FEELING NEIGHBORLY, EVERY WEEK
JULY 16, 2015 KNOXMERCURY.COM
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V.
NEWS
Ex-MPC Exec Claims Discrimination in Lawsuit
JACK NEELY
A Eulogy for Three Lost Houses in Fort Sanders
MUSIC
Getting the Real Folk Blues With Guy Marshall
PROGRAM NOTES
A New Series of “Secret” Local Concerts
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 16, 2015
July 16, 2015 Volume 01 / Issue 19 knoxmercury.com
CONTENTS
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” —Samuel Beckett
NEWS
12 Unequal
Opportunity
A new lawsuit filed by former Metropolitan Planning Commission executive Dee Anne Reynolds against MPC and the city and county governments alleges sex discrimination and other unequal treatment at the embattled agency, which has undergone almost total leadership changes in the last year. S. Heather Duncan looks at the claims and what they might mean for MPC’s new executive director.
14 Neighborhood Visit: Bearden COVER STORY
At 45 mph, the suggested speed on Kingston Pike, Bearden can look almost ordinary, a modern commercial corridor of strip centers with lots of billboards. And everyone in Bearden has a different conception of what Bearden is—broad statements about the place, those suggesting something consistent about its personality, are elusive. Jack Neely checks out Bearden’s complexity and its history in the first installment of an ongoing series of neighborhood profiles.
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DEPARTMENTS
OPINION
A&E
4 6
Letters
8
22
Howdy Start Here: Photo by Bart Ross, Believe It or Knox!, Public Affairs, Quote Factory. PLUS: Words With … Leslie Fawaz
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38
’Bye Finish There: Sacred and Profane by Donna Johnson, Crooked Street Crossword by Ian Blackburn and Jack Neely, Spirit of the Staircase by Matthew Foltz-Gray
The Scruffy Citizen Jack Neely laments the unnecessary loss of three UT landmarks. Small Planet What does your wastewater bill pay for anyway?
23 24 25 26
CALENDAR Program Notes: A new “secret” concert series and a big prize at the Knox Film Fest. Shelf Life: Elmore Leonard movies at the library. Music: Carey Hodges catches the folk blues with Guy Marshall. Movies: Scene-stealing Minions can’t carry their own feature, April Snellings discovers.
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Spotlights: Tipsy Oxcart, Branchfest
FOOD & DRINK
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Home Palate Dennis Perkins uncovers Knoxville’s best—and only!— Colombian cuisine at Leños and Carbón.
Video: Bryan Charles recaps the first half of the second season of True Detective. July 16, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 3
LETTERS Delivering Fine Journalism Since 2015
THE QUESTION OF CONFEDERATE NATIONALISM
A couple of things to point out here [“Was the South Ever Confederate, Anyway?” Scruffy Citizen by Jack Neely, July 2, 2015]: Sam Houston opposed secession, but later was on record as supporting the Confederacy. (See The Writings of Sam Houston, 1813-1863, volume 8.) I would also recommend Lincolnites and Rebels by Robert Tracy Mackenzie for a specific look at Knoxville during this period. Mackenzie points out that many unionists apparently did reluctantly support the Confederacy as it became clear that the CSA wasn’t going to collapse right away and while Knoxville was garrisoned with Confederate troops. Loyalty during the Civil War was more complex than a simple unionist-secessionist binary. Finally, since this article implicitly deals with the question of Confederate nationalism, I would recommend Gary Gallagher’s The Confederate War as a starting point. His conclusions are challenged by a wide range of authors who focus on internal dissent within the Confederacy, but I think he makes some good points that are important for understanding the tenacity of pro-Confederate memory after the war. You could also turn a couple of Neely’s arguments on their head. Let’s look at the political situation in the North. Women cannot vote, just as in the South. Blacks could only vote in five states that remained in the Union in 1865, and even though former Confederate states were required to enact universal male suffrage after 1867, most Northern states still denied this right. In fact, the 15th Amendment is acknowledged by historians to have been motivated by the desire by Congressional Republicans to marshal the black vote in the North, not the South, as Republicans were losing ground to the Democrats after the war. We also have draft riots throughout the North, widespread and even violent draft evasion, the Copperhead movement, and large numbers of deserters from the Union army—all of which are things pointed 4
KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 16, 2015
to in the South to argue that the Confederacy wasn’t really supported that strongly by Southerners. None of this should obscure the fact that majorities of Northerners supported the maintenance of the Union by force of arms. The difference, again, is that the South lost so its problems seem more glaring in hindsight. I would recommend that anyone interested in this question read David M. Potter, “The Historian’s Use of Nationalism and Vice Versa,” American Historical Review 67 (1962). Nicholas Roland via Facebook Jack Neely responds: The fact that women and blacks couldn’t vote was not a criticism of the South versus the North. Neither region cornered the market on unfairness. It was just an acknowledgment of the very limited sample of Southerners whose opinions we know about. The column as a whole was a criticism of the fact that we think of the Confederacy as emblematic of, or equivalent to, “the South.” It’s true that blacks couldn’t vote in most Northern states, and all Americans should remember that fact. (It’s pretty interesting that post-war Tennessee became, I think, the sixth state, North or South, to allow blacks to vote.) But blacks formed such a small percentage of the total population of the North in 1861 that it might well be fair to represent “the North” in the 19th century as an overwhelmingly white culture. It’s been different since the Great Migration, of course, in the cities at least. However, we could never represent the South, at any time in our history, as an overwhelmingly white culture. And it’s true that women couldn’t vote in most Northern states until half a century after the Civil War. But considering the USA was 85 years old when the Civil War started, we do have a record of letters suggesting that a large majority of women, over a period of generations, supported the USA— enough, I think, that we can safely use the U.S. flag as a representative
emblem for the people of America. I don’t think the same is true of the Confederate flag as a representation of the people of the South, in 1861 or now. It was a brief political movement popular among a minority of Southerners. I’ll look up the Houston source, when I get a chance. I did some research into him a few years ago, and came away with the strong impression that he was bitter about the Confederacy to the end of his life, often offering some rather severe denunciations of it in letters—but sometimes tried to soothe things publicly. Of course, he died at age 70, when the Confederacy was only 2 years old. I’ve read and often recommended Mackenzie’s very interesting book. Some Unionists shifted to the Confederacy, like prominent attorney John Baxter, then shifted back. The commenter is right that it wasn’t simple for many people. Many, like Joe Mabry, were just pragmatic businessmen and became Unionists when the Union Army arrived. A lot of folks were just trying to survive that weird weather.
EDITORIAL EDITOR
Coury Turczyn coury@knoxmercury.com SENIOR EDITOR
Matthew Everett matthew@knoxmercury.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Jack Neely jack@knoxhistoryproject.org STAFF WRITERS
S. Heather Duncan heather@knoxmercury.com Clay Duda clay@knoxmercury.com CONTRIBUTORS
Chris Barrett Ian Blackburn Bryan Charles Patrice Cole Eric Dawson George Dodds Lee Gardner Mike Gibson Carey Hodges Nick Huinker Donna Johnson
Rose Kennedy Dennis Perkins Stephanie Piper Ryan Reed Eleanor Scott Alan Sherrod April Snellings Joe Sullivan Kim Trevathan William Warren Chris Wohlwend
EDITORIAL INTERNS
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July 16, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 5
Illustration by Ben Adams
HOWDY
Believe It or Knox! BY Z. HERACLITUS KNOX In the early 1800s, when Kingston Pike was a narrow, heavily wooded road to the west, it was rife with highwaymen, desperate bandits who preyed on travelers. A particularly treacherous stretch of the pike in the vicinity of Bearden Hill was known as MURDERERS’ HOLLOW!
“Mark Twain, A Blog Post October 19 or Mechanics Bank And Trust Company Building Knoxville TN I” by Bart Ross (bartross.com)
QUOTE FACTORY “ I trust Iran. They have never held Americans hostage. Oh wait.” — Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett on Twitter on July 14, following the announcement of a U.S. deal to lift economic sanctions against Iran in return for limits on Iran’s nuclear program.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
7/17SOCIAL MEDIA & CONNECTIONS FRIDAY
6:30-9 p.m. Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church (9132 Kingston Pike). Free. Social media—how can it possibly get any more important to life itself? Mark Schaefer, author of The Content Code, Social Media Explained, Born to Blog, Return on Influence, and The Tao of Twitter, breaks it down for us. Info: cspubtalks.com.
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 16, 2015
7/19JAZZ AT IJAMS SUNDAY
6 p.m., Ijams Nature Center (2915 Island Home Ave.). $2. Knoxville’s latest jazz venue is a nature center? Absolutely! The focus of this new series is hot jazz, so the festivities begin with Knoxville’s own Old City Buskers and then continue with Louisville, Ky.’s Swing 39 at 7:30 p.m. Knoxville Swing Dance Association will be giving free dance lessons, and there’ll be food and crafts vendors.
7/22BROWN BAG LECTURE: JACK NEELY WEDNESDAY
Noon, East Tennessee History Center (601 South Gay St.). Free. What’s this Knoxville History Project all about, and what’s it have to do with this Knoxville Mercury thing? You can hear all about it firsthand from the director of the KHP himself, Jack Neely. We’ve got some hard questions for him. Info: easttnhistory.org
The global restaurant chain known as Ruby Tuesday started in 1972 with one restaurant on 20th Street at West Cumberland Avenue! When Knoxvillian Sandy Beall opened it, the restaurant, named for a Rolling Stones song, had an offbeat counterculture reputation, known for using ENGLISH MUFFINS IN PLACE OF HAMBURGER BUNS! A second location in West Knoxville’s Suburban Center was the first of many. Ruby’s left their original location after more than a decade, and the space, above and behind Stefano’s, has been used for several other restaurants over the years. Ruby Tuesday is now headquartered in Maryville. The Tennessee Theatre’s famous Mighty Wurlitzer, the big organ installed in the motion-picture palace in 1928, MAY NEVER HAVE ACCOMPANIED A SILENT MOVIE UNTIL 1969! By the time the theater opened, movie technology was changing rapidly, and even “silent” movies came with musical soundtracks, making organ accompaniment unnecessary.
7/23SOUTH HIGH SCHOOL REDEVELOPMENT THURSDAY
5:30 p.m., Dogwood Elementary School (705 Tipton Ave.). Free. The old South High building has lots of potential—none of which was developed by its former owner. Now the city of Knoxville owns it and its Community Development Department is putting out an RFP, looking for a new owner who’s got a vision and knows what she’s doing. Is that person you? Or maybe you just have some good ideas for its reuse. If so, this is the meeting for you.
HOWDY
THINKING OF GOING PAPERLESS?
WORDS WITH ...
Leslie Fawaz BY ROSE KENNEDY Leslie Fawaz is studio design director for the East Tennessee Community Design Center and project manager for its concept plan to assist fundraising for an Everly Brothers Park at the corner of North Forest Park Boulevard and Kingston Pike. The Everly Brothers attended nearby West High School and started performing in Knoxville on Cas Walker’s TV show. The ETCDC is also celebrating its 1,000th project, which involves studying potential expansion of the existing building for the First Tee of Greater Knoxville, working with volunteer David Collins of McCarty Holsaple McCarty.
Why was Everly Brothers Park picked as a project for ETCDC? ETCDC projects must serve the general public and the client must be a nonprofit or community organization, with control of the property and the ability to fundraise to develop the project. This project request came from the Bearden Council with approval to develop the site from the city. It met all our criteria, so we were excited to be able to assist in developing the concept plan—every project the ETCDC assists is developed by a design team made up of ETCDC staff and volunteer professionals who provide pro bono services to the project.
What’s good about the chosen location?
It is very visible, accessible by public transportation, and near the trailhead for the Third Creek Greenway. It was a former brownfield that was remediated by TDOT and has been leased to the city.
Did you learn anything interesting about the Everly Brothers during the concept plan development?
We learned about the song “Cathy’s Clown,” written by Don and Phil Everly. It was the duo’s biggest hit, selling more than 8 million copies. We heard that it was inspired by Don’s West High School girlfriend, Catherine Coe, although both of them have stated that it did not reflect their true relationship.
The concept includes an interactive sculpture. What would that entail?
The proposed sculpture design, of the brothers playing guitars, would be life-size so visitors could stand with them and take photos. We like the idea of an app people could download to explain the history
of the Everly Brothers, play some songs, and so forth. It could also describe plant types at the park.
Is there anything significant about the landscaping vegetation suggested?
Large trees, small flowering trees, shrubbery, and ground cover will be added to create low maintenance and a natural but coordinated appearance throughout the park. Our goal is to promote the use of native and non-invasive plants and landscaping, which will not need irrigation to maintain.
What’s been a favorite ETCDC project in the time you’ve been there?
Every project that I have been involved with has been unique and interesting, but I particularly liked our work for the Knoxville Salvation Army community garden, and for historic Dandridge, helping make their streetscape more pedestrian friendly and environmentally conscious. I am an architect and am most familiar with the building projects, but that is a fraction of what we do. We also help with parks, playgrounds, neighborhood planting plans, greenways, streetscapes, and city and campus master plans.
Could your group do more if they had more members and donations?
Funding the ETCDC through new memberships and donations is critical to our continued success. I would like to see the ETCDC consulted on all projects in the city, Knox County, and our 16-county region that impact the public realm. To learn more about the park: www.everlypark.org; to join ETCDC: www.communitydc.org
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 7
SCRUFFY CITIZEN
Three Houses One last eulogy for some UT landmarks that didn’t have to be lost BY JACK NEELY
T
he three Victorian houses on the 1300 block of White Avenue, the subject of years of concern on the part of preservationists, will soon be gone, though it’s still likely one will be moved. The one at 1312, which was purchased to be moved, is apparently doomed for lack of a feasible place to put it. The one on the corner, at 1302 White, is being prepared for a move to Clinch Avenue, sponsored by developer Carl Lansden. Moving a house is always a logistical feat, and never certain. The one in the middle, the once-celebrated “Judge’s House,” was not purchased, and will be demolished. It’s all a damn shame, and an unnecessary loss. The wooden Victorian houses from the 1890s would be worth saving anyway, as good examples of their kind, and as convenient and comfortable places for anybody to live. Their destruction also represents the first violation of a dramatic 2000 agreement brokered by the city of Knoxville. A months-long series of negotiations between the major stakeholders sought to protect the best remaining architecture of historic Fort Sanders. High-ranking University of Tennessee representatives, including a president, were present at those talks, and agreed to them with a handshake, but that was a couple or three administrations ago. It’s a cautionary take, when dealing with UT, which is entitled to override city statutes: Be sure to get a signature. Then there’s the issue that UT
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 16, 2015
spent $2.6 million for the houses. A survey of comparable property nearby suggests that much of what UT bought was the value of the houses, one of which had been carefully renovated, not just White Avenue acreage. UT could have bought much-cheaper property within a block or two. Demolition would seem a mistake, even if the houses weren’t associated with important historical figures. In fact, each house has enough historical associations to make a novel. Judges, progressive politicians, groundbreaking developers, marble workers, much-honored professors and university administrators, and a Pulitzer-winning author lived here. The university likes the been-here-forever look of collegiate Gothic architecture. In fact only one academic building on campus is older than any of these three houses. They were a quarter of a century old when UT built its signature building, Ayres Hall. One White Avenue resident watched its construction out his back
window with special interest, and had a major influence on Ayres Hall’s design. That was professor and author Charles Ferris, namesake of UT’s Ferris Hall, who’s remembered as UT’s first dean of the college of engineering. For those who respect athletics and architecture, he was more than that. Ferris (1864-1951) was the guy who started the effort, back in 1912, to establish a proper football field, an effort that culminated in what we now know as Neyland Stadium. And it was revealed only at the time of his death that, when UT was planning to build a simpler, cheaper new main building on top of the Hill, it was Ferris who insisted that Ayres Hall should have a central tower. It would be expensive, but even an engineer saw there was power in symbolism for a university. That’s partly my point with this column. The house on the corner of 13th Street has been known as Three Chimneys. It was the longtime home of Cooper D. Schmitt, one of the most popular professors in UT history— quite an accomplishment for a math teacher. Schmitt (1859-1910) organized UT’s first athletic association, in the 1890s. He was dean of students in 1910, when he collapsed in a lecture hall on the Hill. He was carried to his beloved home, where he died. There’s a UT memorial scholarship in Schmitt’s name, still active 105 years after his sudden death in this house that’s in the way. There’s a plaque in Schmitt’s honor on the wall at the Austin Peay Building: “To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” The same house is potentially more famous for his son. Bernadotte Schmitt grew up at 1302 White, and lived there when he earned the Rhodes scholarship. Bernadotte Schmitt (1886-1969) referred to that house in his lectures, describing the
In its attitude toward its own heritage, UT is as doggedly pragmatic as any suburban vocational school.
day in the summer of 1914 when he heard the world was at war. His book The Coming of War won the 1930 Pulitzer Prize. For it, he interviewed key figures, including even Kaiser Wilhelm himself. UT has long been fond of boasting its “seven Rhodes scholars, six Pulitzer Prize winners.” But why be so vague? Wouldn’t it be great to be able to point to a tangible heritage, and say, “A UT student won the Rhodes scholarship when he was living in that house. He later won the Pulitzer Prize. Wouldn’t you like to come to school here?” It could be an honored faculty residence, or part of a competitive graduate scholarship in history or math. But special heritage-related residences probably seem highfalutin, the sort of thing some Top 25 university would do. In its attitude toward its own heritage, UT is as doggedly pragmatic as any suburban vocational school. All three houses have associations with UT history, and could be academic landmarks. But in the three years I’ve been following this story, I can’t tell that the houses’ UT history has ever been of much interest in the administration. When it comes to UT’s academic heritage, I sometimes wonder whether anybody’s minding the store. Bernadotte Schmitt is one of UT’s most accomplished alumni. But on UT’s website in the description of the math scholarship established in his father’s memory, his Napoleonic first name is rather badly misspelled. Following is a major misstatement about his biography. I keep expecting somebody on staff to fix it. But I’m not sure there’s anyone who would notice. To be fair, Schmitt’s spelled and described accurately elsewhere on the website, which does include an interesting historical section. It was written in the 1990s by my favorite professor and a good friend, the late Dr. Milton Klein. It hasn’t been revised in 14 years. Is there’s anyone in a position of influence on UT’s staff who follows UT history? UT’s president and chancellor are both relatively new to town; 10 years ago, they were both employed by the University of Florida. Of UT’s Board of Trustees, only about a quarter live in Knoxville. You can’t blame them if they’re not all that interested. Something seems missing there. For now, say goodbye to three fine old houses. ◆
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July 16, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 9
SMALL PLANET
Weighing the Cost What’s behind the wastewater part of your KUB bill BY PATRICE COLE
I
f you were limited to only one of the utilities provided by KUB, which one would you choose? Most people would probably choose electricity. After all, everyone knows what it’s like when the power goes off. We have much less experience with interruptions in other utilities, with the unintended consequence that we take those utilities for granted and lose sight of their true worth. What if water stopped flowing to the various faucets and toilets in your home or business? You could bring in bottled water for drinking, cooking, and limited washing, but you’d still have the problem of getting rid of the wastewater that’s left after the cooking and washing is done. Even more problematic is what goes in the toilet. Living under those conditions might make water, and wastewater disposal, look like more of a necessity than electricity. So what are we actually paying for in the wastewater part of our bill? A big part of the answer is the initial step in wastewater treatment and disposal, namely the collection system. Beneath our feet are 1,300 miles of pipes that carry wastewater from buildings to the treatment plants. Some are as much as 75 years old. Over time, these pipes can corrode, break, and develop leaks. A certain amount of wastewater might escape into the ground, but of greater concern is the amount of rainwater that leaks into the sewer, especially when the ground is saturated. Wet weather can add more water to the sewer than it can handle, causing overflows at manholes and overwhelming the treatment plant. To avoid flooding the treatment plants, sewage has sometimes been diverted around
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much of the treatment processes before going into the Tennessee River. This used to happen more often than it does now, because in 2005 KUB reached an agreement with the EPA, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, the city of Knoxville, and the Tennessee Clean Water Network to spend $530 million over 10 years on improvements to the sewer system. That amount was eventually increased to $650 million and the time frame increased by five years. According to KUB’s most recent report on the agreement, 275 miles of pipe and almost 7,000 manholes have been replaced or repaired and six huge storage tanks installed to temporarily hold up to 30 million gallons of wastewater during peak flows. These and other measures have reduced the frequency of wet weather
Dropping that dental floss, cotton swab, or other disposable item in a trash can instead of the toilet saves us all money.
overflows by 96 percent. Aside from these necessary investments in our aging infrastructure, we also pay for regular cleaning and maintenance of the collection system to keep everything flowing in the right direction. Every time KUB has to remove a clog from pipes or pump stations it costs us money, so a simple but important way we can keep costs down is to be mindful of what we put down any drain. Toilets are not trash cans, and nothing should be flushed except human waste and toilet paper. Even products like wet wipes and facial tissue that might claim to be flushable will not break down and can build up and clog the sewer, causing backups and overflows. “Flushable” kitty litter is a terrible idea. Dropping that dental floss, cotton swab, or other disposable item in a trash can instead of the toilet saves us all money. Grease and cooking oil should never be put down the drain. Put grease that is solid at room temperature in the garbage. Using any metal can, lined with a disposable oven bag, to collect and store grease makes disposal easy. Liquid vegetable oil is a resource that can be converted to biofuel. You can bring waste cooking oil in any non-glass container to the household hazardous waste drop-off at 1033 Elm St. or the three other locations listed on KUB’s website. Every gallon of water that moves through the treatment plant costs money, and it just doesn’t make sense to treat clean rainwater. That’s why KUB disconnects roof drains from the sewer and advises homeowners
to direct downspouts toward lawn areas, where stormwater can soak into the ground. The treatment system we support through our bill payments has earned us some bragging rights that might not make the front page but still have meaning for every user of the Tennessee River. All four of our wastewater treatment plants have received the National Association of Clean Water Agencies’ award for perfect or near-perfect compliance with 5,000 measures of water quality. KUB is also proud of its biosolids program. Biosolids are the rich, organic material that is produced during biological treatment of wastewater. That byproduct used to go to the landfill at considerable cost to KUB customers. KUB now gives 30,000 tons of biosolids to local farmers every year to fertilize their fields, saving these farmers about $900,000 in fertilizer costs and saving KUB customers disposal costs. Extensive testing is done first to ensure the product is safe. Considering that the combined KUB plants discharge 44.6 million gallons of treated wastewater per day to the Tennessee River, the cleanliness of that water is very important to local users of the river as well as downstream communities that draw their water supply from the river. Next time you pay your KUB bill, take a moment to consider what’s behind the wastewater part of it and what it means to you. And don’t forget that the less water you use, the less you pay for both the water and wastewater part of your bill. ◆
Now’s your chance to tell us what you really think–in person!
MEETUPS Join us for coffee & breakfast at our Monthly Mercury Meetup.
Wednesday, July 22, 7am-10am at Gourmet's Market 5107 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919 (The District In Bearden)
This is a great opportunity for the business owners and residents of Knoxville to stop by and tell us what’s on your mind! We hope to see you there. July 16, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 11
Unequal Opportunity MPC brouhaha continues as planning agency faces a lawsuit over sex-discrimination claims BY S. HEATHER DUNCAN
A
former employee of the Knoxville Metropolitan Planning Commission has filed a lawsuit against the commission, Knox County, and the city of Knoxville, alleging that she was fired last year in retaliation for helping a co-worker pursue a sex-discrimination complaint. Dee Anne Reynolds, the only woman in management at the commission, was fired by former MPC executive director Mark Donaldson for insubordination in June 2014, after almost 12 years at the agency. The decision came three weeks before Donaldson announced his own retirement from the office, which handles countywide land-use planning and administers zoning rules. As reported by former Metro Pulse writer Cari Wade Gervin on her Tumblr on July 9, Reynolds’ lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court almost
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 16, 2015
exactly a year later, demands compensation in the form of lost pay or reinstatement to her former job as finance manager, plus attorney’s fees and interest. Donaldson is not named as an individual in the suit. Essentially, Reynolds claims she was fired for helping Elizabeth Albertson, who still works in comprehensive planning at MPC, file a complaint in 2013 about sex discrimination and unequal pay. Albertson had approached Reynolds, as the only woman in management, to guide her through the process. Both Albertson and Reynolds declined to comment for this story. In the complaint, Albertson accused her supervisor Mike Carberry of refusing to provide her with the same administrative support received by her male co-workers, asking her to perform secretarial duties, publicly
belittling her, passing her over in favor of men for projects for which she was best qualified, denying her resources she needed to do her job (such as software her male colleagues had), and paying her less than her male counterpart. According to the lawsuit, Donaldson dismissed the accusations, suggesting Albertson discuss it “over a beer” or “on the golf course.” A subsequent meeting with both Carberry and Donaldson was allegedly “very intimidating” toward Albertson, who was not allowed to have another female present. Nothing got any better for Albertson, the lawsuit states. And for Reynolds, things got worse. Donaldson was allegedly angry at both women for going to Knox County’s Human Resources Department, which they believed was the correct procedure, according to the employee handbook they had been given. (According to the lawsuit, Human Resources employees agreed that the facts Albertson described would amount to sex discrimination and equal-pay violations.) But the county denied that it had jurisdiction, and Albertson apparently couldn’t appeal to anyone else. That led Reynolds to ask whether MPC actually had an equal-opportunity policy. She questioned whether the lack of such a policy could jeopardize federal grant funds, which make up a significant portion of the MPC budget. She repeatedly went to MPC Chair Rebecca Longmire and the commission’s executive committee about this question, the lawsuit states. In a memo to Donaldson and MPC attorney Steve Wise, Reynolds said it made her “concerned” about how to proceed with the year’s financial
statements and first-quarter grant billings. She raised the specter of the commission having to repay $2.3 million in funds granted in the previous three years. The day after Reynolds sent this memo, Donaldson consulted an attorney about firing her, the lawsuit indicates. Instead, he gave her a harshly worded written “warning” regarding what he called Reynolds’ “irrational, erroneous and strident claims” and basically accused her of holding financial statements hostage until Albertson was satisfied. In his warning letter, Donaldson forbade Reynolds to speak about MPC matters with any elected officials or city and county staff except a few key people she had to contact as part of her finance job. Reynolds’ lawsuit claims the retaliation continued, driving Reynolds to file a complaint with Longmire in May. About six weeks later, Reynolds was fired. In February of this year, Reynolds filed a charge of retaliation with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency that reviews discrimination claims. If the EEOC acknowledges that Reynolds has a right to sue, the lawsuit states she will add Civil Rights Act discrimination claims. Knox County spokesman Michael Grider, Knox County Law Director Bud Armstrong, Knoxville spokesman Jesse Mayshark, and MPC attorney Steve Wise all say their organizations have no comment on the lawsuit at this time. (Mayshark pointed out that the city and county are included in the lawsuit because they fund the MPC.) City and county officials said they had not been served with the lawsuit by Monday. Wise says the lawsuit was
Reynolds questioned whether MPC actually had an equal-opportunity policy, and whether the lack of such a policy could jeopardize federal grant funds—a significant portion of the MPC budget.
Before Donaldson’s retirement, a group of community leaders sent a letter to MPC asking commissioners to remove him from the job.
served to MPC on Monday, and the agency will fi le a response. “It’s early, and it will develop,” he says. It’s clear from the attachments to Reynolds’ lawsuit that a hefty paper trail likely exists on both sides. As responses are fi led, we may learn more about MPC’s perspective on these events. In addition to the complaints addressed in the lawsuit, the situation raises important issues about public access and input. Can someone employed by a government—or anyone for that matter—be banned by their boss from speaking to their own elected officials? More specifically, the public depends on MPC to develop clear and protective plans and zoning, but Albertson’s discrimination complaint implies that management may have been regularly compromising public participation in that process. For example, Albertson coordinated public meetings for the controversial Hillside and Ridgetop Task Force, which was creating a plan to guide when and how development could occur on Knoxville’s ridges. Albertson’s discrimination complaint states that early in this process, she determined three existing plans already limited development and clearing in areas with steep slopes, and she argued that MPC should draft codes and ordinances based on those. However, her complaint says Carberry ignored her, insisting on a new plan (subject to a much broader amount of debate, and probably a much longer process) for handling this type of development. Albertson’s complaint also claims MPC management’s refusal to set timelines and deadlines resulted in last-minute public meetings that allowed projects to proceed “with little regard for significant public input.” This might not come as a sur-
prise to some MPC-watchers. Before Donaldson’s retirement, and at about the same time Reynolds was fi red, a group of community leaders sent a letter to MPC asking commissioners to remove him from the job. The letter, signed by several former City Council members and many neighborhood association leaders, said that under Donaldson’s leadership the office was producing an “incompetent, unacceptable work product.” It also faulted him for hiring longtime friend David Hill at a six-figure salary without advertising the job or interviewing other candidates. Since Reynolds was fi red, almost the entire leadership team at MPC has turned over. Donaldson, Hill, Carberry, and deputy director Buz Johnson are gone. Carberry retired in May 2014, about a month before Reynolds was fi red. His departure was followed by Donaldson’s, then Johnson’s in September. Hill left in April, shortly before the city and county mayors chose Gerald Green as MPC’s new executive director. Reynolds’ lawsuit airs yet another facet of what Green has inherited— and an opportunity. With multiple management jobs open, Green will be in an unusually good position to set a new tone for the office with his hires. Green’s selection marked the fi rst time an MPC director was not picked by the planning commission board. Instead, the two mayors appointed a six-member search committee with representatives from their administrations, MPC, and the community. Green, who earned his master’s degree at the University of Tennessee, most recently served as planning director for Jackson County in western North Carolina. His previous experience includes a stint as chief planner for Asheville during a period when key downtown areas were being redeveloped. ◆
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 13
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t 45 mph, the suggested speed on Kingston Pike, Bearden can look almost ordinary, a modern commercial corridor of strip centers with lots of billboards. It’s not designed to be looked at. But slow down a little, and you might notice evidence of a community of some depth and distinction.
The architectural scale’s different from that of most commercial strips, with smaller buildings on smaller lots, with a few notable exceptions. There are sidewalks and occasional pedestrians, and if you look close, there are several older buildings here, even a few pre-war ones. Several before World War II, and one that’s even pre-Civil War. Within the noise of traffic is an old churchyard with
VIEW FROM BEARDEN HILL FOURTH CREEK ALONG NORTHSHORE
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gravestones from a century ago, one referencing the cause of death, the New Market Train Wreck of 1904. In the 1790s, Kingston Pike was new, and the main road between Knoxville and Nashville. Bearden was spooky in those days. The road didn’t go over the big hill, but around it to the south, through a woods, and visibility was so limited it was a handy place for highwaymen to pounce. It was, at one time, known as Murderer’s Hollow. To Bearden’s early development, the pike was important, but perhaps not quite as important as Fourth Creek, source of fresh water and power for the small mills along it. The place where the pike crossed the creek became epicenter for a community that became known as Bearden. By some accounts, the community’s first permanent resident was a spectral character named Jimmy Miller, a wealthy bachelor whose origins are unknown. At one time he lived in a small defensive fort set up near the intersection of the pike and the creek. He never had trouble from Indians, but around 1824, he was reportedly poisoned to death by his covetous nephews. He was buried along what’s now Lyons View, without a marker. In 1817, Irish immigrant John Reynolds bought 300 acres in the area. Born in County Louth, the often-embattled border region of eastern Ireland, Reynolds named the new western community Erin, the ancient name of his native country. Erin’s first settlers were from all over. Jacob Lones came from a Dutch family in Pennsylvania and settled on the northern stretch of Fourth Creek; his family, some of whom later preferred the spelling Lonas, re-
BEARDEN AFTER HOURS The community is known for some distinctive, perhaps unique, establishments, including the long-standing British-themed bar Union Jack’s, on Northshore. The Bearden Beer Market, on Old Kingston Pike, has an outdoor patio that stays busy on warm nights. Below, the relatively new boutique wine bar, Drink, introduces Knoxvillians to a new way to dispense a wide variety of wines. UNION JACK’S
DRINK
BEARDEN BEER MARKET
On the facing page THE VIEW FROM THE HILL From Bearden Hill, looking east, the community’s distinction is not immediately obvious. Bearden’s a heavily car-centric community, but to find the real Bearden you have to stop and walk around. FOURTH CREEK Fourth Creek, Bearden’s original defining principle, is obscure, all but invisible beneath Kingston Pike. A groundhog (or is it a beaver?) takes a swim near Kingston Pike and Northshore, oblivious to the hubbub above. July 16, 2015
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ASCENSION CHURCH THE “ASYLUM” These castellated ramparts are part of the only building remaining of the original 1880s mental institution, once known as Lyons View Asylum, later as Eastern State Mental Hospital, at what’s now grassy Lakeshore Park. Former Knoxville Mayor Marcus DeLafayette Bearden, who’s memorialized at Highland Memorial Cemetery, organized the funding for the institution, once a major employer. Built in 1956 from a Barber McMurry design, the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, near Lakeshore, is a Bearden landmark.
HIGHLAND CEMETERY
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BUILDING IN THE LAKESHORE PARK
mained. Capt. William Lyon was from a Scottish family in Baltimore. “Prominent in business affairs and a gentleman of large hospitality,” Lyon’s home was a showplace. His wife, Mary Clark Lyon, “adorned the home in which they lived, with beautiful life.” Another neighbor, known as Grandfather Hudiburg, perhaps of German origin, was a remarkable fellow. According to a transcription of a memory of someone who knew him, “He is said to have been an interpreter and expounder of the Sacred Oracles of Truth,” that is, a preacher. “He was not a distiller of the fruits of the land, but a dispenser of the fermented fruits therefrom.” By one story, he sometimes slipped out of his own worship services to tend to liquor customers. Bearden wasn’t named for a bear den. A mile or so northeast of Hudiburg’s place, on Third Creek, was a paper mill built in the 1830s by Marcus DeLafayette Bearden. After his mill closed down in the 1880s, the ruin was long a landmark known as the Old Papermill. The road that ran by it to the west was called, naturally, the Old Papermill Road. After World War II, the ruin was gone and forgotten, and the Old was dropped. He wasn’t the Bearden that Bearden was named for. In July 1855, the first train in East Tennessee arrived at Erin a few minutes before it made it all the way to Knoxville. Eventually there was a little train station, just east of what’s now Northshore Drive. As the community grew, the name Erin became problematic. There was already an Erin, Tenn., so it couldn’t be an official name respected by the post office. Proposals to call it Cooper or Crippen caught on for only short periods of time. There came another Marcus DeLafayette Bearden, a younger cousin of the paper mill owner. A former Union officer, wounded in the foot at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, he was elected sheriff of Knox County and, at about the same time, mayor of Knoxville. (The street known as Bearden Place is located in Old North Knoxville, just to confuse things.) Bearden lived downtown during his early career, but by the 1870s, he seems to have moved his family to the west side, where he did some farming. In 1877, he was elected to the Tennessee legislature. There, his primary accomplishment was funding
the establishment of a major state institution for the mentally ill along the river near Erin. It was a great progressive achievement to care for a vulnerable population—as well as a major employer for the old Erin area. Capt. Bearden died in August 1885, just before the Lyons View Asylum for the Insane opened. In appreciation, the community renamed itself for him. Bearden never incorporated as its own town, but it had some of the trappings of one, with a post office, a public school, a blacksmith’s shop, a couple of stores, and a train station. It was, for decades, the Southern Railway’s last stop before you got to Knoxville. It even attracted a little industry, a brickyard on its eastern edge. The Brickyard drew working people, including a community of blacks, who supported their own businesses and churches there. The Wallace AME Chapel on Homberg Drive is a living relic of that era. Through the mid 20th century, black residents preferred to call Bearden “the Brickyard.” In 1917, Knoxville’s city limits expanded to take in Looney’s Bend, not yet called Sequoyah Hills, but stopped short of Bearden, which remained a mostly rural place. A sort of streetcar, a bus that ran on an electric cable, served Lyons View, but not most of Bearden. Generally defined in opposition to Knoxville, Bearden was the part of Kingston Pike that was not in Knoxville’s city limits. Where Knoxville ended—around Carr Street—the community of Bearden began. Bearden was considered apart from Knoxville, a quiet country place more remote than the trolleyburbs. Somehow, it became central to the nation. Kingston Pike, paved with modern asphalt, almost suddenly became part of two major national highways, 11 and 70. The Lee and Dixie highways, as they were known, were major routes from the East Coast and Upper Midwest to Florida and the Gulf Coast, and they combined as one highway for a few miles of Kingston Pike. By the 1930s, hundreds of thousands of Americans saw Bearden through the windows of Studebakers and Pontiacs. Businesses sprang up to greet them. Campsites, motor courts, motels, automobile service stations,
LYONS VIEW
WHAT YEAR IS THIS? Prices have gone up a little, and kids amuse themselves differently, but little else has changed since 1956 at the Pike Barber Shop, underneath Long’s. On Old Kingston Pike, Firehall No. 12, known as the Lonas Station, is one of Knoxville’s older firehalls, and still has a fire pole. The Lyons View Community is a predominantly black community that has survived in Bearden longer than most other neighborhoods.
LONAS STATION FIRE HOUSE
PIKE BARBER SHOP
July 16, 2015
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ICE CHALET
MAYO GARDEN CENTER
LEGACY BUSINESSES Mayo’s, the Ice Chalet, and Long’s Drug Store have each been Bearden institutions for more than half a century. Mayo’s, the legacy of a downtown seed store, is a regular stop for west-side gardeners. The Ice Chalet, open year round, still sports some of its original early 1960s interior design, like this trompe l’oeil chalet window scene. Long’s still operates its original lunch counter. On Saturdays, there’s often a wait.
LONG’S DRUG STORE
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restaurants, and ice-cream shops and beer joints proliferated, many of them with exotic themes meant to appeal to the traveler. By 1940, one half-mile of Bearden supported eight tourist camps or motor courts. The Bearden of 75 years ago sounds like a carnival: the Oki-Doke Cafe, Kozy Kamp, the White Dot Coffee Shop, Camp Delight, the Wayside Inn, a restaurant called the Canary Cottage. The Spanish Garden was a rough-edged restaurant and bar, was across the street from the Alhambra, an Islamic-themed motor court. Bearden was in motion, as Knoxville’s first airport, established in the 1920s along Sutherland Avenue on the eastern fringe of Bearden, inspired some locals, especially Bruce Holloway (1912-1999), who was born and raised in the old Reynolds house on Bearden Hill. During World War II, he was an ace fighter pilot in the Pacific. He later became a four-star general in the Air Force and commander of the Strategic Air Command. There were a few other employers besides the tourist industry. In 1933, the Bowman Hat Company pulled up stakes on Jackson Avenue and relocated to a new factory in Bearden. It rendered a name based on one of its popular models: Homberg Place. Meanwhile, as automobiles became as common as fedoras, people who worked in Knoxville began moving into new subdivisions like Westwood, Forest Heights, Highland Hills, later West Hills. Several of the businesses built to appeal to tourists eventually found more business from the relatively new residential areas. One of Knoxville’s first big surburban theaters was the 800-seat Pike, which opened in Bearden in 1946. All the new residential development was fortunate for Bearden, because by the 1960s, the Dixie-Lee Highway tourist industry was evaporating. The completion of Interstate 40 sucked nearly 100 percent of the through traffic away. Most of the motels closed. The restaurants and liquor stores survived. Meanwhile, the black community, which was older than most of the new suburban white communities, declined in percentage of the whole. But one of the most famous people Bearden has ever produced was soul singer “Sweet” Clifford Curry, who grew up here singing doo-wop and attending blacks-only Lyons View School. He had an R&B hit in the ’60s called “She
Shot a Hole in My Soul.” In 1962, Bearden was annexed to become part of the city of Knoxville. The community once defined as separate from Knoxville became part of it. After the motels closed, Bearden kept its Ray-Bans on and maintained its reputation as a vacation spot, if only for Knoxvillians. It still had the big movie theater, the Pike, renamed the Capri, which sprouted a companion theater to become Knoxville’s first cineplex. Bearden also supported a drive-in theater, a couple of drive-in restaurants, a couple of ice-cream shops, an ice-skating rink, a bowling alley, some hamburger places but generally not the big chains, except for a Howard Johnson’s. Some people worked in Bearden, but not many lawyers or financial planners. Bearden tended to employ the kind of professionals who kept a drawerful of suckers for the kids. For customers, Bearden was a place to go after work, or after school. There was a bakery that seemed to sell only birthday cakes, and a shoe store with a resident bird that talked, and a walk-up window where they poured hot, dark chocolate over cold ice cream, and as you watched from the sidewalk, it hardened into something astonishing. Most of Bearden’s roadside tourist attractions faded. All the theaters have closed—the drive-in, the dinner theater, and Knoxville’s first cineplex. The little ice-cream shops are gone. Though the local drive-in restaurant closed long ago, there’s now a Sonic, a quarter-mile away. All the motels have closed, and most have been demolished without a trace, most recently the faux-colonial Mount Vernon on the west side of Bearden Hill, and Biltmore Motor Court, just barely recognizable when it was torn down for a Chick-fil-A. Recent decades have brought the cuisine of the world to Bearden: Knoxville’s first four-star restaurant, an Arabic café, Knoxville’s first Cuban café, a Hungarian café, Spanish, Guatemalan, Thai, and Indian restaurants, several varieties of barbecue, and a restaurant where you could order zebra and antelope. Some of them didn’t last, but like a Broadway play ran their course and interested and satisfied the people of Bearden, who remember them all. Then there’s Colonel’s Deli, which occasionally changes its cuisine, from American to
Chinese to Greek, but never its name. Nearby, an all-Mexican bakery tempts. Today you can find upscale rarities at Bennett Galleries, which is located in the old Capri Theatre building, and high-end clothing for men and women nearby. There are some extravagant shops, like the Paris Apartment that have to be seen to be believed. Bearden has somehow become the place to go for antiques. Even the old Cas Walker grocery is now an antique shop. There’s an independent butcher shop and a fresh-seafood shop and a unique bistro where you can sample a gallery of wines. Broad statements about the place, those suggesting something consistent about its personality, are elusive. Under construction is the cathedral of the Catholic Diocese of East Tennessee, and nearby, video facilities, including a studio that recently produced a feature film called Something, Anything that has won national praise. You can say Bearden has gone upscale on us, and maybe it has, but you’ll need to post an asterisk to cover the fact that, even in 2015, Bearden still supports a couple of old-school barber shops and a public knitting circle, and Long’s Drug Store may be the single cheapest non-charity restaurant in Tennessee. Meals there help you save for the expensive stuff down the street. Businesses still compete to change your tires. There’s an old-fashioned firehall with a pole. Bearden changes every month or two but still musters a summertime feel, a little slower, more relaxed, more whimsical than most commercial strips. By Bearden standards, it’s not in the least peculiar that Long’s still has a grill and soda fountain. You can go ice-skating in East Tennessee’s oldest skating rink. A paved greenway connects it all the way to the University of Tennessee and downtown with only two street crossings. Today, everyone in Bearden has a different conception of what Bearden is. Does it include Sequoyah Hills? West Hills? Rocky Hill? Any of Sutherland east of Forest Park? There are people who are adamant that it does indeed, and others who are equally adamant that it does not, and can never. There’s no provable answer. But Bearden seems to be an expansive concept, adept to fit anything that seems like Bearden. ◆
HARPER’S BIKE SHOP
LA FLOR MEXICAN BAKERY
LOCAL COLOR At top, La Flor, a Mexican bakery that’s been in operation on Newcom Street for about a decade, sells pastries you can’t find anywhere else in town. Harper’s Bike Shop, on Northshore, has been in the two-wheeler business since 1961. On Kingston Pike across from Bearden Elementary, Four Seasons Vintage Clothing, “Decor and More,” offers an ever-changing array of antiques and vintage clothing. FOUR SEASONS VINTAGE
July 16, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 19
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 2
Rug & Lamp Sale
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May 28, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 3
A&E
P rogram Notes
Secret Shows
The opportunity for creativity in venue spaces is one of the project’s most exciting aspects, Oglesby says. “Some of the locations we’ve looked at, I’ll just look around and think, ‘My god, I cannot wait to turn this into a stage and decorate it and get a band in here, because it will be amazing.’” The inaugural Secret Show will be held on July 24, at an as-of-yet-undisclosed location, of course, and will feature Americana artist Joseph LeMay. This West Tennessee native’s 2014 album, Seventeen Acres, was named by Rolling Stone as one of the releases you probably didn’t hear that year but should have. LeMay first began to catch local attention after performing at this year’s Rhythm N’ Blooms in April. “We want his show to feel intimate and different, and we want people to be able to hear his music without background noise,” Thomson says. “So it kind of lends itself to a smaller crowd.”
Neither Thomson nor Oglesby will reveal the names of the artists headlining the future three to four Secret Shows slated to hit Knoxville later this year. But if there’s one thing this entire series can promise, it’s diversity, they say. “Some of these shows we’ve booked for the fall I have no doubt will sell out in a matter of a few days,” Thomson says. “It’s cool to see Knoxville support this crazy idea. This is about bringing a whole new life to the music scene.” (Liv McConnell)
ilmmaking in Knoxville is about to become a bit easier—at least for one lucky contest winner. Shootout competitions have long been a staple in the Knoxville film scene—moviemaking teams are usually given a deadline (anywhere between 24 hours to seven days), a running time (usually under 10 minutes), and a theme. Then it’s a
frantic race to the finish as each team attempts to produce a quality piece of work, which isn’t a simple feat in that little time. Winners typically receive bragging rights in various categories (“Best Use of Music”) and maybe a prize—and then everybody goes back to their regular jobs the next day. But the 2015 Knoxville Film Festival’s 7-Day Shootout (Aug. 12-19) is changing things up. The ultimate winner will receive a budget of $20,000 to shoot a feature-length film in Knoxville. “This grand prize is the kind of award I’ve always wanted to provide,” says the festival’s executive director, Keith McDaniel, who originally started it as the Secret City Film Festival in
2004. “It not only encourages and facilitates independent filmmaking in Knoxville, but it also is an opportunity to showcase Knoxville as a great location for films to be made.” The prize money is the result of a partnership between the festival and Visit Knoxville’s Film Office, which is contributing $15,000 to the kitty. The victor will have one year to make a feature film based on the premise of their 7-Day Shootout short. That is, if they agree to adhere to the cash award’s conditions: The film must be no less than 80 minutes in length, be shot entirely in Knox County, and employ cast and crew (including the director/producer) who are residents of Tennessee, with 70 percent of the crew living in Knox County. Willis and McDaniel will also serve as executive producers on the production. “I know $20,000 may not seem like a lot of money to make a feature film, but you should see what these folks do with little to no money!” McDaniel says.
This is the seventh year for the 7-Day Shootout, and previous editions helped advance local filmmakers as well, with $1,000 prizes in some categories and the top prize of a Blackmagic 4K digital camera last year. Some of the entries have even gone on to win further accolades—2012’s Best Film winner, “Best Friends,” went on to win Best Short Film at the Carrboro Film Festival in North Carolina, and about a dozen other entries are featured on Comcast’s Xfinity channel, Film Festival Collective. There will be a total of 30 teams competing in the 7-Day Shootout; currently, 20 of those slots have been filled. To apply, go to knoxvillefilmfestival.com. The finished film will be screened at the 2016 Knoxville Film Festival. This year’s festival runs Sept. 17 through 20 at Regal Downtown West Cinema 8. Look for a schedule of events and films to be announced in August. (Coury Turczyn)
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New series of “secret” concerts aims to highlight unexpected venues
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he Knoxville music scene’s newest and best-kept secret happens to pride itself on being just that—a secret. Well, sort of. The Secret Show concert series, conceptualized by local music aficionados and promoters Kent Oglesby and Garrett Thomson, was designed to bring a uniquely intimate listening experience to Knoxville. “Knoxville has such a great music scene, and a big part of that is that listeners will come and be willing to try new things and listen to music intently,” Oglesby says. “Being able to provide a new experience for that is really big.” The concept behind the series involves selling a limited number of tickets to Secret Shows via Oglesby’s
website, knoxvillemusicwarehouse. com. Now for where the “secret” part comes in: The shows’ locations will be revealed to ticket-owners only a day before the event. The venues promise to be as unconventional as the nature of the series itself. “We want [a space] that doesn’t necessarily feel like a music venue, and we want to transform it into a really cool listening environment,” Thomson says. “Maybe that’s an old abandoned warehouse, maybe it’s a rooftop downtown, or maybe it’s the storefront of a trendy, upcoming business. We want each space to feel unique in some manner.”
Local Shootout Knox Film Festival adds $20,000 prize
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Shelf Life: Elmore Leonard
KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 16, 2015
Music: Guy Marshall
Movie: Minions
Video: True Detective
Shelf Life
A&E
More Leonard A guide to the best Elmore Leonard film adaptations from the Knox County library BY CHRIS BARRETT
S
ince there are more than 40 fi lm adaptations of Elmore Leonard’s novels, Westerns, and short stories, you might imagine that he wrote with the screen foremost in mind. In interviews, Leonard has belied that notion. He considered his best writing to be primarily studies of character and explorations of inner lives, in contrast to Hollywood’s penchant for mundane plot drills.
HOMBRE AND THE TALL T
Two genre-defying films disguised as Westerns contain great examples of Leonard characters who, by demonstrating some sort of moral authority among others, navigate circumstances and consequences that map a plot only in retrospect. In Hombre, Paul Newman’s John Russell deconstructs greed and prejudice, two vices that regularly serve as plot engines in the Old West on film. Pat Brennan, sublimely portrayed by Randolph Scott, undoes the black-hatted Richard Boone as much with his quiet dignity as with his wits and marksmanship in The Tall T.
JACKIE BROWN
Quentin Tarantino’s personalized variation of Leonard’s novel Rum Punch is supposedly the late author’s favorite adaptation. Making the fi lm’s female heroine black instead of white enabled Tarantino to cast blaxploitation diva Pam Grier out of retirement and enabled him to employ a classic soul-music soundtrack both as agent of change and Greek chorus without seeming contrived. There are guns in the hands of confi rmed killers and there are traps set for almost all of the heroes. But the most unnerving thing in this movie is Samuel L. Jackson’s third-act creepy skullet hairdo, all back-lit and frizzy.
OUT OF SIGHT
Steven Soderbergh directed this faithful version of Leonard’s 1996 novel. George Clooney is ideal as smooth-talking Jack Foley, a career bank-robber who eschews guns. We get to know his not terribly well-chosen accomplices (Don Cheadle, Steve Zahn, and Ving Rhames) and the law-enforcement officers trailing him from Florida to Michigan (Jennifer Lopez, on point). Swag varies from a bunch of uncut diamonds to the sort of trophy takedowns that movie cops supposedly live for. The story works and surprises the viewer because Leonard and Soderbergh are capable of revealing that each of the players is motivated by something other than the obvious, from romance to redemption.
JUSTIFIED
Nobody likes a columnist who assigns homework. However, what you gain from this FX series is likely to increase manifold if you get to know U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in the novel Pronto, where he was introduced, and its sequel, Riding the Rap. Leonard spent his formative years in Detroit, the son of an auto-industry executive. Detroit’s factories were staffed largely by refugees from coal-mine country, and Leonard’s depictions of Eastern Kentucky environs and natives are pretty spot-on. Givens, played by Timothy Oliphant, quells a lot of crime and kicks a lot of butt in Justified. Much of his persuasive presence stems from a Stetson-shaded poker face plus handgun plus comic timing of grown-up playground-style insults. But over the course of six seasons, it becomes clear that Givens usually prevails because he is more organized than his foes, and he practices. ◆ July 16, 2015
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Music
The Great Depression Local folk-rock duo Guy Marshall makes long-awaited recording debut with The Depression Blues BY CAREY HODGES
G
uy Marshall’s full-length debut, The Depression Blues, isn’t really a debut at all. Most of the album’s 10 tracks are already familiar to fans of the folksy five-piece band, whose main members, husband and wife Adam and Sarrenna McNulty, have been a staple in Knoxville’s Americana scene for the past five years. Armed with an infectious stage presence and an earnest arsenal of songs that touch on themes of whiskey and wallowing, the pair, backed by a rotating cast of musicians, have played gigs that range from providing a soundtrack to beer-soaked attendees of Knoxville’s Brewer’s Jam to securing a spot on the main stage of this year’s Rhythm N’ Blooms festival. But while most of the songs on The Depression Blues have a history live, the album’s tracks have also evolved in the studio. The recording process for the album has been touch
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and go for the past two years, with song structures and lyrics shifting in between shows, recording sessions, and everything in between. “The whole album changed over the course of recording,” Adam says. “If we would have recorded it two years ago, half of the songs would have been completely different. Some of the tracks we ended up including were written in between the last two years, and others were written when we first started out. I think it’s pretty cool because it’s an evolution of how we started and where we are now.” Named for Adam’s late grandfather, Guy Marshall began five years ago as a solo vehicle for the stockpile of songs Adam had penned over the years. “I had been writing songs for a number of years and not doing anything with them,” he explains. “Luckily, I had Sarrenna and some good friends encouraging me to sing them out and about more. So I did a
little show at Vienna Coffee House in Maryville. A lot of friends and family came and dug it, and it was a push to do something more.” While the McNultys are a constant, other members of Guy Marshall come and go; the current lineup consists of guitarist Eric Griffin, bassist Travis Bigwood, percussionist Zach Gilleran, and pedal-steel player Jonathan Keeney. Singer/songwriter Cornelia Overton also played fiddle on a handful of The Depression Blues’ tracks. Adam serves as the band’s primary songwriter, with the occasional contribution from Griffin. Fans of the band frequently point to the heartfelt harmonies between Adam and Sarrenna as a selling point, but Adam’s writing isn’t rooted in the call-and-response structure. “I don’t really write duets,” he says. “I write the songs and then we figure out harmonies to throw in there.” Those harmonies brighten up the pedal steel-driven melancholy that is threaded throughout The Depression Blues’ tracks. The resulting sound is a vibrant combination of classic country gloom and a good-natured honky tonk vibe, a rich blend that was brought to life through the band’s partnership with local producer Scott Minor. “We started the process of recording the album three times,” Adam explains. “Then at some point, we decided that we were just going to spend the money and go into the studio. We eventually got ahold of Scott, who I think is the best in Knoxville.” Response to The Depression Blues has been overwhelmingly positive, with local music blog Knoxville Music Warehouse suggesting that the album is the best local release of the year. Sarrenna points to two songs as fan favorites: the band’s oldest, “Cowboy Ballad,” and their newest, “Mountain of Fog.” “I wrote ‘Cowboy Ballad’ about five years ago,” Adam says. “I’m glad people like the song, but at the same time, I don’t write like that anymore, so it’s a little nerve-wracking when I hear that that’s everybody’s favorite. The newer song getting some airplay makes me feel like, okay, maybe I can
still do something that people like.” Guy Marshall has plans to tour in support of The Depression Blues, with an upcoming release show at Pilot Light and a handful of other gigs scattered throughout North Carolina and Tennessee. “We’re making friends in the outside world, finally,” McNulty says. “It’s much harder to get a following outside of your hometown because you can’t really start out with Mom and Dad coming to shows. You’ve got to start out with strangers, with that random music friend who found you on the Internet.” But while the band enjoys broadening their fan base, both Adam and Sarrenna still work full-time, something they tentatively hope will change in the near future. “I think our dream is to do [the band] full-time, but it’s kind of one of those things you want and don’t want at the same time,” Adam says. “Depending on yourself to write things, but also depending on other people to like it enough to support you is pretty terrifying. You’re essentially making art and hoping people will dig it enough to give you money from their 40 hour a week jobs.” ◆
WHO
Guy Marshall with the Tennessee Turkeys and Zach and Kota’s Sweet Life
WHERE
Pilot Light (106 E. Jackson Ave.)
WHEN
Saturday, July 18, at 8 p.m.
HOW MUCH $6
INFO
thepilotlight.com
Movies
Too Much Minions Despicable Me’s adorably evil sidekicks falter in the spotlight BY APRIL SNELLINGS
P
oor Minions. One minute they’re bebopping along, happily stealing scenes from the likes of Kristen Wiig and moving merchandise by the little yellow buttload. The next, they’re thrust into the harsh, unforgiving spotlight, burdened beyond their means by that most mercenary of capitalist machines: the kiddie-movie franchise. Welcome to Hollywood, fellas. It doesn’t get any easier. From a bookkeeping standpoint, Gru’s bumbling sidekicks are clearly up to the task of carrying a movie all by themselves. As I write this, Minions, the third feature in the justifiably popular Despicable Me franchise, has crossed the $400 million mark in worldwide box-office receipts—a figure that all but guarantees that Minions 2 won’t be far behind. That wouldn’t be a bad thing if their first headlining show didn’t stretch the property so thin. For about 10 minutes, Minions is wonderful. For
reasons that will eventually become obvious, screenwriter Brian Lynch retcons the heck out of the little guys, dialing their origins back to the primordial ooze from which all earthly life presumably crawled. We first meet them as little single-celled organisms bouncing from one bad amoeba to the next, constantly on the search for the baddest amoeba of them all—they’re minions by nature, and all they really want is a villain to serve. A funny and charming opening sequence, narrated by Geoffrey Rush, follows them through several millenniums of henchmen history as they latch on to dinosaurs, cavemen, vampires, abominable snowmen, and even Napoleon, offering their well-meaning services as scheming second bananas. They bungle every gig, of course, and eventually find themselves in frosty exile, whiling away the decades in an arctic cave until a new master presents himself. Or herself, as it turns out. After years of self-imposed banishment, an
enterprising Minion named Kevin recruits the guitar-obsessed Stuart and the teddy bear-toting Bob to embark on a search for a new master. Their journey leads them to New York City circa 1968 and then on to pre-Disney Orlando, where they hope to find a new heavy at an annual convention called Villain-Con. That’s where they meet Scarlett Overkill (voice of Sandra Bullock), a super-villainess who enlists the Minions’ services to steal Queen Elizabeth’s crown. Armed with some zany weaponry courtesy of Scarlett’s devoted but dim-witted husband, Herb ( Jon Hamm), the little yellow trio proceed to lay accidental siege to Swinging London amid a nonstop barrage of frantic chases and obligatory pop-culture references. If only Minions could maintain its early level of breezy appeal. Unfortunately (if predictably), the movie grinds to a halt once it gets down to the business of turning its title characters into heroes. The hope seems to be that Scarlett will act as a stand-in for Steve Carell’s franchise antihero Gru, giving the Minions a human foil for their antics, but the character has none of the layers that make Gru so weirdly likable. Bullock does a fine job, but Scarlett is a one-note joke with no real punch line. She has two settings—sweet and shrill—and
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nothing interesting in between. There are requisite appearances by terrific voice actors, including fun turns by Michael Keaton and Allison Janney as gun-toting bank robbers, and any review of Minions would be remiss if it failed to mention Brit TV comedy queen Jennifer Saunders, who plays a youngish Queen Elizabeth, as the movie’s standout performer. But the onus to carry the film falls on Kevin, Stuart, and Bob (all three of whom are voiced by co-director Pierre Coffin). As sidekicks, they’re fantastic. As the main attractions, the Minions are one-trick ponies. There are a few inspired gags—the depiction of Orlando, three years before the coming of Disney World, is a hoot— and the animators have some fun with the period setting. By the time Minions hits its halfway mark, though, it has long overstayed its welcome. It doesn’t exactly grate, but neither does it captivate. Look, I’m on the Minions’ side—really, I am. I love those funny little googly-eyed bananas of servile ineptitude. Remember that Despicable Me 2 teaser where they sang a Minionized version of “Barbara Ann”? I’m not proud of this, but I’m part of the reason it’s racked up more than 32 million views on YouTube so far. I’ll continue to enjoy their antics—just in much smaller doses. ◆ July 16, 2015
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Video
Police Story Halfway through, the second season of True Detective is the best show on TV BY BRYAN CHARLES
S
eason two of True Detective, now halfway through its run, is by a generous measure the best thing on TV. Gone are the head-spinning time leaps and abstruse philosophical digressions of the fantastic first season. The current installment, featuring a new location, cast, and storyline, is a leaner beast: brutally efficient southern California noir. But the tone is more Dashiell Hammett than Raymond Chandler. Cops and crooks don’t trade witty quips in Vinci, the fictional city on the fringes of L.A.’s vast sprawl where the story takes place. Like Personville— nicknamed Poisonville—in Hammett’s 1929 masterpiece Red Harvest, Vinci is a character in itself. Frequently seen from above, the city is remote, bleakly industrial, and corrupt to the core. For all of its eccentric asides and byzantine plotting, True Detective’s first season was fundamentally a tale of male friendship. Detectives Marty Hart and Rust Cohle (beautifully acted by Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey) were damaged souls whose tempestuous relationship over time made them stronger people. They achieved justice in the end, but more to the point, redemption. The new season is an ensemble piece featuring four key players whose fates converge around Vinci’s slain city manager. Everyone, to put it plainly, is messed up. And the odds seem slimmer that the story will end with talk of the stars and a nod to the world’s inherent grace. It begins with a beguilingly tender scene in which Vinci police detective Ray Velcoro (Colin Farrell) tries to comfort his awkward and overweight son as he’s dropping him off at school. Though the interaction is strained, there appears to be real feeling between the two. “I love you, buddy,”
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Velcoro tells his son as he exits the car—a marked contrast to a later scene where his rage overtakes him and he threatens the boy, now mute with fear and clinging to his stepfather. Velcoro’s son, it turns out, may be the product of a brutal rape. Some years back Velcoro murdered his wife’s attacker, whose name was provided by local heavy Frank Semyon (Vince Vaughn) in a devil’s bargain that compromises Velcoro and sets off a titanic inner struggle. Farrell is a gifted actor when he chooses to be, and his work here is remarkable. He conveys a range of feeling, from raw-nerve sadness to dark amusement to seething anger, often using little more than slight voice modulations and his wildly expressive gaze. Vaughn fares less well. Though admirably ditching the motormouth persona that’s been his bread and butter for years, he isn’t quite believable as a kingpin, particularly when Frank’s empire teeters and he’s forced into thug mode, re-establishing his dominance in a world he’d hoped to leave behind. Vaughn is better in quieter moments, and still does plenty with the character as his veneer of
civility slowly slips away. The show’s true star is Rachel McAdams, who will obliterate any image you may have of her as a bubbly heroine of romantic comedies waiting patiently for a kiss. Her portrait of Ani Bezzerides, a Ventura County Sheriff’s officer roped into the Vinci morass, is searing and unforgettable. And if the reasons for Bezzerides’s demons are, on paper, too tidy—dead mother, estrangement from her quasi-cult-leader father—McAdams’ controlled performance renders them convincing onscreen. One hopes she’ll be as praised for her fearlessness as Matthew McConaughey was after his turn as Rust Cohle. Rounding out the core cast is Taylor Kitsch, who made his bones playing the tormented (and extremely hot) Tim Riggins on Friday Night Lights and here plays closeted cop and war veteran Paul Woodrugh. Kitsch has dipped his toe in wannabe-blockbuster fare like Battleship and the underrated John Carter. But as he proved in Savages and last year’s The Normal Heart, he’s more interesting than that, a character actor with a model’s face and an action-hero body. Sunday’s episode ended, after weeks of near misses and growing dread, with an utterly berserk shootout (one of the best I’ve seen since Michael Mann’s Heat) that left seemingly dozens dead and Velcoro, Bezzerides, and Woodrugh in a state of shock. It was an explosive sequence, executed with maximum skill, and set a high bar indeed for the rest of this already thrilling season. ◆
Thursday, July 16 - Sunday, July 26
MUSIC Thursday, July 16 BIG AL AND THE HEAVYWEIGHTS • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 8:30PM MATTHEW HICKEY • Tipsy’s Patio Bar and Grill • 7PM LINDA HILL • Edgewood Park • 7PM • The Edgewood Park Neighborhood Association invites all our friends and neighbors to attend this month’s Third Thursday Music Event. • FREE THE HOTSHOT FREIGHT TRAIN • Historic Southern Railway Station • 8PM • Part of the Southern Station Live concert series. MY GIRL, MY WHISKEY, AND ME WITH BRIAN WHELAN • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE MY GIRL, MY WHISKEY, AND ME • Clancy’s Tavern and Whiskey House • 6PM RUNNER OF THE WOODS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM SOUTHERN BELLES • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. CAROLINE SPENCE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM The Thirst Quenchers • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM Friday, July 17 THE BAND TEMPER • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM BEGGING VICTORIA • Longbranch Saloon • 8PM CRUMBSNATCHERS WITH MADRE AND GAMENIGHT • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • If you’re wondering whether CrumbSnatchers’ onstage freak-outs are part of some larger message, you’re thinking about it too hard. The Knoxville-based pop/punk band, whose members are known to maniacally thrash through their performances, sometimes inciting pockets of moshing within the crowd and jumping into the crowd themselves, want audience members to skip the self-reflection and just let loose. CUMBERLAND STATION WITH LAUREL WRIGHT • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM KIRK FLETA • Tipsy’s Patio Bar and Grill • 10PM FRAZIER BAND WITH ANNABELLE’S CURSE • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. FROG & TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • Crown and Goose • 8PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE THE DOUG HARRIS BAND • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE JAYSTORM • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM TOM JOHNSON • Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE KATE AND COREY • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM KELSEY’S WOODS • Clancy’s Tavern and Whiskey House • 8PM • The debut album from Kelsey’s Woods, One More Heart to Break, was a lovely little country-rock downer, full of moody ballads of broken hearts and romantic laments decorated with fiddle and steel guitar. The band’s new disc showcases the group’s other side, with a bunch of plugged-in Lucero-style anthems about bad women, long road trips, and drinking binges. Kelsey’s Woods hasn’t exactly turned into a party band—When the Morning Comes Around is more like the soundtrack to the squinty-eyed hours after the bars have closed but before the whiskey has run out than a screaming good-time record. But the band’s newly revealed polish and confidence puts them near the top of a crowded local roots-rock field.
LUST OF DECAY WITH MANGLED ATROCITY, CREATED TO KILL, AND ENGULFED IN BLACKNESS • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 7:30PM • Brutal death metal band from Charlotte, NC. Writers of such multi-platinum power ballad hits as “Head in a Crock Pot” and “Crustacean Masturbation.” All ages. • $10 CHUCK MEAD AND HIS GRASSY KNOLL BOYS • The Bowery • 8PM • The former frontman for Nashville throwback honky-tonk band BR549. • $10-$12 CHUCK MEAD WITH FRAZIERBAND • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE JENNIFER NICELEY • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE SUSAN PRINCE • Susan’s Happy Hour • 8PM • FREE DAVE SLACK TRIO • Pero’s on the Hill • 7PM • Instrumental and vocal jazz standards. THE STATE STREET RHYTHM SECTION • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM • FREE THE STREAMLINERS SWING ORCHESTRA • Knoxville Museum of Art • 6PM • Knoxville’s premier swing band was formed as a smaller band over 17 years ago years ago by bassist Mischa Goldman and trumpeters Mike Spirko and Thomas Heflin. The Streamliners soon blossomed into the fabulous 17-piece unit that they are today. This swingin’ big band plays the classics of Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, and Peggy Lee, with a little Louis Jordan and Louis Prima mixed in for extra fun. • $15 JOSH WINK WITH DIALECTIC SINES, ALEX FALK, AND SAINT THOMAS LEDOUX • The Concourse • 9PM • Presented by Midnight Voyage Live. 18 and up. • $15-$20 Saturday, July 18 SHAUN ABBOTT • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM BRANCHFEST • Longbranch Saloon • 2PM • See Spotlight on page 29. DIRTY BOURBON RIVER SHOW • Scruffy City Hall • 10PM • These wonderful madmen play the gospel of New Orleans song, and they preach it loudly on their ninth album, Important Things Humans Should Know. THE DIRTY DOUGS • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM • FREE DRIVIN’ N CRYIN’ WITH KELSEY’S WOODS • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6PM • $20 FOAM DROP WITH STYLES AND COMPLETE • The International • 9PM • 18 and up. • $10-$20 GUY MARSHALL WITH THE TENNESSEE TURKEYS AND ZACK AND KOTA’S SWEET LIFE • Pilot Light • 8PM • Knoxville Americana band Guy Marshall celebrates the release of its debut album. 18 and up. • $6 • See Music Story on page 24. JACK’D UP • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM KING SUPER AND THE EXCELLENTS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • Knoxville’s most original cover band, or maybe the city’s best original band that plays covers, or maybe just the most entertaining band in town, with no qualifications. 21 and up THE LONESOME COYOTES • Spicy’s • 8:30PM • Classic honky-tonk from Merle Haggard, Hank Williams, and more. • $5 THE CHUCK MULLICAN JAZZ BONANZA • Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE THE RERUNS • Pero’s on the Hill • 7PM • Knoxville’s premier TV band plays your favorite television themes. BEN SHUSTER • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE THE JON STICKLEY TRIO WITH BROOKS AND JOHN • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-aweek lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional,
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and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE THE JON STICKLEY TRIO • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE TIPSY OXCART WITH PLANKEYE PEGGY • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • See Spotlight. UNCLE FUNKY AND Z. ROWE CASH WITH FREEQUENCY • Willy’s Bar and Grill • 7PM Sunday, July 19 DAN MONTGOMERY AND ROBERT MACHE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM • Dan Montgomery’s recently released Sin, Repent, Repeat shows the fourth time’s the charm. This crowning jewel puts him in full possession of his talents as a songwriter, singer and storyteller. Counterpunch writes: “Montgomery deserves to be considered with the best American singer-songwriters.” The first single, The Drunken Mouth has airplay on many Americana and non-commercial radio stations. POWERDOVE • Pilot Light • 9PM • $5 THE PUNKNECKS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. SHIFFLETT AND HANNAH • Bistro at the Bijou • Noon • Live
jazz. • Free DAVE SLACK TRIO • Pero’s on the Hill • 1PM • Live jazz. SLOW BLIND HILL • Star of Knoxville Riverboat • 5PM • Part of the Smoky Mountain Blues Society’s annual season of summer blues cruises. • $16-$19 SWING 39 WITH THE OLD CITY BUSKERS • Ijams Nature Center • 5:30PM • Part of the summer season of Jazz at Ijams. TALL PAUL • Mulligan’s Restaurant • 4PM Monday, July 20 THE HARAKIRIS WITH EL ESCAPADO • Longbranch Saloon • 8PM BRYAN HAYES AND THE RETRIEVERS • WDVX • 12PM • Bryan Hayes crafts personal narratives with a novelist’s eye and a poet’s elegance. Clear evidence: The Memphis area resident’s seamless new record Farther Down the Line, out now on Retriever Records. AXS Entertainment says it’s “ready-made for country radio…(Hayes) can tell a slice-of-life story just as well as Guy Clark and John Prine.” • FREE MEA CULPA • Pilot Light • 9PM • 18 and up. • $5
TIPSY OXCART Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (200 E. Jackson Ave.) • Saturday, July 18 • 10 p.m. • barleysknoxville.com
The members of NYC Balkan folk-rock band Tipsy Oxcart come from all over the world, and it shows in their music. The band relies on Eastern European folk songs—the kind of darkly jaunty dance tunes that have informed mainstream rock groups like Beirut, Gogol Bordello, DeVotchKa, and A Hawk and a Hacksaw—but goes off in all kinds of geographic directions from there. The band’s new debut album, Upside Down, benefits from a powerhouse rock rhythm section and a funk-without-borders creative philosophy, incorporating elements of Latin, Middle Eastern, and European traditional music with jazz, R&B, and good old rock ’n’ roll. This sort of international dance party isn’t unique, but few contemporary practitioners emphasize the party part as hard as Tipsy Oxcart. (Matthew Everett)
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Spotlight: Branchfest July 16, 2015
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CALENDAR OPEN CHORD BATTLE OF THE BANDS • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Come out to support your favorite local band and hear some great live music. Winner & runner-up will advance to the next round of competition. Judging is based on stage presence, originality, and crowd size. This means the more fans there are to watch a band perform, the better their chances are of advancing to the next round. • $5 THE RADIO BIRDS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. Tuesday, July 21 JAZZ ON THE SQUARE • Market Square • 8PM • Featuring the Marble City 5. Every Tuesday from May 12-Aug. 25. • FREE MIKE AND THE MOONPIES • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • For the past seven years, Mike and the Moonpies have been making a name for themselves as Austin Texas’ premier honky tonk band. With the growing regional popularity of their 2012 release “The Hard Way,” radio single of the same name, and a non-stop regional touring schedule, they have recently taken the entire Texas music scene by storm. JAMIE LIN WILSON • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE ZOLOPHT WITH COLD COLD SWEATS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $3 Wednesday, July 22 BOMBADIL WITH BRIAN GRIFFIN • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7PM • North Carolina’s Bombadil returns to our show for a night of inventive, heartfelt and thought-provoking songs.
Thursday, July 16 - Sunday, July 26
Brian Griffin joins us to read his poems marking the seventh anniversary of the fatal shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. • $10 \GT// • Pilot Light • 10PM • 18 and up. • $5 MARADEEN • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. BETH MCKEE WITH THE BAND CONCORD • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE ROBINELLA AND DANIEL KIMBRO • Sweet P’s Barbecue and Soul House • 6:30PM • FREE THE LARRY VINCENT GROUP • The Bistro at the Bijou • 7PM • Live jazz. • FREE Thursday, July 23 ALBATROSS WITH UNION SPECIFIC • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE CHARLIE AND THE FOXTROTS WITH RUMBLE SEAT RIOT • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM DAVE COLEMAN AND STEPHEN SIMMONS WITH THE COALMEN • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM STEPHEN GOFF • Mulligan’s Restaurant • 7PM GREAT PEACOCK • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Ambitious, Harmony-Heavy, Guitar-Driven, Americana/Pop. Rooted in tradition and headed toward new territory. THE JAUNTEE • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. NATURAL FORCES • Clancy’s Tavern and Whiskey House • 6PM THE THIRST QUENCHERS • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM
Friday, July 24 ADVENTURE CLUB • NV Nightclub • 9PM • Adventure Club is a Dubstep Duo hailing from Montreal. Formed in early 2011, Adventure Club is a production outfit / DJ duo birthed by local musicians Christian Srigley and Leighton James. After a blitz in the studio, they’ve released 5 tracks with an Upcoming EP to hit the scene shortly, With remixes ranging from 1950’s classics, post-hardcore rock to the sweet electronic sounds of today. APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION: THE ULTIMATE GUNS N’ ROSES TRIBUTE • The International • 8PM • 18 and up. • $5-$10 BIG COUNTRY’S EMPTY BOTTLE WITH MIC HARRISON AND THE HIGH SCORE • Preservation Pub • 9:30PM • 21 and up. THE KEITH BROWN TRIO • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE THE COVERALLS • Scruffy City Hall • 10PM DIXIEGHOST • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • At a time when many acoustic roots bands are reaching a broader audience by electrifying their sounds, Dixieghost is swimming against the tide. After having enjoyed local and regional success from 2008-11 as an electrified folk-rock band, they have retooled as an acoustic 6-piece string band. LINES TAKING SHAPE WITH MASS DRIVER, REALM, AND DOC ISAAC • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 7PM • Local rawk. All ages. • $8 R.J. MISCHO WITH DEVAN JONES AND THE UPTOWN STOMP • Knoxville Museum of Art • 6PM • RJ Mischo is considered by critics and fans worldwide to be in the upper echelon of today’s great blues harp players and singers. Mischo’s music is drenched in the grease of the juke joint shuffles
Remember 13-30? Former Knoxvillian (and Whittle Communications alumnus) Jim McKairnes returns to town to sign his memoir about 25 years in Hollywood. Friday July 24, 2015 6-7pm Union Ave Books 517 Union Ave Knoxville TN 37902 865-951-2180
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that have stayed in style since before they called it Rock & Roll. He has performed at major festivals and night clubs throughout the USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Europe. For this performance at AA5, he will be ably backed by Devan Jones and The Uptown Stomp for a very swingin’ evening of Grooving Boogies, Bump and Grind Shuffles and Electric Chicago Blues. • $10 SHANE MYERS • Tipsy’s Patio Bar and Grill • 10PM SUSAN PRINCE • Susan’s Happy Hour • 8PM • FREE SHADY BANKS • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM DAVE SLACK TRIO • Pero’s on the Hill • 7PM • Instrumental and vocal jazz standards. SOUTHBOUND • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM SPOOFED UP: FIESTO, ARMIN VAN BRIAAN, ROD VONSTROKE, AND CHILLON FRANCIS • The Concourse • 9PM • Local producers and DJs spoof EDM. 18 and up. • FREE UNION SPECIFIC • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE THE WHISKEY SESSIONS • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE Saturday, July 25 PAT BAKER AND FRIENDS • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE BETTER DAZE • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM THE BIG PINK WITH ELECTRIC DARLINGS • Scruffy City Hall • 10PM MARK BOLING • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE THE DIRTY DOUGS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM JUSTIN KALEB DRIGGERS WITH CALEB WARREN AND THE PERFECT GENTLEMEN • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s
Thursday, July 16 - Sunday, July 26
Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE MOUNTAIN SOUL • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Country and bluegrass inspired Americana featuring Daniel Kimbro, Cory Kimbro, Jacob Kimbro, Clint Mullican and Po Hannah. East Tennessee stories and Southern sounds. THE RERUNS • Pero’s on the Hill • 7PM • Knoxville’s premier TV band plays your favorite television themes. STEVE RUTLEDGE • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM BEN SHUSTER • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE STATE STREET RHYTHM SECTION • Clancy’s Tavern and Whiskey House • 9PM SUMMER SOUL JAM • Old City Courtyard • 7PM • The last edition of Knoxville’s old-school outdoor R&B concert, featuring the Zapp Band, Whodini, Sunshine Anderson, and more. SUN-DRIED VIBES WITH TREEHOUSE • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. SUNSHINE STATION • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM VINYL TAP • Mulligan’s Restaurant • 7PM JESSICA LEE WILKES • Preservation Pub • 10PM • Lone
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Wolf, the debut release from Jessica Lee Wilkes, will scorch you with the fire of a fearless femme fatale. Hearkening back to 1950s rock ‘n roll and rhythm and blues, Wilkes injects these forms with a raw vigor that shakes the dust off a classic sound. 21 and up. THE NEIL YOUNG TRIBUTE CONCERT • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6PM • Join the Tim Lee 3, Sam Quinn, and many more as we pay tribute to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member and music legend Neil Young. • $5 Sunday, July 26 THE BROCKEFELLERS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM VOO DAVIS WITH LOCUST HONEY • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. JAKE E. LEE’S RED DRAGON CARTEL WITH YEAR OF THE LOCUST AND HARDWIRED • The Concourse • 7:30PM • Former Ozzy Osbourne and Badlands guitarist Jake E. Lee’s new metal band, Red Dragon Cartel, released its debut album in 2014. 18 and up. • $15-$20 RYAN SHELEY • Mulligan’s Restaurant • 4PM SHIFFLETT AND HANNAH • Bistro at the Bijou • Noon • Live jazz. • Free DAVE SLACK TRIO • Pero’s on the Hill • 1PM • Live jazz.
OPEN MIC AND SONGWRITER NIGHTS Thursday, July 16 IRISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the first and third Thursdays of each month. • FREE Saturday, July 18 OLD-TIME SLOW JAM • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 4PM • A monthly old-time music session, held on the third Saturday of each month. • FREE Sunday, July 19 FAMILY FRIENDLY DRUM CIRCLE • Ijams Nature Center • 4PM • Bring a drum or share one of ours. All ages from toddlers to grandparents welcome. Free. Call Ijams at 865-577-4717 ex 110 to register. • FREE Tuesday, July 21 PRESERVATION PUB SINGER/SONGWRITER NIGHT • Preservation Pub • 7PM • A weekly open mic. OLD-TIME JAM SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Hosted by Sarah Pickle. • FREE Wednesday, July 22 TIME WARP TEA ROOM OLD-TIME JAM • Time Warp Tea Room • 7PM • Regular speed old-time/fiddle jam every Wednesday from 7-9 p.m. at the Time Warp Tea Room. All instruments and skill levels welcome. OPEN BLUES JAM • Susan’s Happy Hour • 8PM • FREE BRACKINS BLUES JAM • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM • A weekly open session hosted by Tommie John. • FREE Thursday, July 23 SCOTTISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month. • FREE Friday, July 24 TIME WARP TEA ROOM OPEN SONGWRITER NIGHT • Time Warp Tea Room • 7PM • FREE Sunday, July 26 TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC SESSION • Clancy’s Tavern and Whiskey House • 2PM
DJ AND DANCE NIGHTS
BRANCHFEST Longbranch Saloon • Saturday, July 18 • 2 p.m. • $10 • facebook.com/ knoxlongbranch
Last fall, Cumberland Avenue’s Longbranch Saloon took on new management and, with it, an emphasis on hosting diverse musical acts. Less than a year later, they’re presenting Branchfest, an all-day “mini-fest” featuring a hodgepodge of local and touring bands—“some of the bands we’ve grown closest to since taking over the Longbranch in November,” say the managers on the event’s Facebook page. Branchfest is a tour stop for bluesy indie-rock project Sleeping Policeman and art-pop outfit Canopy Hands, both of whom hail from Myrtle Beach, S.C. Locals include post-hardcore band Camillo the Ocean, who will play a reunion set after initially calling it quits in December 2013; punk group Bad Idols, who released their debut album, Changeling, in February; and emo trio Split Family. (Jack Evans)
Friday, July 17 TOTAL REQUEST DJ DANCE PARTY • Southbound Bar and Grill • 8PM GLOWRAGE • NV Nightclub • 9PM • Get lost in the music, and experience the amazing lights & production brought in by GlowRage. Get loud and messy with thousands and get ready for an experience like no other. The paint washes off but the memories last forever. 18 and up. Saturday, July 18 TOTAL REQUEST DJ DANCE PARTY • Southbound Bar and Grill • 8PM NV HOOPDANCE COMPETITION • NV Nightclub • 9PM NV Nightclub will host its First ever HoopDance Competition. The competition will have a hoop dancer perform on stage during a song they want played. Each contestant can only have up to five minutes on stage. Judges will than grade each performer on overall skill. The top three scores will move to the finals. Sunday, July 19 S.I.N. • The Concourse • 9 p.m. • A weekly dance night for service-industry workers—get in free with your ABC license or other proof of employment. ($5 for everybody else.) • 18 and up. July 16, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 29
CALENDAR Friday, July 24 TOTAL REQUEST DJ DANCE PARTY • Southbound Bar and Grill • 8PM Saturday, July 25 TOTAL REQUEST DJ DANCE PARTY • Southbound Bar and Grill • 8PM MAGIC MIKE MALE REVUE • NV Nightclub • 8PM • The ultimate ladies’ night out. • $15-$35 Sunday, July 26 S.I.N. • The Concourse • 9 p.m. • A weekly dance night for service-industry workers—get in free with your ABC license or other proof of employment. ($5 for everybody else.) • 18 and up.
CLASSICAL MUSIC Thursday, July 16 UT CHAMBER SINGERS • Farragut Presbyterian Church • 8PM • To kick off their upcoming England trip, the singers will present a free farewell concert for the community titled “Across the Pond,” featuring selections from the Anglican genre of Choral Evensong, which includes such musical forms as Preces and Responses, a call-and-response form of singing.
COMEDY AND SPOKEN WORD Friday, July 17
Thursday, July 16 - Sunday, July 26
THE FIFTH WOMAN POETRY SLAM • The Birdhouse • 6:30PM • The 5th Woman Poetry slam is place where all poets can come and share their words of love, respect, passion, and expression. It is not dedicated solely women but is a place where women poets are celebrated and honored. Check out our facebook pages for the challenge of the month and focus for our poetry every month. Saturday, July 18 IMPROV COMEDY CLASS • The Birdhouse • 10AM • A weekly improv comedy class. • FREE Sunday, July 19 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic. Tuesday, July 21 OPEN MIC STAND-UP COMEDY • Longbranch Saloon • 8PM • Email longbranch.info@gmail.com to learn more. • FREE EINSTEIN SIMPLIFIED • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM • Knoxville’s long-running improv comedy troupe. • Free JARED LOGAN WITH KARA KLENK • Pilot Light • 8PM • 18 and up. • $5 Saturday, July 25 IMPROV COMEDY CLASS • The Birdhouse • 10AM • A weekly improv comedy class. • FREE Sunday, July 26 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic. ANJELAH JOHNSON PRESENTS BON QUI QUI • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • Bon Qui Qui is the alter ego of Mad TV’s Anjelah Johnson-Reyes. This original character arose from the
Mad TV sketch ‘King Burger’ and followed Johnson-Reyes’ stand-up routine, ‘Nail Salon’, which went viral and made her an internet sensation. • $35-$50
THEATER AND DANCE Thursday, July 16 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: BAMBI, A LIFE IN THE WOODS • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • Bambi, a young forest deer, suddenly becomes heir to his father, the Great Prince. After Bambi encounters the new feelings of love, fear, loneliness and independence, he comes to understand that all of Earth’s creatures are guided by a greater force than themselves: all are dependent on each. July 10-26. • $12 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: ALL SHOOK UP • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • A hip-swiveling, lip-curling musical romance that features the music of Elvis Presley and will have you jumpin’ out of your blue suede shoes. July 10-26. TENNESSEE STAGE COMPANY: SHAKESPEARE ON THE SQUARE • Market Square • 7PM • TSC’s annual downtown outdoor showcase of Shakespearean drama features rotating productions of The Taming of the Shrew and Macbeth. July 16-Aug. 16. Visit tennesseestage.com. • FREE Friday, July 17 TENNESSEE STAGE COMPANY: SHAKESPEARE ON THE SQUARE • Market Square • 7PM • July 16-Aug. 16. Visit tennesseestage.com. • FREE KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: BAMBI, A LIFE IN THE WOODS • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • July 10-26. • $12 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: ALL SHOOK UP • Oak Ridge
Playhouse • 8PM • July 10-26. Saturday, July 18 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: BAMBI, A LIFE IN THE WOODS • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM and 5PM • July 10-26. • $12 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: ALL SHOOK UP • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • July 10-26. TENNESSEE STAGE COMPANY: SHAKESPEARE ON THE SQUARE • Market Square • 7PM • July 16-Aug. 16. Visit tennesseestage.com. • FREE Sunday, July 19 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: ALL SHOOK UP • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 2PM • July 10-26. KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: BAMBI, A LIFE IN THE WOODS • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 3PM • July 10-26. • $12 TENNESSEE STAGE COMPANY: SHAKESPEARE ON THE SQUARE • Market Square • 7PM • TSC’s annual downtown outdoor showcase of Shakespearean drama features rotating productions of The Taming of the Shrew and Macbeth. July 16-Aug. 16. Visit tennesseestage.com. • FREE
SPORTS AND RECREATION Sunday, July 19 SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: BOB’S BALD • 8AM • Meet at Maryville Walmart at 8:00 AM. Leader: Brian Schloff, brianschloff@yahoo.com. • FREE SECRET CITY SPLASH AND DASH TRIATHLON • Oak Ridge • 8AM Wednesday, July 22 WHOLE FOODS BINGO AND PINT NIGHT • Whole Foods • 6PM
Come by today and try our
• 24 Amazing Beers on Tap • 25 Wines by the Glass • Crafted Appetizers Perfect for Sharing Good Beer Good Wine Good Friends AT THE RENAISSANCE | FARRAGUT 12744 Kingston Pike Suite 104 Knoxville TN 37934 • 865-288-7827 www.mindyerpsandqs.com
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 16, 2015
Thursday, July 16 - Sunday, July 26
FILM SCREENINGS Monday, July 20 THE BIRDHOUSE WALK-IN THEATER • The Birdhouse • 8:15PM • A weekly free movie screening. • FREE Wednesday, July 22 SCRUFFY CITY CINE-PUB • Scruffy City Hall • 7PM • Free Wednesday movie screenings, featuring Sharknado 3 (July 22) and The Hangover (July 29). • FREE Friday, July 24 SUMMER MOVIE MAGIC SERIES: ‘MARY POPPINS’ • Tennessee Theatre • 8PM • A spoiled and bored upper crust Edwardian English family has their world turned upside down by an all nonsensical nanny, played by Best Actress winner Julie Andrews, who teaches them how to enjoy life. • $9 Sunday, July 26 SUMMER MOVIE MAGIC SERIES: ‘MARY POPPINS’ • Tennessee Theatre • 2PM • $9
ART American Museum of Science and Energy 300 S. Tulane Ave. (Oak Ridge) JUNE 12-SEPT. 13: Nikon Small World Photomicrography Exhibit. Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts 556 Parkway (Gatlinburg) MAY 18-AUG. 22 Arrowmont 2015 Instructor Exhibition Art Market Gallery 422 S. Gay St. JULY 3-31: Paintings by Diana Dee Sarkar and ceramics by Eun-Sook Kim. Downtown Gallery 106 S. Gay St. JULY 3-31: The Land Report Collective exhibit. East Tennessee History Center 601 S. Gay St. APRIL 27-OCT. 18: Memories of the Blue and Gray: The Civil War in East Tennessee at 150 Emporium Center for Arts and Culture 100 S. Gay St. JULY 3-31: Hola Hora Latina: Photographs of Cuba; 17th Street Studios: Amalgam Volume 3, a group show featuring art by artists from 17th Street Studios; artwork by Dawn Hawkins; Jacene England: Emotions; and Organic and Mechanic, mixed-media artwork by Susan V. Adams and Barb Johnson. Envision Art Gallery 4050 Sutherland Ave. THROUGH AUG. 15: • Envision Art Gallery Grand Opening Exhibition, featuring artwork by gallery owner Kay List and Larry S. Cole. Ewing Gallery 1715 Volunteer Blvd. JULY 3-31: The Land Report Collective Exhibit Knoxville Museum of Art 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive MAY 8-AUG. 2: Intellectual Property Donor, an exhibit of
CALENDAR
work by Evan Roth. ONGOING: Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in Tennessee; Currents: Recent Art From East Tennessee and Beyond; and Facets of Modern and Contemporary Glass. Liz-Beth and Co. 7240 Kingston Pike JULY 6-25: Looking to Heaven, an exhibit of work by Ober-Rae Starr Livingston, Jeanne Leemon, Theresa Shelton, and Sandy Brown. McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture 1327 Circle Park Drive JUNE 5-AUG. 30: Through the Lens: The Botanical Photography of Alan S. Heilman. Ongoing: The Flora and Fauna of Catesby, Mason, and Audubon and Life on the Roman Frontier. Pellissippi State Community College Bagwell Center for Media and Art 10915 Hardin Valley Road JUNE 22-JULY 31: Letters From Vietnam: International Art Exchange Exhibition, featuring the correspondence and artwork of young people with autism. Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church 2931 Kingston Pike JULY 17-AUG. 30: Exhibits by Lisa Kurtz and Art Group 21. (An opening reception will be held on Friday, July 17, from 6-7:30 p.m.) Westminster Presbyterian Church 6500 Northshore Drive JULY 5-AUG. 30: Work by the Tennessee Artists Association.
LECTURES, READINGS, AND BOOK SIGNINGS Friday, July 17 A MONTH OF MINDFULNESS: MINDFULNESS IN MUSEUMS • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 11:30AM • Join us for a lecture on mindfulness in museums with Lindsey Waugh, Coordinator of Academic Programming. This event is part of the museum series: A Month of Mindfulness. • FREE PUBTALKS: SOCIAL MEDIA AND CONNECTIONS • Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church • 6:30PM • If you’re in your 20’s or 30’s, come out to enjoy Black Eyed Joe’s BBQ and rich conversation, hosted by the Young Adults Ministry at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church. The evening’s topic will be presented by social media expert Mark Schaefer. Visit cspubtalks.com. • FREE Wednesday, July 22 JACK NEELY: THE KNOXVILLE HISTORY PROJECT • East Tennessee History Center • 12PM • Jack Neely will discuss the Knoxville History Project, a fledgling nonprofit focused on researching and promoting the history and culture of the city of Knoxville. Jack Neely, its executive director, will talk about the need for the new organization, how it folds in with other local historical organizations, and its significant role in launching an extraordinarily unusual new newspaper project called the Knoxville Mercury. Neely is a longtime journalist perhaps best known for the long-running Metro Pulse column “Secret History,” and author of several books, most recently the comprehensive 2015 history, “The Tennessee Theatre: A Grand Entertainment Palace.” For more information on the lecture, exhibitions, or museum
hours, call 865-215-8824 or visit the website at www. EastTNHistory.org. • FREE
FAMILY AND KIDS’ EVENTS Thursday, July 16 WHOLE FOODS GAME NIGHT • Whole Foods • 6PM • Grab your peeps and join us for Game Night in The Rocky! We have everything from Candy Land to Chess! A pint, a pizza, and a board: who could ask for more? • FREE CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 1PM • Middle and high school students (or any age) are invited to play chess. Tom Jobe coaches most Saturdays in the Teen Central area of the library. On one Saturday of every month, there will be a rated tournament at the Blount County Public Library. • FREE BABY BOOKWORMS • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM • For infants to age 2, must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. • FREE KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE SUMMER ACTING CLASSES • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM • Knoxville Children’s Theatre, a non-profit theatre producing theatre for children by children, will hold week-long, intensive acting classes during late June and July. Most classes will culminate in a “showcase” presentation for family and friends at the end of the term. All classes include 2 free tickets to a KCT performance. To reserve a seat in any class, or for more information: e-mail Academy Director Dennis Perkins at dennis@childrenstheatreknoxville.com, or call (865) 208-3677. • $240 Friday, July 17 S.T.E.A.M. KIDS • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • For grades K-5. • FREE KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE SUMMER ACTING CLASSES • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM • To reserve a seat in any class, or for more information: e-mail Academy Director Dennis Perkins at dennis@ childrenstheatreknoxville.com, or call (865) 208-3677. • $240 Saturday, July 18 CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 10AM • FREE SATURDAY STORIES AND SONGS • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM • A weekly music and storytelling session for kids. • FREE MCCLUNG MUSEUM FREE FAMILY FUN DAY • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 1PM • The museum will offer a free Family Fun Day based on the exhibition “Through the Lens: Botanical Photography of Alan S. Heilman.” Participants will explore the featured plants in the context of the local agricultural history of East Tennessee, and they will take home a germinating bean project. No reservation is required for this event. • FREE Monday, July 20 MCCLUNG MUSEUM STROLLER TOUR • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 10AM • This program will focus on both beautiful and functional aspects of indigenous plants of East Tennessee by highlighting both “Archaeology and the Native Peoples of Tennessee” gallery and our summer exhibition, “Through the Lens.”The program is free and open to the public, but reservations are necessary and are first come, first served. Online registration is preferred and is available at http://tiny.utk.edu/strollertour. Participants also may call 865-974-2144 to make a reservation. • FREE
July 16, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 31
CALENDAR
Thursday, July 16 - Sunday, July 26
KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE SUMMER ACTING CLASSES • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM •To reserve a seat in any class, or for more information: e-mail Academy Director Dennis Perkins at dennis@ childrenstheatreknoxville.com, or call (865) 208-3677. • $240 Tuesday, July 21 PRE-K READ AND PLAY • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM • FREE KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE SUMMER ACTING CLASSES • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM •To reserve a seat in any class, or for more information: e-mail Academy Director Dennis Perkins at dennis@ childrenstheatreknoxville.com, or call (865) 208-3677. • $240 LEGO CLUB • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • FREE WHOLE FOODS GAME NIGHT • Whole Foods • 6PM • Grab your peeps and join us for Game Night in The Rocky! We have everything from Candy Land to Chess! A pint, a pizza, and a board: who could ask for more? • FREE EVENING STORYTIME • Lawson McGee Public Library • 6:30PM • An evening storytime at Lawson McGhee Children’s Room to include stories, music, and crafts. For toddlers and up. • FREE Wednesday, July 22 BABY BOOKWORMS • Lawson McGee Public Library • 10:20AM • For infants to age 2, must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. • FREE PRESCHOOL STORYTIME • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM • For ages 3 to 5, must be accompanied by an adult.
• FREE KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE SUMMER ACTING CLASSES • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM •To reserve a seat in any class, or for more information: e-mail Academy Director Dennis Perkins at dennis@ childrenstheatreknoxville.com, or call (865) 208-3677. • $240
Gear up for vacation!
Knoxville’s First Escape Game
CLASSES Thursday, July 16 BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: ATTRACTING THE GOOD GUYS WITH HERBS • Humana Guidance Center • 3:15PM • Come and learn how to grow herbs in ways that will attract more pollinators and other good bugs into your yard and garden. • FREE MAP AND COMPASS NAVIGATION BASICS CLASS • REI • 6PM • Come learn basic navigation skills using map and compass to find your way. • FREE Friday, July 17 A MONTH OF MINDFULNESS: MEDITATION IN MOTION • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 11:30AM • Join us for a Meditation in Motion yoga class with instructor Andrea Cartwright, MS, CYT. This event is part of the museum series: A Month of Mindfulness. • FREE
Saturday, July 18 YOGA AT NARROW RIDGE • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 9AM • For more information contact Mitzi Wood-Von Mizener at 865-497-3603 or community@ narrowridge.org. MARBLE SPRINGS SPINNING WORKSHOP • Marble Springs State Historic Site • 10AM • Information found at 865-573-5508Email: info@marblesprings.netWebsite: www.marblesprings.net • $25 KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: MAKING MORE OF YOUR FAVORITE PLANTS • Cedar Bluff Branch Library • 1PM • Have you ever wanted to make an exact copy of your favorite shrub or to fill your garden with one special plant? Extension Master Gardener Lisa Churnetski will discuss different ways to propagate plants and demonstrate some techniques that will give you great results. • FREE Sunday, July 19 UT GARDENS PLANT AND GARDEN PHOTOGRAPHY DEMO • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 3PM • As part of programming related to our current special exhibition, Through the Lens: Botanical Photography of Alan S. Heilman, join us at McClung Museum to learn the basics of plant and garden photography with UT Gardens Director, Dr. Sue Hamilton. • FREE Monday, July 20 KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: KALE IN DECEMBER AND CARROTS IN JANUARY • Davis Family YMCA • 1PM • Call 865-777-9622. • FREE HANDS-ON BIKE MAINTENANCE • REI • 6PM • Join our
certified bike techs to learn about your drive train as well as how to inspect, maintain and adjust front and rear derailleurs to make sure your ride is as smooth as possible. • $45-$65 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 5:30PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. Tuesday, July 21 DUTCH OVEN CAMP COOKING BASICS • REI • 7PM • REI will teach basic recipes, tips and different types of dutch oven cooking. No experience needed. • FREE GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. YOGA WITH SUBAGHJI • The Birdhouse • 5:15PM Wednesday, July 22 AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • John T. O’Conner Senior Center • 12PM • Call Carolyn Rambo at 382-5822.
MEETINGS Thursday, July 16 BIG SOUTH FORK CLIMBING MANAGEMENT LISTENING SESSION • The Square Room • 5PM • Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area will holding two listening sessions in Knoxville to hear from the public their thoughts on rock climbing management issues at the Big South Fork. • FREE OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS • Recovery at Cokesbury • 5:30PM • FREE
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CALENDAR Saturday, July 18 AL-ANON • Faith Lutheran Church • 11AM • Visit our local website at farragutalanon.org or email us at FindHope@ Farragutalanon.org. • FREE Sunday, July 19 SILENT MEDITATION SUNDAYS • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 11AM • The gatherings are intended to be inclusive of people of all faiths as well as those who do not align themselves with a particular religious denomination. For more information contact Mitzi Wood-Von Mizener at 865-497-3603 or community@ narrowridge.org. • FREE Monday, July 20 GAY MEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 7:30PM • We hold facilitated discussions on topics and issues relevant to local gay men in a safe and open environment. Visit gaygroupknoxville.org. Tuesday, July 21 KNOXVILLE COCOAHEADS • Knoxville Entrepreneur Center • 7PM • CocoaHeads is a group devoted to discussion of Apple’s Cocoa and Cocoa Touch Frameworks for programming on OS X (Mac) and iOS (iPhone, iPad). Wednesday, July 22 COMITE POPULAR DE KNOXVILLE • The Birdhouse • 7PM • A weekly meeting of the local immigrant advocacy organization. Thursday, July 23 BIG SOUTH FORK CLIMBING MANAGEMENT LISTENING SESSION • Big South Fork • 5PM • Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area will holding two listening sessions in Knoxville to hear from the public their thoughts on rock climbing management issues at the Big South Fork. • FREE OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS • Recovery at Cokesbury • 5:30PM • FREE
ETC. Thursday, July 16 COMMUNITY COALITION AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING HUMAN TRAFFICKING SUMMIT • Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking • 8:15AM • On July 15 and 16th, 2015, The Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking (CCAHT), an organization at the forefront of the anti-trafficking movement in East Tennessee since 2010, will host their First Annual Human Trafficking Summit. The Summit features presentations on innovative work from local and national human trafficking experts. For those interested in attending, they can visit CCAHT. org/2015Summit. • FREE ETPA BUSINESS MATCHING AND TRADESHOW EVENT • Rothchild Conference and Catering Center • 9AM • This is an exceptional opportunity to maximize your firm’s advertising dollars by meeting with procurement representatives from various local, state and federal governmental agencies under one roof at one time. FRIENDS OF THE BLOUNT COUNTY LIBRARY USED BOOK SALE • Blount County Public Library • 12PM • A fundraiser for the library where more than 50,000 books are available—$1 for soft cover and $2.50 for hard cover, plus movies (DVD & VHS), audiobooks and specially priced rare books, collectibles and others. Thursday, July 16, is a members-only sale, an opportunity for FOL members to purchase books before other members of the public are admitted to the sale. FOL memberships are available at the door. • FREE
NEW HARVEST PARK FARMERS MARKET • New Harvest Park • 3PM • FREE Friday, July 17 FRIENDS OF THE BLOUNT COUNTY LIBRARY USED BOOK SALE • Blount County Public Library • 9AM • A fundraiser for the library where more than 50,000 books are available—$1 for soft cover and $2.50 for hard cover, plus movies (DVD & VHS), audiobooks and specially priced rare books, collectibles and others. • FREE LAKESHORE PARK FARMERS’ MARKET • Lakeshore Park • 3PM • FREE Saturday, July 18 TENNESSEE CHILDREN’S DANCE ENSEMBLE FLEA MARKET AND BAKE SALE • Earth Fare (Bearden) • 8AM • Furniture, household items, tools, toys, and a bake sale to benefit the Tennessee Children’s Dance Ensemble. • FREE OAK RIDGE FARMERS’ MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 8AM • SEYMOUR FARMERS MARKET • Seymour First Baptist Church • 8AM MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 9AM • FREE FRIENDS OF THE BLOUNT COUNTY LIBRARY USED BOOK SALE • Blount County Public Library • 9AM • A fundraiser for the library where more than 50,000 books are available—$1 for soft cover and $2.50 for hard cover, plus movies (DVD & VHS), audiobooks and specially priced rare books, collectibles and others. FREE Tuesday, July 21 EBENEZER ROAD FARMERS’ MARKET • Ebenezer United Methodist Church • 3PM • FREE WHOLE FOODS LADIES NIGHT • Whole Foods • 6PM • Enjoy mocktails, hors d’oeuvres, prizes, massage and yoga demos, and more. • FREE Wednesday, July 22 MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 11AM • FREE
Send your events to calendar@knoxmercury.com
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY March 19, 2015
July 16, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 33
FOOD
Home Palate
Further South of the Border Leños and Carbón brings Colombian cuisine to Knoxville BY DENNIS PERKINS
T
here are few things as exciting to local diners as the opening of a new restaurant, but, of course, not every opening thrills equally; there’s not much to cheer about if there’s another El Nada Mexicano Con Mucho Queso opening down the street. But if a premiere comes with the promise of a new gastronomic experience, then Katie bar the door. I don’t know if crowds of foodies have yet assailed the gates of Leños and Carbón Latin Cuisine, but it’s certainly an exciting addition to Knoxville’s increasingly diverse gustatory options. Leños and Carbón is located in a small strip center on the north side of Kingston Pike, just about a mile and a half west of Lovell Road. The center is set back a little, with some welcome trees between the street and the parking lot, so you’ll want to keep an eye out for the turn. Inside, the place is bright and cheery, as are the many smiling faces that greet you. Despite the fact that new restaurants are often the home of intense smiles, these happy salutations seemed genuine; that was surprising, since my late lunch coincided with what appeared to be a staff meal. Of course, their smiles might have had nothing to do with my presence—after all, they, like me, were about to eat well.
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 16, 2015
It may be that Leños and Carbón is Knoxville’s first Colombian restaurant, though there’s a chance you’ve sampled some of this distinctive South American cuisine at Knoxville’s HoLa festival; that’s where owner Erika Carvajal and her family first introduced their native cuisine to local eaters. Carvajal says that’s also where the idea for the restaurant was born. “People loved our food, and every time we went, they would always say, you guys should open a restaurant.” While their menu includes regional specialties from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Venezuela, Leños and Carbón is first a Colombian restaurant. “Half of the menu is from Colombia because we wanted everybody to know our culture, and
for the other half we added some dishes that are very popular within our Hispanic community, food from Puerto Rica, Cuba, and Venezuela,” Carvajal says “But most of the main dishes are Colombian.” At the suggestion of my buoyant host and server, Freddy (who is also Erika’s husband), I tried the house specialty, bandeja paisa. It’s the dish that you’re likely to see first on a quick Web search for Colombian food, and, for some, it’s considered the national dish. For me, it was an impressive, if daunting, $12 lunch. The first thing to know about this cuisine is that it loves meat. When Carvajal says, “We use a lot of meat on our plates,” she isn’t kiddin’ around. The bandeja plate comes with ground beef or steak, Colombian sausage, blood sausage, and chicharron (pork skin). All that’s in addition to rice, sweet plantain, an egg, an arepa (a corn cake), and a separate bowl of beans. Before you turn up your nose at the thought of blood sausage, think again. As adventurous an eater as I am, this foodstuff has always been a challenge to me, but Colombia’s take on blood sausage includes rice and an aromatic mélange of spices including lots of cumin and garlic. After the first taste, I was able to banish the thought of the name of what I was eating and enjoy a really savory and delicious sausage that made for a stunning flavor sensation when eaten with a mouthful of fried egg and rice. Likewise, pork skin doesn’t always appeal unless you call it pork rind and enjoy it deep-fried at Knox Mason. The Colombian version is
For me, it was an impressive, if daunting, $12 lunch. The first thing to know about this cuisine is that it loves meat.
quite different; their chicharron is, unsurprisingly, a very meaty cut that offers both the pleasures of crispy skin and tender meat. There’s plenty of fat in between, but that is as easy to avoid as it is to enjoy. The arepa is a delicious little grilled disk made from corn meal, but it’s not particularly granular like many corn breads. These show up in different ways on the menu; aside from being a side offering, they can be small or large, slathered in butter or stuffed with cheese, ham, ropa vieja, etc. While Colombia might appear to be a land of carnivores, the beans, which alone would have made a satisfying and delicious lunch, are surprisingly not cooked with pork. Carvajal laughs when I mention that Colombia doesn’t seem like a vegetarian paradise. “The beans are prepared differently in our country,” she says. “They’re not smashed. We serve them more like a soup. To make them thick and rich and heavy we put plantain in them. That way they’re more creamy and rich. We don’t put any meat in them.” Despite the meaty tendency of this country’s appetite, Colombia is
continued on page 36
LEÑOS AND CARBÓN LATIN CUISINE 11151 Kingston Pike, Suite D 865-671-2155 FB: Leños-Carbón-Latin-Cuisine Hours: Mon.-Sun., 11 a.m.-11 p.m.
The Market Square Farmer’s Market Every Wednesday and Saturday in the warmer months, Knoxville witnesses a 161-year tradition. It began in 1854, when ambitious young developers William Swan and Joseph Mabry donated land to the city for a public market. The city built a small market house on the site. A one-story brick building with arched openings, similar in style to market houses in other cities, but small. It covered roughly what’s now the grassy area on the south end of Market Square.
on the ground floor, and public facilities, offices, and an auditorium upstairs. It was a versatile building, but it limited the square’s open space to two wide alleys on either side. The Market House was torn down in 1960, ending a decade of debate about saving it, and the square tranformed into a modernist pedestrian mall. It provided shelter and a public bathroom for agricultural merchants who wanted to keep selling in the traditional space.
According to the original plan, it would be a small market with plenty of open space forming a modest-sized square. As Mabry and Swan suspected, the public market Farmers kept coming to the Square, but space increased the value of the land around The Market is open every Saturday dwindled over the years. By the 1990s, only it. It was slow to start, but by 1859, several from 9 AM to 2 PM, with a smaller market one farmer, Sherrill Perkins (1937-2013), who every Wednesday from 11 AM to 2 PM. buildings had risen on either side of the had a farm in the Seven Islands area of east space, framing a Market Square. By 1870, PHOTO COURTESY OF SHAWN POYNTER Knox County, was appearing on the Square two rows of buildings framed the space, and regularly, to sell produce. it had the appearance of the square as we know it today. Around 2000, in response to development pressures, the city Selling local produce was the only original purpose of Market reimagined old Market Square, in large part by simplifying it Square. It was hardly five years old, however, before it was attractand bringing back some of its original Victorian look. After some ing other kinds of businesses, like “Peter R. Knott’s Bowling Saloon,” question about whether there was still a place for farm produce probably Knoxville’s first bowling alley, which appears in the 1859 on a new square with restaurants, bars, and shopping, a small city directory. It was in the vicinity of what’s now Tomato Head. group of young people organized the Market Square Farmers Over the years, Market Square has hosted groceries, clothing stores, Market. At the front of a national local-foods movement, the saloons, newspaper offices, boarding houses, restaurants, a large MSFM strictly emphasized produce grown within the Knoxville bakery, a hotel, apartments, a sculptor’s studio, saddleries, a candy area. It was a new idea that revived an old ideal. factory, barbers, sausagemakers, art teachers, shoe stores, jewelers, It has grown, and in recent years is a two-block phenomenon with a gunsmith, detectives’ offices, and small movie theaters. Business about 110 vendors every Saturday, selling corn, squash, kale, 30 or owners were widely diverse, including a few blacks, and many 40 kinds of hot and mild peppers, and other vegetables, including, German, Swiss, Jewish and Greek immigrants. this time of year, more than a dozen varieties of tomatoes. Plus local In 1868, Knoxville built its first City Hall on the north end of Marmilk, beef, chicken, pork, coffee, and baked goods--as well as food ket Square. It contained a police station, small jail, and garages trucks and carts, and other locally produced goods like pottery and for firetrucks. A bell hung in its tower could be heard throughfashion accessories. out the city and alerted the citizens to public emergencies. Some July is the best time of year to try the Market Square Farmer’s of the first black elected representatives in the South were Market, to get the freshest possible produce from the farmers aldermen who attended meetings there. themselves, and participate in a tradition that’s been going on in Over the years, the Market House lengthened, eventually abutting the same spot since before the Civil War. City Hall. In 1897, the city built an enormous new Market House, a For more information, see marketsquarefarmersmarket.org. tall, brick Victorian building with rental space for about 60 vendors
The Knoxville History Project, a new nonprofit organization devoted to the promotion of and education about the history of Knoxville, presents this page each week to raise awareness of the themes, personalities, and stories of our unique city. Learn more on www.facebook.com/knoxvillehistoryproject • email jack@knoxhistoryproject.org July 16, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 35
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FOOD home to a vast array of exotic fruits. LeĂąos and CarbĂłn shows that off through a selection of juices, including known quantities like papaya and blackberry alongside some flavors that are less familiar: soursop, guaba, and tree tomato. Both Freddy and Erika were quick to point out another important fact about this cuisine: While it’s very flavorful, it’s not overheated. “In our country, we don’t eat anything spicy, but we offer it because people like it,â€? Erika says. The servers will offer you some good hot sauce, including some homemade Vera Cruz-style heat, if you really want it. But it would be a shame and a real loss not to at least try the food as it’s traditionally served. Still, if you’re inclined to over-season your food, the Carvajals and their staff will shrug it off, because, Erika says, they’re used to people misunderstanding the food. “Most of the people here, they think Latin food and they think
Home Palate
Mexico,â€? she says. “Our food, it’s not like that. Our food is more homestyle.â€? Still, she adds, “We want you to make yourself at home, because it’s homemade food.â€? Despite the newness of Colombian food to our city, the food here isn’t that far away from the qualities that define much Southern and soul food—the cooking is earnest, straightforward, a little rustic, and it recalls tastes of home and comfort. It’s not hurried, and neither should you be when dining at LeĂąos and CarbĂłn. It can take a minute, and, according to some diners, service can be slow, though that was not my experience. Nevertheless, slow service is often part of a restaurant’s opening pains, but if that is true here, part of it may result from the honest approach to cooking. “We take our time with each dish,â€? Erika says. “We want it to feel like it’s homey, like a dish that your grandmother’s making.â€? â—†
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CROQUETAS La Cabaùa Cuban Flavor 723 North Campbell Station Rd., 446-0646 There are many good things to eat at this Cuban restaurant just off Interstate 40 at the Campbell Station Road exit, but these little ham croquettes haunt my dreams. The crispy golden capsules open to a decadent filling of salty ham and rich bÊchamel. They’re served with a nicely potent garlic sauce, but I barely touch it; the crunchy bites are chock full of flavor. They’re $1 apiece, and I always want several. THE REAL MEXICAN TEAM Soccer Taco 6701 Kingston Pike, 588-2020 9 Market Square, 544-4471 Even if you fail to understand the strange delights of buche, cachete, lengua, or other bits of offal that are on this menu section of authentic Mexican treats, don’t pass up the opportunity to try some really fine tacos, huaraches, or sopes with easier to swallow options. Try a taco with chorizo, carnitas, and/or the particularly nice pastor de verdad. Sprinkle them liberally with the chopped onion and cilantro and add a squeeze of lime. Just be sure to take a tiny taste of the hot sauces that come with these options before adding them to your food—they can be intense.
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 16, 2015
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HUEVOS DIVORCIADOS Senor Taco 3325 N. Broadway, 688-0306 This is the fun version of huevos rancheros. It’s called divorciados because it comes with two kinds of salsa that are separated on the plate (divorced, get it?). A fried egg sits happily on top of each pool of salsa—one green, one red. It’s a simple dish that’s flavorful and pretty. —D.P.
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 37
’BYE
Spir it of the Staircase
BY MATTHEW FOLTZ-GRAY
38
KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 16, 2015
Sacred & P rofane
Love Is Ageless Romantic guessing games in West Knoxville BY DONNA JOHNSON
R
iding the bus downtown from West Town Mall seems to take forever, so I began to regard with interest the couple across from me. So engaged were these two with one another that they took no note of me studying them from behind my large dark sunglasses. It was difficult to discern their ages or the nature of their relationship, but there was a great deal of love and tenderness between them. Not, I might add, that kind of frantic misery one feels in a new and exciting romance, but the kind of settled love that endures over a long period of time. No, I had the feeling, watching this couple, that they had been created and put on the planet for no other reason than to love and cherish one another and to sustain each other through the inevitable days of tedium and angst that being alive on the planet Earth entails. I was having difficulty, even with my relentless, probing scrutiny, determining the nature of the love
between these two. The woman stroked the dark hair of the man—or was he a mere boy?—as he nestled his head against the woman’s shoulder. Both seemed to be of indeterminate age. They looked as though they could be anywhere from 18 to 35 or more. Further, was this couple a mother/son duo, lovers, best friends for life, or—and this last occurred to me almost as an afterthought—perhaps twins? This seemed unlikely, but all things are possible. There was a mutual sigh of contentment between the two and a shifting of postures so that the two could feel ever more closely entwined. Now not only was the boy/man’s head resting in the downy curve of the woman’s neck, but now the woman’s head rested on the boy/man’s head, so that they were a bit like swans who turn in toward one another and away from the world at large. All at once the woman turned and saw me watching them. I reluctantly turned my gaze towards the rain-
heavy trees outside as we passed the entrance to Sequoyah Hills. In the instant that the woman looked at me, it was clear that she was a mature woman, perhaps in her late 40s. Summer is beginning to wear me out, with its long, scorching heat and rainy days that only make the heat more miserable afterward. The wet heat seems to form a kind of glaze or gel over everything; a feeling of suffocation dominates. Surely the trees must weep under all that wet foliage and wish for a time to become something else besides a tree—a gazelle, perhaps, or a lion, some kind of creature with the freedom to be somewhere else than standing day after day alongside Kingston Pike, watching the cars glide relentlessly by. All of a sudden I hear the rustling of packages and umbrellas and the ringing of a bell, the signal that the
’BYE
couple across from me had reached their stop. The boy/man sat up and opened his blue eyes and I could see that he was not the woman’s son at all but a boyish man of about her own age. It was with a piercing envy and longing that I watched them saunter down Kingston Pike, carrying their packages and holding hands. I compared their easy familiarity and intimacy with my history of exciting, romantic beginnings that almost invariably ended in anger and violence. I vowed within myself to look for peace in my next relationship, rather than passion. Or, better still, to walk the path of my destiny alone. And just at that instant, a handsome man carrying a violin and speaking with a French accent boarded the bus. As our eyes locked for an instant, I thought, not without chagrin, let the games begin. ◆
BY IAN BLACKBURN AND JACK NEELY
Surely the trees must weep under all that foliage and wish for a time to become something else besides a tree— a gazelle, perhaps, or a lion.
July 16, 2015
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