day program — and parts of the ceiling fell in front of them. Executive principal Tracy Gibson described it as the “impetus” for the new school.

“Two things,” said Jim’s brother, Mayor John Cooper, at the ribbon-cutting event. “Don’t wait for a roof to fall in before you get a new school. But secondly, if it does fall, you want it to fall on a congressman … because then you really, probably get action.”

The joke touched on a bleak reality: Needed investments like these are too few and too far between.

A similar moment happened at the most recent MNPS board meeting, which aligned with the first day of school on Aug. 8. As board members celebrated the new schools, District 4 representative Berthena Nabaa-

McKinney asked when her district would be receiving some “love.” People laughed at the semi-rhetorical question, despite the seriousness of the need. Other schools are receiving renovations, and more new schools are being planned, but the process is a long one. Projects like these depend on funding, and even though the Metro Council and Mayor Cooper have increased city spending on education, sacrifices are always made.

MNPS employees, for example, got a lower cost of living adjustment than other Metro employees this year. Many can’t afford to live in the communities they work in.

BUILDING IMPROVEMENTS are just one manifestation of the copious needs of MNPS. Each school has its own challenges, and entire organizations exist to support them. Communities in Schools is an organization that helps meet student needs by connecting them with community resources. PENCIL provides teachers with supplies so they don’t have to pay for them out of their own pockets. Nashville PROPEL advocates for equitable education by equipping parents with the information necessary to navigate the district.

“The status quo [is] having very minimal growth, at a very slow rate,” says PROPEL executive director Sonya Thomas. “We have a lot of parents who are concerned about their children reading on grade level, we have a lot of parents who are concerned about the safety of children — as they should — and we have a lot of parents who want their voice amplified within the district and don’t feel like they’re being heard, nor can they effectively navigate the system.”

Nineteen Metro public schools are on the state’s “priority” list, meaning they perform within the bottom 5 percent in the state. Families zoned for these schools have other options, but sometimes those come with stigma attached. Alongside traditional zoned public schools, students can also enter a lottery to attend another MNPS school, or they can attend charter schools or private schools. In the name of “school choice,” Gov. Bill Lee shepherded an education savings account program through the state legislature that allows some students to use public money to attend private schools. Critics argue that charters and ESAs drain much-needed public funding from traditional schools. Many times, low-performing schools struggle because they’re underin-

vested or serve student populations with needs that can stunt academic progress, like food insecurity. Who could blame a parent for wanting to provide the best possible education for their child?

Elizabeth Hines is the parent of two MNPS fifth-graders. She is the former chair of the Parent Advisory Council and is currently studying to become a teacher herself. Her kids had a hard time at their previous school, and after exploring a few options, they decided to attend a charter school. Hines says she had to defend her decision.

“My husband wanted the other MNPS school,” says Hines. “I’ve never been like, ‘Oh my gosh, charter schools are taking all the money.’ … I just feel if you have a problem with charter schools, you should have a problem with magnet schools, and you should have a problem with private schools — because they all somehow get some money at some point from the government. So that’s why I’ve never gotten into that battle.”

Jasson Cring is the father of three boys in the MNPS system. One of his sons, Johann, attends Meigs Middle Magnet School. Another goes to Hume-Fogg Academic High School. Cring recognizes the privilege in that.

“The process in which we have to figure out where our kids are gonna go to school, the lottery process, it’s insane,” says Cring. “The system needs to be improved to where you don’t have to circumvent and literally do a lottery to be able to get your kids the best possible education.”

Of course, most students aren’t really tuned into the school-choice conversation — they’re just going to school.

“I am very excited to see all of my friends again,” Johann told the Scene before classes started, noting that his favorite part of school is lunch and his least-favorite part is writing essays. “I’m nervous about meeting other people, and other teachers. … I hope I don’t have too much homework.”

Wyatt Bassow is about to start college in Florida, where he’ll study political science with a minor in law, justice and advocacy. A former Hume-Fogg student, Bassow helped organize protests against gun violence at the state Capitol following the Covenant School shooting, and reflects on his education in the MNPS system.

“The schools that I got to experience put me in a place where I know exactly where I want to be in four years — or at

PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO

GOODLETTSVILLE ELEMENTARY STUDENT LAMARRA ROBINSON AND HER MOTHER

GOODLETTSVILLE ELEMENTARY STUDENTS ENJOY THE NEW SLIDE INSIDE THE SCHOOL

“I just feel if you have a problem with charter schools, you should have a problem with magnet schools and you should have a problem with private schools — because they all somehow get some money at some point from the government.”

—Elizabeth Hines, MNPS parent

PHOTOS: ANGELINA CASTILLO

UPCOMING SHOWS AT THE MUSEUM’S CMA THEATER

AUGUST 29 and 30

ERIC CHURCH

THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM’S 18TH ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE SOLD OUT

SEPTEMBER 6

SEPTEMBER 17

OCTOBER 7

OCTOBER 8

JOHN OATES AN EVENING OF SONGS AND STORIES FEATURING GUTHRIE TRAPP

CORINNE BAILEY RAE

THE BLACK RAINBOWS TOUR WITH SPECIAL GUEST JON MUQ

BOBBY BONES

COMEDICALLY INSPIRATIONAL ON TOUR

THE PRINE FAMILY PRESENTS

YOU GOT GOLD: CELEBRATING THE SONGS OF JOHN PRINE SOLD OUT

OCTOBER 28

RODNEY CROWELL

THE CHICAGO SESSIONS TOUR WITH SPECIAL GUESTS ROB ICKES AND TREY HENSLEY

NOVEMBER 8

DECEMBER 21

MARCH 5

A MUSICAL CONVERSATION WITH VALERIE JUNE, RACHAEL DAVIS, THAO, & YASMIN WILLIAMS

BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY

BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY’S WILD & SWINGIN’ HOLIDAY PARTY

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least I think I do at this very moment — but I know that’s not [always] the case,” says Bassow. “It sounds like I’m tooting my own horn, but [I’m] unique because we’re not setting up our kids for success currently in our system. But Hume-Fogg is the best public school in Tennessee. … We don’t have that same system at Stratford, which was my zoned school. Talking to my friends, who don’t have the same direction, it’s not because they don’t have the passion. It’s because they don’t have a direction from the system.”

Political advocacy has motivated Bassow’s career plans. He wanted to study juvenile psychology, but changed his mind when he realized he’d rather “try and be the systematic change as opposed to helping people once they’re in the system. So trying to involve myself and get ahead of the gun — quite literally.”

BEING A STUDENT TODAY means being aware of seemingly constant school shootings that happen across the nation. March 27’s shooting at Covenant School — a private school in the Green Hills area — resulted in the deaths of three students and three staff members. The possibility of another local shooting looms heavy.

“It’s on my mind every single day,” Goodlettsville Elementary School assistant principal Peters tells the Scene. The new school was built with safety features in mind, such as the large decorative spheres outside that could also prevent a vehicle from crashing into the front of the building.

To prevent future tragedies from occurring, MNPS — like many school districts — is bolstering its security strategy. This includes a strict door-locking policy, security vesti-

bules, video cameras, security drills, shatterresistant film for glass and more. Metro Nashville Police Department officers will also be more present at schools. MNPD, not the school district, manages and implements the school resource officer program. It’s seeking to fill all remaining vacancies and eventually add more positions so SROs can work in elementary schools — a move that school district leaders have pushed against in the past. We won’t see official SROs in elementary schools this year, but officers have been and will continue to be regularly present. The school district is also hiring safety ambassadors — unarmed plainclothes officers — in elementary schools to work as liaisons between MNPS security and the police department.

The increased presence of cops is a widely debated topic, as some argue that SROs negatively impact learning environments and increase a student’s likelihood to enter the school-to-prison pipeline. Then again, some parents, faculty and students really like their SROs and consider them a vital part of their school community. Increased police presence was part of Elizabeth Hines’ decision to move her kids from their previous school.

“It really made me feel powerless as a parent,” says Hines. “It got to a point where I stopped taking my kids to school in the morning. … For me it was just so upsetting that I asked my husband to start taking them.”

Ibti Cheko is a Hume-Fogg junior who volunteers with student-led gun-reform activist group Students Demand Action. Ibti says she doesn’t want so many police officers in schools — she wants gun reform. She wants to focus on her AP classes this year, yet she

volunteers her time as an activist so she and other students can feel safer in schools.

“I don’t think people understand how it genuinely affects your well-being, like your mental health,” says Ibti. “Making sure that when you use the bathroom you come back in as quickly as possible so that, if there’s a lockdown or something, you’re not out in the hallways with no room to protect you just stresses you out, and you shouldn’t have to worry about [it]. And it’s just that stress and that anxiety — that even if nothing ends up happening, and no one ends up coming — it’s still a lot on your mind. We’re kids. It’s not our responsibility to make sure that we’re safe at school, somewhere that we’re required to be at.”

Maryam Abolfazli is the parent of a kindergartener and founder of Rise and Shine Tennessee, a grassroots organization working toward gun reform, among other goals. “You either can bury your head in the sand to just move forward and enjoy this magic of your kid starting school, or you can be present to the many layers of concern,” she says. “Parents have become real experts in how you equip a school to keep your kid safe.”

The school district has virtually no power over SROs or the Tennessee General Assembly, which has passed legislation to harden schools but not to regulate firearm access. Following the Covenant School shooting, thousands of people showed up at the Capitol to advocate for gun reform, and many will likely return next week: Gov. Bill Lee called a special session of the legislature to convene Aug. 21 and address gun laws — even though his fellow Republicans have pushed back against the session and Lee’s proposed extreme risk protection orders.

“It’s emotions of rage and sadness,” says Abolfazli. “We’re kind of exactly right back to March 27, because we got to take a break from it because school was out. Now everyone’s just re-feeling that sinking feeling of dropping your kid off at school in the morning, and having absolutely no power to keep them safe when they’re there.”

Meanwhile, some educators are suing the state over a law that the legislature passed a few years ago. Driven by culture wars and conservative trends, the legislature passed a law that broadly but vaguely limits schools instruction around topics like race and sex. Educators and the Tennessee Education Association say the legislation negatively impacts their ability to educate students. The lawsuit states that, due to the law, a school in Tipton County no longer takes field trips to Memphis’ National Civil Rights Museum — instead, they take students to a baseball game.

Another unpopular law that recently went into effect seeks to boost state literacy scores by requiring third-graders to be retained if they don’t score high enough on state testing and don’t participate in mandated learning interventions and show adequate growth.

“The week of the test, they were very anxious,” says Goodlettsville Elementary School principal Gibson about last year’s third-graders. “You had kids that were in tears taking it, and it was bad. It was really bad.”

After testing and retesting, along with summer school, around 1.4 percent of MNPS third-graders have been retained because of the law. An additional 20.1 percent of students were promoted but are required to receive tutoring in fourth

WYATT BASSOW (TOP LEFT) AT A GUN VIOLENCE PROTEST AT THE STATE CAPITOL

PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

We’re kids. It’s not our responsibility to make sure that we’re safe at school, somewhere that we’re required to be at.”

Ibti Cheko, Hume-Fogg Junior

grade and show proficient growth on the next Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program. Folks can sign up to tutor fourthgraders at acceleratingscholars.org.

EARLY MORNING at James Lawson High School, seniors crowd the courtyard before entering their new building. A bubble machine furiously blows bubbles onto the scene, and some cars have “SENIOR” painted on their windows. Some students wear decorated paper crowns indicating that they’re in the graduating class of 2024. Younger kids watch as their older siblings — and staff, equipped with their lanyards and walkietalkies — buzz around the building. After some courtyard mingling and reconnecting, adults cheer on the seniors as they cross the threshold of the building, starting the first day of their last school year.

“I’m most excited about the opportunities that the school has,” says a senior named Sam who transferred from a private school. “I feel like there’s a lot of opportunities here versus most schools in the area, so I’m very excited to take advantage of those.”

“It’s very new and nice and seems like we’re getting a lot more people, and it’s just very exciting,” says a fellow student named Lil.

Similar scenes are playing out across the city. PROPEL’s Sonya Thomas enjoys the experience of sending her kid off to school and welcoming other students into their building.

“It level-sets and gets me really focused on the work that we have to do and how important it is to this city,” says Thomas.

Though conversations around public education are often heated, and opinions on the best ways to go about it differ wildly, parents and educators just want their students to thrive in a safe and productive learning environment. Students deserve that. Anyone who wants to support this work has a variety of avenues to do so through, whether that’s tutoring a student, engaging with the entities that support them, advocating for better schools or even just listening to what students have to say, and meeting their needs.

“We need each other,” Thomas says. “We need great educators and parents. And then, the educators need us to be partners with them. And I think that I’m optimistic about that. That is what I want to be true, when it’s all said and done, is that we all work together to make sure that children get what they need and they deserve.” EMAIL

“You either can bury your head in the sand to just move forward and enjoy this magic of your kid starting school, or you can be present to the many layers of concern.”

Maryam Abolfazli, MNPS parent and founder of Rise and Shine Tennessee

SEP

Rufus

OCT 8 | 7:30

Presentation

CLAY

SEP 14 to 16 | 7:30 PM

Giancarlo

CRITICS’ PICKS

WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF THINGS TO DO

THURSDAY / 8.17

FAIR [FAIR GAME]

WILSON COUNTY AND TENNESSEE STATE FAIR

I’ve always been confused by the timing of the Tennessee State Fair, since the North Carolina State Fair, held in my hometown of Raleigh, takes place during the fall. It represents an important ritual for area high-schoolers: You start school in August, develop a crush on someone in your class in September, and then in October, you ask that person to go to the fair with you and post a picture on Instagram that says, “I had a FAIRLY good time with this one!” Then everyone comments “omg d8,” and then you either ask your fair date to the homecoming dance or get too embarrassed to ever speak to them again. What do highschoolers here in Nashville do to soft-launch a new relationship? Fortunately, there are a lot of familiar aspects at Tennessee’s premier agricultural festival, held at the Wilson County Fairgrounds at the tail end of summer. (If it’s been a while since you attended, the state fair merged with the Wilson County State Fair in 2019, in part due to the construction of Nashville SC’s Geodis Park at The Fairgrounds Nashville.) You can expect a litany of fried foods, towering carnival rides, ginormous produce and, yes, lots of students enjoying their last bit of freedom before school starts. This year’s theme is “Year of Corn” and will feature cornhole tournaments, corn-themed cooking challenges and other kernels of entertainment. Aug. 17-26 at the Wilson County Fairgrounds, 945 E. Baddour Parkway, Lebanon COLE VILLENA

MUSIC

[SPIDER-MAN WHAT?] CUPCAKKE

WILSON COUNTY AND TENNESSEE STATE FAIR

AUG. 17-26

Wilson County Fairgrounds

[WHY NOT BOTH]

LILLY HIATT

My college roommates would play Cupcakke to watch my shocked expression as I processed what she was referring to. She’s bold, to say the least. By the end of each track, though, the singer’s hypersexualized, unabashed lyrics always left us in stitches. I hope to relive my 2016 truth at her Nashville show. “Spider-Man Dick” and “Squidward Nose” are two classics from her repertoire, but the crowd will also be treated to her newer tracks live, likely including “Marge Simpson” and “H2hoe.” Curiously, Cupcakke played City Winery earlier this year, and while she hasn’t released a full album since 2018, she’s always killed on her features. (“Lipgloss” with Charli XCX is especially memorable.) But I think we’ve always known she was a star — at least members of my college home “The Bitch Palace” did. Here’s a chance to see her on a stage of the stature she deserves. 8 p.m. at Brooklyn Bowl, 925 Third Ave. N. HANNAH HERNER MUSIC

Great songs don’t have to rock, and

great rock songs don’t have to be lyrically sophisticated. Over the past decade and change, Lilly Hiatt has reminded us time and time again that it’s pretty awesome when those paths intersect, with her breakout LP Trinity Lane and, really, everything else she’s released. In recent months, that’s included a suite of lo-fi singles (favorites include the almostshoegaze “Angels Thing” and lilting, groovy “L8 Night People”) and Domestic Bliss, the self-titled debut LP from Hiatt’s project with husband and fellow longtime Nashville MVP Coley Hinson. Since Hiatt’s not on tour at the moment, you’ve got three great chances to catch her in the next few days. Aug. 17, she headlines at The End with psych rocker John Condit and Callista Lange from soulful Big Brother and the Holding Company-esque rock outfit The Untamed. On Aug. 18, Domestic Bliss makes its live debut at The Basement, joining in with Athens, Ga., country-rockers The Howdies and Georgia-born and Nashville-residing country standout Kristina Murray. Then on Aug. 24, Hiatt and her band are back at The End, with rocker Suzie Chism and folk-rockand-popsmith Caleb Christopher. Aug. 17 & 24 at The End, 2219 Elliston Place, and Aug. 18 at The Basement, 1604 Eighth Ave. S.

STEPHEN TRAGESER

FILM

[SO RAD IT’S GOOD]

RIFFTRAX LIVE: RAD

Do you enjoy watching bad movies?

Wait, let’s rephrase that: Do you enjoy watching bad movies with your friends, throwing out jokes and interjections at the screen and laughing so hard that you all completely forget why you decided to watch the film in the first place? If you answered yes, then you cannot afford to miss RiffTrax Live at the Belcourt as they take apart Rad. The screening will feature former Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) cast members Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, and there is no chance that you won’t laugh yourself silly as the comedic trio riffs its way through the 1986 Hal Needham cult-classic tale of a BMX biker with big dreams (and the trouble to be found within those dreams). If you’ve never experienced a RiffTrax Live event or listened to a RiffTrax commentary track, then this is the perfect introduction. With years of experience watching and riffing over both Hollywood blockbusters and some of the worst films ever made, Mike, Bill and Kevin know exactly what buttons to push and what jokes to make to get a room — a sold-out room, as of press time — of filmgoers bursting into laughter. 7 p.m. at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. ROB HINKAL

[CAN’T KEEP RONNIN’ AWAY]

MUSIC

BLCKFRIEND, RON OBASI & MORE

On Ron Obasi’s new Live From Shangri-La EP — one of the best Nashville has produced this year — the emcee shows off a skill that few can boast.

He displays the ability to slow it down while still remaining interesting. His style leaves space between the lyrics to let the sultry jazz tracks breathe, never forcing his words to dominate the sound, but offering every track room to blossom. His effervescently effortless cadence occasionally shifts ahead or behind the complex rhythms, showcasing his high-concept vocal patterns. Obasi shares the stage with an eclectic stew of artists who show the expansiveness of what hip-hop can be in 2023. Guitarist and rapper blckfriend released his debut single “Robbery” for the Babygrande label less than a year ago, but the multitalented artist has already created a fully formed identity as a showman. His high-pitched, somber lyrical style, knack

PHOTO: ASHLEY HAGEWOOD

BLCKFRIEND

for storytelling and throwback ’80s-R&B guitar solos crisscross to weave a uniquely impressive sound. The bill is filled out by the chiptune-bent sounds of Griizzly, the wonderfully warped bars of Muchi and vibey Canadian artist Lowercase. 8 p.m. at The East Room, 2412 Gallatin Pike P.J. KINZER

FRIDAY / 8.18

[FAMILY TIES]

THEATER

PAPA WAS…

As the founder and artistic director of Destiny Theatre Experience, Shawn Whitsell has proven himself to be one of Nashville’s most prolific playwrights not to mention an accomplished actor and director. Beginning Friday, you can check out one of his original family dramas as DTE presents Papa Was… onstage at the Darkhorse Theater through Aug. 26. Papa Was… follows a traveling jazz musician who dies, leaving behind “seven sons in seven different cities, an inheritance, and a mission to do in death what he didn’t have the courage to do in life — bring his sons together.” It’s an intriguing setup to be sure. But to receive their inheritance, all seven men must agree to meet and spend time in a remote cabin, finally getting to know one another. Whitsell directs (and will perform alongside) a solid cast, including Harold Lercius, Leonard Ledford Jr., Cameron Mitchell, Jonathan Allen, Jamil Parrish, Milton Jackson, Allen Rucker and Tony Insignares. Aug. 18-26 at the Darkhorse Theater, 4610 Charlotte Ave. AMY STUMPFL

TIM HEIDECKER: THE TWO TIMS SUMMER TOUR

Between Adult Swim’s Tom Goes to the Mayor and Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, his Office Hours podcast and his meme-inspiring appearances on I Think You Should Leave, Tim Heidecker has earned a spot on the Mount Rushmore of absurdist comedy. But fans of the Pennsylvania native’s comedy who haven’t taken a dive into his music might be surprised to discover just how earnest — and generally really good — his songs are. Tunes like “Sirens of Titan” from 2022’s High School and “Come Away With Me” from 2020’s Fear of Death are relatable and catchy, clearly influenced by ’70s folk and dad rock by the likes of Steely Dan, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and Graham Nash. On his current The Two Tims Summer Tour, Heidecker will bring us a little something from both sides of Tim: some stand-up comedy (featuring the intentionally hacky “No More Bullshit!” character he showcased with his 2020 special An Evening With Tim Heidecker, almost more performance art than stand-up in its lampooning of banal mainstream comedy), and some music, supported by his backing outfit The Very Good Band. The show is sold out, but at last check, fans are still able to join a waitlist via City Winery’s site.

8 p.m. at City Winery, 609 Lafayette St.

D. PATRICK RODGERS

MUSIC

To-Go Records’ recurring local-music

showcase heads back to The Blue Room at Third Man Records this week, bringing several perspectives on emotionally complex rock and pop. Meg Elsier hasn’t released a ton of music yet — indeed, if you haven’t seen one of her shows around town, then all you’ve likely heard from her is a live-performance video of her song “Meaning of Life,” a pensive rocker about how the anxiety-inducing complications of living in a turbulent time seem to always find seams to seep through. She’s got a record titled Spittake on the way; chances are good you’ll hear some tunes from that Friday. Multi-instrumentalist Kelly Sherrod’s project Proteins of Magic blends cutting-edge experimental pop with eldritch folk elements and more. Her music is very much her own thing, but you might catch some reflections of artists as diverse as Björk, Enya and Sherrod’s fellow New Zealand-born singer Aldous Harding. Joiner, on the other hand, is more in the rocking vein of folks like Lucy Dacus, and they round out the bill right on the heels of their debut EP Hydrangea. Hear songs from it at The Blue Room, and join them on Aug. 23 for their release party at The East Room. 8 p.m.

at The Blue Room at Third Man Records, 623 Seventh Ave. S. STEPHEN TRAGESER

FILM

[TWICE UPON A TIME AT THE BELCOURT] LATE NIGHT DOUBLE FEATURE: ONCE UPON A TIME IN UGANDA + WHO KILLED CAPTAIN ALEX?

Have you ever heard of Wakaliwood, the Ugandan village whose inhabitants work hard to make “Da Best of Da Best Movies”? Well, to quote Kevin Hart’s dad, you’re gonna learn today! Actually, you’re gonna learn at the Belcourt this weekend, where the theater will have one insane double feature. Things will start off with Cathryne Czubek’s 2023 documentary Once

Upon a Time in Uganda, which follows one American’s mission to turn the batshit, shot-on-video action movies of Ugandan filmmaker Nabwana Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey (aka Nabwana I.G.G.) into a global sensation. That will be immediately followed by a midnight screening of IGG’s magnum opus Who Killed Captain Alex?, 2010’s 64-minute war movie featuring hella computer-generated explosions, a plot that I’m sure makes sense to somebody, and a budget somewhere between $85 and $200.

It also includes built-in Mystery Science Theater 3000-style commentary from a boisterous “video joker” named VJ Emmie. Trust me when I say this will be one of the wildest nights at the movies you’ll ever have. 10 p.m. at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. CRAIG D. LINDSEY

SATURDAY / 8.19

MUSIC

[THE OOGIE BOOGIE MAN!] KEN PAGE

Ken Page first wowed Broadway audiences back in 1976 with his performance as Nicely-Nicely in the Tony-nominated all-Black revival of Guys and Dolls. From there he went on to be featured as an original cast member in the Fats Waller musical revue Ain’t Misbehavin’, and later to originate the role of Old Deuteronomy in the Broadway production of Cats. Page also has racked up plenty of film and television credits over the years and is perhaps best known as the voice of Mr. Oogie Boogie from The

Nightmare Before Christmas. You can catch this dynamic performer onstage this weekend as the Tennessee Performing Arts Center and Studio Tenn Theatre Company continue their popular Cabaret On Stage series with Ken Page: In Concert Audiences can look forward to an intimate evening that “combines Broadway with Rhythm & Blues as he performs pieces from well-known composers, and talks about his extraordinary career spanning half a century.” 8 p.m. at TPAC’s James K. Polk Theater, 505 Deaderick St. AMY STUMPFL

FILM [DIG IT]

MIDNIGHT MOVIES: BLACK DYNAMITE

One of the best things about the Belcourt is discovering a new movie to add to your collection of personal favorites. Whether it’s a canonized classic, an unearthed gem or a brand-new indie release, the local cinema’s curation always leads to exciting discoveries. I hope the same goes for their latest midnight selection Black Dynamite, because it’s one of the most criminally underseen films of the 21st century. The 2009 Blaxploitation throwback, starring and co-written by martial artist turned actor Michael Jai White, is equal parts loving homage and pitch-perfect

[HARDER, BETTER, FASTER, STRONGER] DISCOVERY NITE FEAT. MEG ELSIER, PROTEINS OF MAGIC & JOINER

MEG ELSIER

KEN PAGE

send-up of the violent, socially conscious grindhouse pictures of White’s youth. Black Dynamite made less than $300,000 at the box office upon its initial release, but in the years since, the film has developed an intense cult following that’s inspired an animated spinoff, a series of short films and a long-rumored sequel. But perhaps the biggest testament to its obsession-inducing quality is how I found out about the film in the first place. Growing up, my friends and I watched countless movies together. But to this day, only once did a movie inspire an immediate rewatch after the first viewing ended. Black Dynamite just has that sort of effect on people. Midnight at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. LOGAN BUTTS

[HER

MUSIC

MAJESTY RETURNS (WITH RIFFS)]

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

When did Queens of the Stone Age last gig in Nashville? Hint: It’s been a while. The California band fronted by riffy rock conductor Josh Homme headlined Municipal Auditorium … in October 2013. Nearly a decade later, this alt-rock mainstay returns to Nashville for a one-night outing at Ascend Amphitheater (a venue that didn’t exist the last time Homme and company rolled into town, for those keeping track). The band tours on the heels of releasing In Times New Roman…, its first studio effort since 2017. The record is a return-to-roots effort anchored by greased-up stoner-y guitars and self-aware turmoil — Homme fueled tabloid fodder after he and ex-wife/ punk singer Brody Dalle split in 2019 — and its new material should provide plenty of opportunity to make up for a decade of lost headbanging. (Seriously, don’t sleep on “Paper Machete” or “What the Peephole Say.”) Punk band The Armed will open; staple indie-electronic duo Phantogram will provide main support. 7 p.m. at Ascend Amphitheater, 310 First Ave S. MATTHEW LEIMKUEHLER

MUSIC [MOVING EMOTIONS] KANSAS

In the annals of dumb lyrics that nonetheless contain a grain of profundity, 1977’s “Dust in the Wind,” which might be the signature song by American prog band Kansas, stands tall among the many rock tunes that seem to be about nothing in particular. Kansas’ English cousins Genesis and Yes struggled with the idea of content throughout the 1970s, and when Yes essayed Paul Simon’s “America” in 1972, singer Jon Anderson rendered the song as if he didn’t give a damn about what it means. (Steve Howe’s guitar solo on the track is amazing.) Kansas sounded callow in comparison to Yes, Genesis and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, which means “Dust in the Wind” and their other big hit, 1976’s “Carry on Wayward Son,” express a heartland-ofAmerica spiritual malaise that Peter Gabriel only wished he understood. Kansas always had a Christian element in their work, as you’ll hear on “Lonely Wind,” a track from their 1974 self-titled debut album. Meanwhile, connoisseurs of fake poetry will appreciate the lyrics to another 1974 track, “Aperçu”: “The mist of time is still concealing / The vision that I seek.” Classic Kansas albums like 1976’s Leftoverture and 1977’s Point of Know Return contain plenty

of excellent playing that never quite rises to the level of, say, Steve Hackett’s guitar work with Genesis. These days Kansas sports two members from their glory days of the ’70s, drummer Phil Ehart and guitarist Rich Williams. They sound fine on 2020’s The Absence of Presence, which uses all their old tricks in new ways. 8 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Rep. John Lewis Way N. EDD HURT

[ROCKIN’

MUSIC

ROBIN REDUX]

ROBIN AUGUST W/MOLLY MARTIN, PRESTON LYDOTES

For fans of Olivia Rodrigo and fellow Nashvillian GAYLE, RobinAugust’s debut album Avocado Head recalls heartaches and breaks with the angst and attitude only found in the mind of a teenage girl. Released last year, the record was written with her former Queens of Noise bandmate Zoë Dominguez and pays tribute to ’90s rock icons like Alanis Morrisette. As RobinAugust told the Scene last year, “I think the music industry is lacking blunt lyrics by female artists, kind of like how they were in the ’90s. Jagged Little Pill especially was the biggest influence for Avocado Head.” With unfiltered lyrics and guitar-driven melodies galore, the influence of Morrisette and others like her is clear. The Nashville native is back in town from Berklee for a show at The Blue Room at Third Man Records on Aug. 19. Preston Lydotes and fellow Nashville rocker Molly Martin are set to open. 8 p.m. at The Blue Room at Third Man Records, 623 Seventh Ave. S. HANNAH CRON

[FLYING FIVE-PIECE]

MUSIC

COFFIN/PERLSON/KRAUSS W/JOEL

FRAHM AND BOB LANZETTI

The term “all-star band” isn’t nearly strong enough to accurately describe the array of talent that will be assembled Saturday night at Rudy’s in one of the year’s highlight events. This quintet features saxophone titans Jeff Coffin and newly relocated former New Yorker Joel Frahm, along with guitarist Bob Lanzetti, completing a dynamic frontline. The brilliant rhythm section consists of bassist Viktor Krauss and drummer Jordan Perlson. The astonishing list of collaborations these

musicians have had spans the gamut of jazz, rock, pop and country greats, far too many to cite. But fans of The Dave Matthews Band, Béla Fleck & The Flecktones, and Snarky Puppy — to cite just three prime bands — are well familiar with the skills and approaches of these great players. The evening promises to be filled with numerous surprises and delights. 8 p.m. at Rudy’s Jazz Room, 809 Gleaves St. RON WYNN

SUNDAY / 8.20

MUSIC

[FIFTY YEARS OF ROOTIN’, TOOTIN’ AND FLUTIN’] THE MARSHALL TUCKER BAND

When you grow up in this part of the country, you absorb songs from the Great Southern Rock Songbook without really trying. Bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd or The Allman Brothers Band are inescapable at sports bars, at cookouts and on lazy days at the lake, and even if the music isn’t normally your cup of (sweet?) tea, it’s a perfect vibe for long summer days. The Marshall Tucker Band’s “Can’t You See” is up there as one of the best Southern rock songs around. It’s instantly recognizable from its bookending flute riff and features all the best parts of the genre: tasty, swampy guitar licks, howling vocals about lost love and the South itself, and a huge, climactic final chorus. The 1973 release is the group’s most enduring song, and you’ll likely hear it

during an encore at their Sunday show, but The Marshall Tucker Band is set to bang out half a century’s worth of hits like “Fire on the Mountain” or “Heard It in a Love Song” at the Caverns in Pelham. Tickets seem to be sold out at press time, but if you can snag one secondhand, the concert promises to be a terrifically twangy early sendoff to summer. 5 p.m. at The Caverns, 555 Charlie Roberts Road, Pelham COLE VILLENA

[TIME TO GET A WATCH]

MUSIC

MONSTERWATCH W/SPOONBENDERS & SOOT

Between their noisy tunes, scruffy look and double-noun name (see also: Soundgarden, Hammerbox, Crackerbash), Seattleites Monsterwatch work overtime tapping back into the unpretentious rock ’n’ roll spirit that had the world’s eyes fixed on the Pacific Northwest 30 years ago. The three-piece’s 2018 Steve Fisk-engineered ZOT EP and its 2021 follow-up Noise You Will Never Care About score high for riffs, energy and rough-around-the-edges charm, speaking loudly to the so-called grunge genre’s resilience. Also making the trip are Portland garage rockers Spoon Benders; locals Soot complete the three-band bill with Southern Gothic punk psychedelia. 8 p.m. at The End, 2219 Elliston Place CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

[JOURNEY

FILM

OF THE HYENA]

WEEKEND CLASSICS: LOVERS ON THE LAM: TOUKI BOUKI

You gotta give it up to the Belcourt for assembling an eclectic lineup for its Weekend Classics: Lovers on the Lam series. Along with giving us the usual suspects (it did kick things off with Bonnie and Clyde, of course), the theater also threw in some foreign selections, like this Senegalese wonder from 1973. Made with a $30,000 budget partially obtained by the Senegalese government, writer-director Djibril Diop Mambéty’s feature-length debut Touki Bouki is, to quote veteran film curator Ashley Clark, a “master class in effervescent ambivalence.” This strange, sensuous, sun-drenched journey through Dakar mainly focuses on Mory (Magaye Niang) and Anta (Mareme Niang, no relation), two young lovers who indulge in some petty criminal endeavors in order to get enough money to relocate to France. Along with being perhaps the most avantgarde film to come out of Africa, it also received the fanciest restoration in 2008. Of course, Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema

TOUKI BOUKI

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

BOOKSTORE ROMANCE DAY 10:30AM

7:00PM

ROMANCE TRIVIA NIGHT

SATURDAY, AUGUST 26

6:30PM

JENNA

10:30AM

BOOK CLUB FUN NIGHT with KATHY SCHULTENOVER

MAJOR JACKSON at

Project aided in the restoration, with funding from Giorgio Armani and Cartier, among other donors. 8 p.m. Aug. 22 and 3:10 p.m. Aug. 27 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave.

WEDNESDAY / 8.23

EDUCATION

[SPACE COWBOY] PROFS AND PINTS

Aliens are on the brain for many of us. Cosmologist Robert Scherrer with Vanderbilt University’s physics and astronomy department will set us straight. In the next Profs and Pints lecture, he’ll discuss the James Webb Space Telescope’s design, as well as its search for the origins of the universe and even evidence of extraterrestrial life. He’ll also discuss his research on dark energy and the Big Bang — so nothing major, really. On top of all of that, he will be sharing remarkable images taken from the telescope over the past year. It’s like a college lecture, except way more interesting and with more (craft) beer involved. I’ve heard that the last time Scherrer spoke at Profs and Pints, he drew quite the crowd. Perhaps if we can understand the mysteries of space, we can understand the mysteries of all the strange parts of life here on Earth. 6:30 p.m. at Fait La Force Taproom, 1414 Third Ave. S.

HANNAH HERNER

MUSIC [KINGS OF THE ROAD] OLD 97’S

The idea of alt-country has persisted for decades after it was invented by The Byrds in the mid-1960s, but I’m not sure if it’s gone anywhere since then. Still, I’ll lay my money on the table for the Texas alt-rock-folk-country band Old 97’s, who come to The Basement East on a tour that

marks their three decades as a group. What sets the music of singer and songwriter Rhett Miller, bassist Murry Hammond, drummer Philip Peeples and guitarist Ken Bethea apart from the effusions of bands like Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt is the efficiency of their style, which is loud and can seem crude until you listen closely. Miller & Co. reference the British Invasion, which includes The Beatles and The Byrds, and ’70s rockers Big Star. What makes Old 97’s a quintessential Americana band that transcends that somewhat corny label is their ability to conjure both 1966 and 1981 — classic rock and New Wave — in songs like 1995’s “Bel Air” and the entirety of what might be their finest album, 2010’s The Grand Theatre, Volume One. Miller’s lyrics on The Grand Theatre address how identity is shaped by both your own sensibility and the demands of a big, bright world that you just might want a piece of. That album’s “The Magician” shows off Miller’s gift for lyrics that play games with all sorts of colloquial turns, and the band’s playing is at a peak. Meanwhile, check out 2014’s rockedout Most Messed Up, which sounds like The Clash, Big Star and, yeah, country — it’s the band’s most energetic and guitar-rich album and one of the best records ever made about being on the road. Texas singer-songwriter Angel White opens. 8 p.m. at The Basement East, 917 Woodland St. EDD HURT

CRAIG D. LINDSEY

OLD 97’S

treaty oak revival W/ PARKER RYAN

the emo night tour

ziggy alberts w/ kim churchill

Grunge Night 9 Hinder w/ Goodbye June & LOST HEARTS old 97's w/ angel white

TRASH PANDA & HOTEL FICTION w/ Angel Saint Queen MY SO-CALLED BAND

SEAN MCCONNELL W/ Bowen*Young

vlad holiday w/ Teddy At Night and Crystal Rose

DARLINGSIDE w/ Jaimee Harris

THE TESKEY BROTHERS

WYATT FLORES

KENDALL STREET COMPANY w/ DIZGO & Connor

Kelly and The Time Warp

PROJECT PAT

YOKE LORE W/ GIRLHOUSE

thee sinseers AND the altons w/ Mount Worcester phony ppl w/ Bryant Taylorr and AG Sully of montreal w/ locate s,1 and ritzy d dogs in a pile w/ Airshow elder w/ rezn & lord buffalo

the glorious sons w/ The Velveteers

DEERHOOF W/ FLYNT FLOSSY & TURQUOISE JEEP

AMERICANAFEST:

CHARLES WALKER & LONEHOLLOW [7PM]

THE PSYCODELICS [9PM]

LOVETTA AND KEELY [7PM]

Kristina Murray, The Howdies, Domestic Bliss [9PM]

MOLLY PARDEN W/ DENI

JOSH HALPER & THOMAS DOLLBAUM

Naked Gypsy Queens, Virtue Furnace, Jude Maloy, Liv Haynes

BAG MEN featuring Steve Gorman, Luther Dickinson and Nick Govrik

VINJE & JUSTIN LUIS [7pm]

Circuit Circuit, My Wall, Clot, Caregiver [9pm]

Jillette Johnson w/ Jake Etheridge [7pm]

Drugdog w/ Mel Bryant & The Mercy Makers, and The Prickly Pair [9pm]

this2, Liana Vine, Serena Laurel

Girls Rock Nashville: Feat. Abby K., Kenzi Whittington, Chelsea King, Brittany Ray, Monte Mader, Essy THE HEARTWRECKERS JR PARKS, MYNOLIA

MATTHEW FOWLER & ALEXA ROSE [7PM]

The Bright Light Social Hour w/ Choses Sauvages [9PM]

Flight Attendant, OTNES, Clover Jamez, Travollta, Ancient Posse, Beau Burnette

STREETCAR TAPS, HATHORNE AND BOBBIE’S DAIRY DIP

A casually upscale progressive dinner on Charlotte Avenue — with a cherry on top

BY DANNY BONVISSUTO

Date Night is a multipart road map for everyone who wants a nice evening out, but has no time to plan it. It’s for people who want to do more than just go to one restaurant and call it a night. It’s for overwhelmed parents who don’t get out often; for friends who visit the same three restaurants because they’re too afraid to try someplace new; and for busy folks who keep forgetting all the places they’ve driven past, heard about, seen on social and said, “Let’s remember that place next time we go out.”

Though I’ve dismissed it for years as just another way to get from here to there, I’ve grown to love the funky bones of Charlotte Avenue. These days we say it has “grit,” which is just another way to convey its combination of historic charm, growing number of places to get a $15 cocktail and lingering randomness of an area in transition.

The five-block stretch between 46th and 51st alone is a choose-your-own-adventure paradise. Get a tattoo, a hairdo and legal advice; comb through overstuffed racks of clothes at two thrift shops; breathe the deliciously musty air of an old used bookstore; eat a burger made of ground pork and soy meal near a statue of a pig wearing overalls; get takeout pizza or Chinese from establishments

I’ve never seen a living soul enter or exit; and watch a young man show off serious skateboard moves most afternoons in the always-empty Truist bank parking lot. You can also park your car once — easily! for free! — and have a triple-patio date night.

STOP 1: STREETCAR TAPS AND GARDEN

I first visited Streetcar when it opened in late February — not to review, just to support. A few people braved the back patio then, but I have a silly quirk about not shivering while I eat, so we snagged the last high-top inside and watched the crowd come and go. Six months later, they’re

settled in, humming and packing out the patio, which, as one of the owners said on my recent visit, “kinda does the work for us.” It’s a true Goldilocks spot: Not too big, not too small, not a scene and featuring plenty of seating options (round iron tables on gravel in the way back; picnic tables on turf and lots of umbrellas). The salvaged Sylvan Park Antiques sign on the wall at the bottom of the stairs is a nice touch, and ironic as it’s now an antique itself.

Despite the name, Streetcar Taps excels at much more than beer. Their drink list is an even balance of drafts, bottles and cans, wine and cocktails that don’t require furtive Googling to figure out what the ingredients are. I loved my Garden Maggie (Arette reposado, fruit, lime agave): It’s one of those sneaky drinks where the fruitiness masks the alcohol, so you have a few then wonder why your face feels weird. The Tomato Joe (Del Maguey Mezcal, bloody mary mix, Hach’t Sauce, Good People Muchacho Lager) is a very Husband Dom drink, but not for everyone. Not sure that a mash-up of a spicy bloody mary and michelada needs mezcal.

We had a pound of wings (six), half Joelton (dry, hot) and half Carolina (wet, mustard), along with the Vegan Cowboy, an upscale Frito pie loaded with kidney and pinto beans. Chef Carter Hach (pronounced Ha, as in the aforementioned Hach’t Sauce) and staff do a lot in a little kitchen, and they do it for everyone. It’s rare for a place that serves speckwurfel, currywurst, chicken skins on salad, six kinds of wings and Wagyu beef sliders on a small-ish menu to even consider a meatless dish beyond the obligatory Caesar, but Hach understands that vegheads deserve just as much protein as everyone else. Give me his Vegan Cowboy over gloppy bar nachos any day. And give me a side of Woo Girl Ranch to drizzle on top, just because I’m in love with the name.

STOP 2: HATHORNE

It’s a three-minute walk between Streetcar’s back patio and the iconic front patio of Hathorne. I drive by often at night, see diners talking and laughing under the golden glow of strung lights and think, I want to be those people. But that will likely never happen, because I love the interior too much.

Restaurants are my church in the sense that I go there in search of connection and communion. I’ve always felt this on some level, but never fully understood how similar churches and restaurants are until I visited Hathorne, which is a renovated Methodist church fellowship hall. Instead of banquettes they kept the pews. A hymn board hangs above the bar, telling people to “love the guest; share the food” instead of which verses to read and songs to sing. It’s not overt: There are no cloudsurfing portraits of Jesus. More of a nod than a theme.

That said, the menu has some fire and brimstone. Of the six small plates we tried, four had such strong flavors

PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND

WINGS AT STREETCAR TAPS AND GARDEN

STREETCAR TAPS AND GARDEN PATIO

I could only have a few bites — and I am no delicate flower. The yuzu-compressedwatermelon salad was beautiful, but overworked with a thick layer of hoja santa (a peppery herb) granita on top that left me confused instead of refreshed. The balance of pasta to eggplant was off in the charred eggplant caramelle — was there any eggplant at all? I couldn’t swear to it — and the fermented pepper butter, which dominated everything, would’ve been better served with a thimble, not a ladle. More enjoyable dishes included the red snapper crudo, with its light tomatillo broth and super fresh cucamelon, and the frites, round whole-potato cuts with the perfect mush-to-crisp ratio. Hathorne’s current menu has twice as many small plates as entrées, so clearly the purpose is to share, but even so it’s a lot of loud flavors to mix together in one belly.

STOP 3: BOBBIE’S DAIRY DIP

If you’re up for a stroll after Streetcar and Hathorne, Bobbie’s is always there for you — unless it’s closed, which happens earlier than you think. If you roll up for your dipped cone — I’m a hot fudge sundae girl myself — and see someone wearing an apron and holding a hobby horse in the back of the line, there will be no cream for you, my friend. The staff at Bobbie’s used to give the hobby horse to the last person in line right at closing time, but everyone hated being the bearer of bad news so they just kept passing the hobby horse back, and the line never stopped. Now an employee holds the hobby horse and nicely lays down the law. There’s nothing special about Bobbie’s, and everything is special about Bobbie’s, and if there’s a finer way to end a date night than beating out the hobby horse and sucking on a shake while the cars whip by on Charlotte, I can’t imagine what it is. EMAIL

PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO

PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND

RED SNAPPER CRUDO AT HATHORNE

FRITES AT HATHORNE

HOT FUDGE SUNDAE AT BOBBIE’S DAIRY DIP

punk wok

LOVE CHANGES A PERSON

Emily Habeck’s Shark Heart is a wild journey of transformation

BY SARAH NORRIS

Emily Habeck’s debut novel, Shark Heart, is a wild book: an idiosyncratic, even fantastical, allegory that includes cinematic dialogue, poetry as prose, many chapters so short they could almost fit under your fingernail, and bafflingly rich emotional resonance.

The first half, set in Dallas, focuses on Lewis and Wren’s romance over the course of 2016, when both are 35. Before Lewis asks Wren to be his wife, he tells her, “You make everything better than when you found it, even me.” She accepts his proposal, they wed, and within weeks of their wedding, Lewis begins to turn into a great white shark.

Best

In short order, his nose flattens, then becomes entirely cartilaginous, and his mouth sprouts three extra layers of teeth. The texture of his skin changes, his thirst and appetite increase, his focus diminishes and he feels flashes of both aggression and apathy. His night vision sharpens and his eyelids gradually disappear. Lewis feels buoyant “as if he were floating, not walking,” and he “could predict someone’s movements before they made them.”

“Early stages of a Carcharodon carcharias mutation,” his doctor announces. “We don’t usually have a way to ease the transition between air and water breathing. … Some maintain a few human features at the time of release, but these features do resolve in time. Patients typically continue to develop after being released in the ocean.”

For the next month, Lewis avoids disclosing this diagnosis to Wren. A high school theater teacher, Lewis is described in the book’s list of main characters as “failed actor, that is, until now, the performance of his lifetime.” Wren, meanwhile, “would do almost anything to protect her ordinariness.” When, at last, Lewis tells her he’s turning into a shark, Wren replies, “They say the first year of marriage is the hardest.”

Alas, they both know there will not be another year. Lewis’ mutation will be complete within 10 months, 12 at most. Wren will be left with no choice but to release him into the ocean or, as she’s told by their palliative care nurse, “the government will do it for you.” One night in advance, Wren spends thousands of dollars on scuba equipment for herself in the hopes of somehow staying together.

Habeck, who holds dual master’s degrees from Vanderbilt Divinity School and Pea-

body College, delivers a tightly written, tense and emotionally charged novel with comical moments that aren’t necessarily funny to the characters. For instance, after attending a support group for caretakers, Wren tells Lewis, “A woman with a zebra brother talked the entire time. I don’t want to go back.” And later, after Wren cuts herself on one of his teeth, Lewis blames himself. “Worst of all, at the sight of her blood, Lewis had felt hungry.”

For all its absurdism, there is of course a serious strand to Shark Heart, one that investigates love not with judgment but curiosity. Form, by its very nature, can be malformed, deformed, informed, conformed, reformed, misinformed and transformed. This story, ultimately, belongs to Wren and, in the course of her self-actualization, her revelations and acceptances, such as this:

The surface of love was a feeling, but beyond this thin layer, there was a fathomless, winding maze of caverns offering many places to see and explore. Wren used to think romantic passion only grew more intense in the depths. But this belief was naive and impractical, a by-product of a certainty-obsessed culture that equates love with longing and views ambivalence as a fatal flaw. Wren saw now how passion was delicate and temporary, a visitor, a feeling that would come and go. Feelings fled under pressure; feelings did not light the darkness. What remained strong in the deep, the hard times, was love as an effort, a doing, a conscious act of will.

The book’s last 200 pages go back in time, unfolding between 1980 and 2005, in Oklahoma. The main focus is Wren’s mother, Angela, before and after her unplanned pregnancy, and her primary relationships, including with her daughter.

The omniscient third-person narration offers surprising flashes of characters’ inner lives. For Angela, becoming pregnant with Wren at 15 serves as metamorphosis, a running theme throughout the novel: “Unlike puberty, pregnancy was a physical transition with a tangible end.” In the novel’s second half, Angela swerves, skids, starts and stumbles like, well, a woman who becomes a parent before she herself was fully formed. The whole book ties Angela’s and Wren’s narratives together, and the stitches don’t show.

Shark Heart is more than a great, albeit fiercely odd, summer read. It is a romance, a tragedy, a fable, a rumination on love and loss — or rather, the ways in which loss fuels love and one’s capacity to love and be loved. This is a work of fiction unlike anything you’ve ever read, and a showcase for the imaginative Emily Habeck.

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

SHARK HEART BY EMILY HABECK SIMON & SCHUSTER/ MARYSUE RUCCI BOOKS 416 PAGES, $28

HABECK WILL APPEAR AT THE BOOKSHOP 6:30 P.M. THURSDAY, SEPT. 21

A BOUTIQUE WAREHOUSE SALE

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BALANCE OF POWER

Justin and the Cosmics get weird and philosophical on Cool Dead

BY SEAN L. MALONEY

Rock ’n’ roll lifers and staples of the East Side underground Justin and the Cosmics have been grinding it out for years, honing their glammy, grungy, thoughtful fuzz to a keen edge. With their new LP Cool Dead — out Friday via frontman Justin Collins’ Cosmic Thug Records with a release celebration Saturday at beloved dive Fran’s Eastside — they’ve arrived at a sound that is as familiar and welcoming as it is weird and out-there. Cool Dead comes across like the Taoist maxim, “He understands that the universe is forever out of control,” translated through vacuum tubes and ribbon mics, with Collins playing the role of dive-bar philosopher and sideshow barker.

“Shit, they’re all fucking slow burns with me, man,” Collins tells the Scene. “I never really set out to make a record, you know?”

It has been five years since Perf, The Cos-

mics’ third album, which was recorded live at Memphis’ legendary Ardent Studios. The delay isn’t on the scale of Chinese Democracy, but it does seem like a yawning chasm for an artist who is so present in everything he does, and a performer who is out here doing his thing all the damn time.

“I feel like I’m always writing and working on stuff,” says Collins. “But actually, like, culminating and making it real is always … I loathe it. I almost dread the process of it. The emotional process for me always is so draining. I hang on to things a lot before I finally process ’em and make ’em real, I guess. … It always haunts me. When you put anything out, that shit’s forever. So if I can’t live with it long enough to know that every lyric and every word is OK with me to let go of, I ain’t putting it out. [Laughs]”

Letting his songs steep gives Collins’ calculated, clear-eyed songcraft a foundation to grow into something as wild and free-ranging as it needs to be. The man knows his way around a rock ’n’ roll song, and can channel classic rocker vibes with aplomb. This lets his lyrical engagement of contemporary slang and hilariously crass observation — which you’ll hear in Cool Dead songs “Born AF” and “Asshole Eyes,” respectively — elevate the songs beyond nostalgia and novelty. The sound stretches across decades, making a strong argument that a love affair with

spring reverb and tube distortion is fundamental to the human condition. Recorded at Creative Workshop, the studio owned by Nashville legend Buzz Cason and operated by his son Parker, Cool Dead channels the ghosts of bygone eras, evoking a lineage of 20th century music stretching back to the Eisenhower era. But it also crackles with irreverence and anarchic weirdness, feeling thoroughly of the moment.

“[The studio has] been there forever, and it’s got amazing gear,” Collins says. “And it’s extra special because [Cason’s] son is running it, and he’s super efficient in there. We tracked it all in basically two days. It was just me, my brother and Adam Landry and Robbie Crowell — the four of us went in there and did it.”

Collins’ brother is Scott Collins, who along with wife Kim Collins makes up rock duo The Smoking Flowers. Crowell, Landry and Justin Collins had worked together on records by Diamond Rugs, the supergroup whose members include Deer Tick’s John MacCauley and Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin. Collins contributed the song “Totally Lonely” to Diamond Rugs’ self-titled 2012 debut; it’s a Bizarro World Roy Orbison cut that has a propensity to sneak into your subconscious and stay there. Same goes for the title track from The Cosmics’ debut 2008 LP Hangin’ Out in My Body, which also got recorded on

Perf; the song has maintained a claim on the last functioning neurons in my noggin since the Obama administration.

“It was great to work with Robbie and Adam on [Cool Dead],” Collins says. “We had taken a little bit of a break from making records with each other for a while. This one — I just knew that I needed them. They just think like me, and we operate on the same level, and we were able to crank it out, you know, without having to think too much about it.”

The way Collins slides his vocals around a chord like a trombonist strapped to a Tilta-Whirl on album opener “Woah Is Me,” the way Crowell tumbles through the Moby Dick-sized drum fills on “Am I Supposed to Care So Much,” the shuffle-chug of “Dirtbike” — they all add up to a rock record powered by the tension between the singer and his most feral instincts, the product of a truce called just long enough to get the songs on tape. The payoff is a batch of songs that feel lovingly lived-in.

“I think this is definitely the truest record I’ve ever made. Maybe because of the patience. … I feel like I’ve always been kinda one of those people that preaches, ‘If you’re not living a real life, or doing real things and being a real human, then your art’s probably gonna suffer,’ you know?”

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

COOL DEAD OUT FRIDAY, AUG. 18, VIA COSMIC THUG; PLAYING AUG. 19 AT FRAN’S EASTSIDE

PHOTO: EMILY BEAVER

THE NATURAL

Maia Sharp starts her next chapter with Reckless Thoughts

BY RACHEL CHOLST

They say Nashville is a 10-year town — that is, it takes about a decade to find success here.

Maia Sharp, a celebrated songwriter’s songwriter who grew up in Los Angeles, flirted with moving to Music City for about 20 years, and she hit her stride quickly after making Nashville home in 2019. She got established just in time for COVID to throw a wrench in the works, but she was able to make her eighth LP Mercy Rising and release it in 2021. Sharp’s show at 3rd and Lindsley on Sunday celebrates her new record Reckless Thoughts, an uplifting folk-rocker that feels like an exhalation: The music industry lifer made it as she put her life back together after divorcing her wife of 21 years. Reckless Thoughts finds Sharp on the other side of the process, looking backward with appreciation and forward with excitement.

Sharp came to music naturally. Her father Randy Sharp is a Grammy-winning songwriter who has written for Linda Ronstandt and Emmylou Harris. Maia’s songs were recorded by an equally impressive roster of artists including Cher, Bonnie Raitt and Art Garfunkel. But her parents knew better than to push her into the family business.

“My dad, as much as he knows, never gave me any unsolicited advice,” Sharp tells the Scene. “If I had a question, he would always have the answer, and he would help me through it, but he waited for me to ask. He showed me around the studio; he helped me to set up my first studio. I still have questions that I call him about!”

Growing up, Sharp dreamed of being the first woman to play Major League Baseball, but began playing saxophone in middle school as a backup plan. Sharp took her interest in jazz all the way to college, but found herself drawn to the Americana and indie-rock projects her friends were a part of in L.A. Once she began writing songs in her early 20s, it was over: “I fell hard for it, and it’s been my first love ever since.” Sharp finds satisfaction in both performing and writing for others. She views performing her own songs as a personal outlet, and she’s clearly in love with the process of writing itself.

“They have served each other,” says Sharp. “I definitely have landed a cut because they saw me play live, and I’ve definitely landed a gig because they heard my song.”

While Sharp built a strong foundation in L.A., she drew strength from the network she developed in Music City when her marriage ended. Like so many others, Sharp finds herself energized by the collaborative spirit Nashville offers at its best.

“There’s just something about the chemistry here, the community and the ability to nurture it,” she says. “Maybe I’m just really lucky that I managed to find a few circles that lift each other up, but thankfully that’s what I’ve found here.”

Sharp built her community relatively quickly. The same band played on both Mercy Rising and Reckless Thoughts. Sharp met guitarist Joshua Grange back in L.A. through her then-wife; at the time, he played pedal steel for k.d. lang. She dialed up Grange shortly after moving to Nashville. Though she had other musicians in mind for Mercy Rising, Grange suggested bringing drummer Ross McReynolds and bassist Will Honaker on board, players who he knew worked well together. Things clicked so well

that Sharp brought them back for another round, and there was no question this band — her “brothers” — would play shows with her. That includes Sunday’s gig, Sharp’s first in town with her full band since moving here, bringing what she describes as “a whole new energy” to the process. It’s an evolution elegantly reflected in the Reckless Thoughts cut “Old Dreams,” as Sharp sings: “When I close my eyes / I don’t see what I used to see / I’m just not the same as I used to be / When the ghosts tell stories / They get all nostalgic

for the way it was / I’m sick of it getting to me like it does.”

Also joining Sharp will be her good friends and fellow songsmiths Shelly Fairchild and Emily West. Garrison Starr will be coming in from L.A. to play as well, while Katie Larson on cello and Gabe Dixon on keys round out the band.

“The show will feel like a victory lap after a lot of musical and emotional work over the last four years.”

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

PHOTO: ANNA HAAS

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THE SPIN

ELECTRIC BLUES

BY RON WYNN

While it wasn’t exactly like being in a Mississippi Delta juke joint, The Black Keys and their special guests ably recreated that vibe during a sold-out Aug. 9 show at Brooklyn Bowl. For almost three hours, through four sets plus a two-song encore, the fans who filled the floor and spilled over upstairs heard first-rate examples of the vitality and variety — as well

energy level up a notch as well, singing with a bit more volume than Holmes and bringing a different variety of showmanship, with its own movements and mannerisms, to the proceedings.

Carter’s set paved the way for the night’s biggest star among the three non-Black Keys performers, Louisiana blues and soul vocalist Robert Finley. Finley, who is legally blind, was led onstage by his daughter. Once he got the microphone, Finley gave a master class in how they do it back home. Swaying, dancing and delivering vocals that were equal parts assertive and compelling, he whipped through a remarkable set that included songs from his recent LP Sharecropper’s Son and his forthcoming release Black Bayou. He got a particularly strong reac-

as the unpredictable flamboyance, theatrics, humor and sometimes-over-the-top splendor — that can routinely be seen in juke joints both world-famous (like Ground Zero, the Clarksdale, Miss., spot co-owned by Morgan Freeman) and those unknown outside the tiny town they serve. The show also nicely re-created the qualities that make the new anthology Tell Everybody!: 21st Century Juke Joint Blues From Easy Eye Sound, produced by Easy Eye founder and Black Keys singerguitarist Dan Auerbach, so enjoyable.

Leading things off was Bentonia, Miss., vocalist and guitarist Jimmy “Duck” Holmes, whose 30-minute set was entertaining and dynamic. He exhibited what differentiates the Delta version from other blues strains. His songs were more sprawling, rambling narratives than carefully crafted, quick-hitting statements. His guitar accompaniment was crackling and continuous, percussive and adeptly underpinning his piercing vocals. His set’s highlight was a rippling version of “Catfish Blues,” but his entire presentation was animated and powerful. Although he maintained his seat throughout, Holmes’ performances never lost energy or authority.

Next was another variation on the Bentonia approach, filtered through a Chicago lens, courtesy of Gabe Carter. A raspy-voiced, emphatic vocalist and guitarist, he delivered his strongest outing on his single “Buffalo Road,” which is also his finest contribution to the current anthology. His set got some tremendous rhythmic energy and assistance from drummer Kinney Kimbrough (who is one of the late Junior Kimbrough’s sons), adding just the right amount of crisp, sizzling rhythms under Carter’s vocals and guitar lines. Carter kicked the audience’s

tion from a madcap rendition of “Sneakin’ Around.” Finley swiveled and punctuated the tune’s accusatory refrains while ripping through the chorus in passionate fashion.

Finley rightly got the biggest ovation of the pre-Keys performers, though it was quite apparent that the bulk of the folks came to see Auerbach, drummer Patrick Carney and their bandmates. The finale set the crowd got wasn’t a disappointment by any means. Despite the fact that there had already been more than two hours’ worth of fiery and memorable numbers presented, The Black Keys more than matched what came before. Through their 45-minute set, Auerbach leaned into his masterful guitar solos, while Carney continually contributed ample doses of rhythmic might. For me, their most memorable performance came near the end: Their spin on “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” is one of the best conversions of a soul staple into a rock-and-blues workout you’ll ever hear. Their nearly 10-minute rendition looked to cap what had already been a fabulous night.

But the crowd wasn’t ready to hit the streets just yet. Amid yells, cheers and whistles, the Keys came back out for an encore, bringing Finley back for an energetic rendition of “Tell Everybody.” Then with Kimbrough joining in on drums, they ended the show in strong fashion, having provided everyone an object lesson in how to update a vintage form without losing the musical virtues that made it beloved. Throughout the range of takes presented, everything sounded fresh and captivating for both demanding veteran fans and a new generation of listeners.

EMAIL THESPIN@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

PHOTO: ROB HINKAL

TALKIN’ BLUES: ROBERT FINLEY WITH THE BLACK KEYS

STILL DEF

East Nashville’s Defy Film Festival continues to evolve beyond expectations

BY JOE NOLAN

The Defy Film Festival’s roots as a gathering for experimental filmmakers specializing in non-narrative and even uncategorizable fare helped it to build a far-reaching reputation as a celebration of far-out movie making. As Defy returns to East Nashville for its eighth year this weekend, the festival is still committed to screening the strange and spotlighting the unexpected, but it’s also expanded its focus to include edgy independent narrative features and documentaries alongside the more experimental works and video art installations. These films push boundaries in their subject matter while maintaining more traditional structure and editing. This year’s highlights include the return of a former festival award-winner, a unique family drama and a standout film essay by a former Nashvillian.

Los Angeles-based filmmaker Kevin Ronca made his first trip to Defy back in 2019. Ronca produced Nightcrawlers — a vivid and visceral documentary about youth, drugs and mental illness among folks living on the streets in Boston. Nightcrawlers won Defy’s Excellence in Feature Film award, and Ronca is bringing two new features to this year’s fest. Ronca directed Rome: Death to America, the first special created for the filmmaker’s excellent experimental and subversive streaming platform Write Brain TV. Rome’s eponymous subject is communist activist and Detroiter Rome Bethea, who is building a Black militia with the express aim of overthrowing the U.S. government. Ronca announces his film with a bold red credit sequence and a stirring string section alongside archival stills, photos and illustrations of Black people taking up arms. Ronca’s movie feels like the child of the vintage shorts and features from Cuba and the old Soviet Union currently streaming on Write Brain TV. Ronca and cinematographer Adam Hribar’s footage of

Detroit’s abandoned residential neighborhoods and Andrew Meehan’s excellent score make this portrait of a radical activist as engaging as its colorful, complex and controversial subject.

Ronca’s Write Brain Studios is also distributing Bronko — a Spanish film written and directed by Catalonian singer-songwriter Isaac Ulam. Bronko’s title character (played by Ulam) is an artist and actor who descends into drugs and violence before meeting a trans sex worker who helps bring focus and meaning to his self-destructive life. Bronko’s saturated frames were shot on the streets of Catalonia using 35 mm film, and this movie’s gorgeous colors, textures and intense performances manage to bring both unsettling realism and artful stylization to this brutal and moving story of longing, love, loss and late-stage capitalism.

Luis De Filippis’ Something You Said Last Night is a 2022 Canadian-Swiss film centered on a young trans woman named Ren. The movie reminded me a little bit of the best 1990s slacker dramas about 20-somethings trying to negotiate the beginning of adulthood. The movie follows an Italian family to a North American seaside cottage on a weeklong summer vacation. De Filippis’ excellent script is focused on the everyday interactions of the parents and the kids, and it admirably avoids strict plotting in favor of a slice-of-life drama that reveals complex relationships without feeling burdened to build to a climax and contrive a resolution. Narrative films about trans characters that focus on gender ideology can make their protagonists feel exotic, paradoxi-

cally making it more difficult for broader audiences to connect to and empathize with their stories. Something You Said Last Night has rightfully been praised for telling the story of a trans character grappling with universal struggles like establishing an independent adulthood. This is a movie about daughters and sisters, growing up and growing apart. De Filippis deserves praise for avoiding the clichés of both family dramas and contemporary trans stories. Something You Said Last Night is the first feature screening at the festival’s Friday night opening event.

Defy is the best film festival in the city, and its ever-evolving programming only continues to surprise. That said, I love the festival’s continued commitment to experimental movies and short films that often lack the reliable distribution models and industry infrastructure to realistically find audiences. Ruwan Heggelman’s “Gnomes” reads like The Dark Crystal meets Motel Hell. This blood-soaked marvel is brimming with diabolical design and paranormal puppetry, and it’s the kind of short film that you could see finding an opportunity to expand into a feature thanks to the spotlight that festivals like Defy can provide. “Gnomes” is screening in the festival’s Horror Shorts block, which also includes the relentless “We Forgot About the Zombies.” Chris McInroy’s go-for-broke living-dead flick has a just-over-three-minute runtime that’s overflowing with excellent effects, hilarious dialogue, buckets of gore and a unique plot twist that makes it one of the best of the fest.

Former Nashvillian Josh Whiteman’s Ross McElwee-esque film essay “Horny Kid” features home video footage and a conversation between Whiteman and his mother. It’s a nostalgic piecing-together of Whiteman’s childhood crushes on Victoria’s Secret catalog models, Kimberly the pink Power Ranger, the blond and buxom Sami Brady on Days of Our Lives, and a 3-foot-tall dancing Barbie doll that he never got for Christmas. It’s hilarious but also heartfelt, and it’s another great example of a short documentary that leaves you wanting to know more.

Defy runs Friday night through Saturday night and includes filmmaker chats, the festival’s innovative video installations and headphone theater screenings, as well as the always-a-blast closing party on Saturday night. Visit defyfilmfestival.com for times, tickets and weekend passes.

CATCHING UP AT THE MOVIES

Ghosts, megalodons, clones and more, now in theaters

BY JASON SHAWHAN

HAUNTED MANSION IN THEATERS

What with El Rio Del Tiempo at Epcot having been retooled into a Three Caballeros adventure, The Haunted Mansion reigns as my fave Disney experience. This new take on the material (from Dear White People and Bad Hair writer-director Justin Simien) is fun, funny and family-friendly, but also just scary enough, and a genuine surprise — at least for me. Any film that features Danny DeVito catching shrimp in his mouth at a teppanyaki restaurant is keyed into a specific aesthetic (mine), and LaKeith Stanfield as a particle physicist with a great sense of drama and comedy brings unexpected gravitas. The ghosts are great

from something determined to vivisect the tropes that our culture can’t let go of some 50 years on. But also, Foxx’s Slick Charles is one for the ages, easily worthy of Black Dynamite’s pimp summit.

ROCKY AUR RANI KII PREM KAHAANI IN THEATERS, COMING SOON TO AMAZON PRIME

A fun and emotionally unpredictable Hindi romantic epic about Laddu empire heir Rocky (Ranveer Singh) and TV personality Rani (Alia Bhatt, from RRR), their dysfunctional families and the weird ways of love. Singh’s fashion sense is keyed into Prince, specifically during the Lovesexy-intoGraffiti Bridge transition, and the musical numbers are propulsive and epic. Audiences unfamiliar with Indian cinema will see the ending coming, but they’ll in no way know where all the journey is going to take them. Like Oppenheimer, this is a surprisingly brisk three hours.

(barring general whatsit Jared Leto, who literally could have been anyone else), child actor Chase W. Dillon is a star in the making, and it pays affectionate tribute to the ride’s mythology in a charming way. While I wish it had been in 3D, I have to say this gets close to the transformative joy of Muppet Haunted Mansion, still the best adaptation of the attraction.

THE MEG 2: THE TRENCH IN THEATERS

For some reason directed by Ben Wheatley (still chasing the glories of Sightseers and A Field in England), this one-and-a-half-star shark movie steps up a notch in 4DX, because a rampaging requine film is exactly what that film format is made for. The problem is that the first hour feels like a retread of 2020’s Underwater, and it isn’t until the halfway mark that we get to Fun Island, where the idle rich are set up as a buffet for the hungry denizens of the deep. Spread throughout the film’s two hours, though, is about three minutes of a top-notch giant octopus movie, and that’s what you’re left wanting the sequel for. That CG octopus has more personality and better comic timing than any of the actual human cast.

THEY CLONED TYRONE VIA NETFLIX

Jamie Foxx’s turn as a pimp named Slick Charles is enough to recommend this film on, though its sci-fi and satire game is just as on point. John Boyega and Teyonah Parris also star in They Cloned Tyrone, a dive into the well of conspiracies that coalesce around the stereotypes that our culture still mold-stamps onto Black communities — as funny and freaky as you would hope for

THE RELUCTANT ICON ON BLU-RAY FROM SEVERIN Debuting as part of Severin Films’ resplendent The Sensual World of Black Emanuelle box set, this short documentary from the incomparable Kier-La Janisse (House of Psychotic Women, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched) is a protean look at the life and career of cult icon Laura Gemser and her personification of investigative photojournalist Mae “Emanuelle” Jordan. Janisse has peerless instincts, and she pays respectful and affectionate tribute to an icon who retired on her own terms.

“CARD ZERO” ON BLU-RAY FROM ETR/VINEGAR SYNDROME, AND STREAMING VIA SCREAMBOX

A prequel to this spring’s lysergic foundfootage freakout The Outwaters, this remarkable short shows that writer-director Robbie Banfitch could easily make visceral docudramas about young relationships, but his impulse to make genuinely unsettling horror won out. If I still did festival shorts programming, this would be at the top of the list.

TAYLOR MAC’S 24-DECADE HISTORY OF POPULAR MUSIC VIA MAX

Given the homophobic tear David Zaslav went on when canceling Talk Show the Game Show and At Home With Amy Sedaris, transforming TruTV into all Impractical Jokers all the time, it’s amazing that anything as queer, empathetic and exceptionally mounted as this documentary managed to emerge under the regime of criminal against cinema Zaslav. This is a two-hour dip into the epic, 24-hour mounting of performance artist/actual genius Taylor Mac’s journey through 240 years of American popular music, spanning from 1776 through 2016. Every single musician should be watching this and taking notes, because there’s simply nothing else to compare it to. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

ACROSS

1 Pataky of the “Fast & Furious” franchise

5 Scot’s “not”

8 Sound from a note passer

12 Agua fresca fruit

14 Ctrl+F action

15 Mayberry boy of classic TV

16 1995 Coolio song featured in the film “Dangerous Minds”

18 Offenses

19 Upstaged

20 Group of computers commandeered in a cyberattack

22 Org. protecting U.S. information systems

23 “This statement is false,” for one

25 Some bills

26 Summer mo.

27 Shirt or blouse

30 A “full” one can be very revealing

33 Enjoyed a dinner date with oneself, perhaps

35 Heed

36 Like Canadian provinces vis-à-vis U.S. states

38 Squid predator

39 End-of-season sports event

41 School lineup

42 What a nod usually means

43 Genetic messenger 44 “Mmm-hmm. If you say so”

46 “The Good Samaritan” and “The Prodigal Son,” for example 49 “___ Poetica”

52 Promise 54 “What’s in a name?” name

56 Self-

57 Effecting fundamental changes to perceptions

59 Pre-calc course

60 Territory

61 Comedic actor Wilson who wrote the 2023 best-seller “Soul Boom”

62 Brooding sorts

63 Canal and Mott, in N.Y.C.

64 Dweller on the Baltic Sea

DOWN

1 Incite

2 Feasts where kalua pua‘a might be served

3 Noted coal provider

4 Batting stats: Abbr.

5 American-born Japanese

6 Actress MacDowell

7 J.Crew competitor

8 Fellowship recipient at a research lab, perhaps 9 Pros at redirecting the narrative

10 0, for 180 degrees

11 Word with run or drive

13 Scarlett’s first love in “Gone With the Wind”

14 Part of a vampire costume

17 Drawn-out character

21 Korbut of gymnastics

24 Oscar-winning Blanchett

25 Texter’s “Bye for now”

34 Boor

36 New York Comic Con and Treklanta, for two

37 Key of Rossini’s “William Tell” Overture: Abbr.

40 Diluted rum

41 Rouse to action

44 Seems suspect

45 Hit without swinging

47 University of Georgia athletes

48 Mideast leaders

49 Texas A&M athlete

50 Basic principle

51 River deposit

52 Track

53

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Non-Resident Notice Fourth Circuit Docket No. 21A10 MARY LISA HARPER, et al. vs. ANGELA LEE HARPER In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon ANGELA LEE HARPER It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after August 24th 2023 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville,

Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken o n SEPTEMBER 25th 2023. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashvil le Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day, Clerk Logan Chapel Deputy Clerk Date: July 26, 2023

Joseph Zanger Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 8/3, 8/10, 8/17, 8/24/23

nessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon ANGELA

LEE HARPER

It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein with thirty (30) days after August 24th 2023, same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302, Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken o n SEPTEMBER 25th , 2023. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashvil le Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Joseph P. Day Clerk Logan Chapel, Deputy Clerk Date: July 26, 2023

Joseph Zanger Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 8/3, 8/10, 8/17, 8/24/23

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