Issue 7 - April 23, 2015

ALSO INSIDE:

The Official Pullout Guide to Rossini Festival!

OFFICIALLY NOT PART OF THE MEDIA CONSPIRACY

APRIL 23, 2015 KNOXMERCURY.COM

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Not exactly. Tennessee’s open-government laws are outdated and in danger of being undermined.

BY S. HEATHER DUNCAN

NEWS

SCRUFFY CITIZEN

MUSIC

FOOD

The City’s Ambitious New Bike Plan

Howard House: New Chapter, Old Story

King Super and the Excellents Rawk!

Building the Perfect Hoagie

Knoxville Opera’s Overture Contrary to assumptions, Knoxville had live opera long before it had live jazz, rock, or country.

Knoxville’s first big auditorium was known as Staub’s Opera House. Built in 1871 on the southeast corner of Gay and Cumberland, it was named for Swiss immigrant Peter Staub (1827-1904), a tailor and a real-estate speculator whose attempt to found a utopian community for Swiss immigrants had failed. Staub’s Opera House was much more successful. For decades Knoxville’s most popular entertainment venue, Staub’s only occasionally hosted full-length operas. More often it saw visiting opera singers, performing scenes or arias from famous operas.

In the 1880s, Staub’s Opera House became the main venue for a week-long opera festival. Known as the Music Festival or the May Festival, it featured mainly opera, often work by composers who were still active.

In the early era of sound movies, the most popular opera star in America Staub’s Theatre. may have been soprano Grace Moore.

Courtesy of Knox County Public Library Though raised in Jellico, she spent at cmdc.knoxlib.org some early childhood years on Randolph Street in Knoxville. The Met star made a splash with One Night of Love (1934), a popular movie about opera that earned her an Oscar nomination. After her sudden death in a plane crash in Sweden, she was the subject of a biopic, So This Is Love (1953), greeted with a three-day world premiere culminating in a standing-room-only screening at the Tennessee, where Kathryn Grayson, who played the lead, and two other actors, including young Merv Griffin, sang.

The same week, Knoxville’s first elevated-highway exchange, the Grace Moore Cloverleaf, was named in her honor. (Once the main downtown exit from I-40, it no longer exists.)

In late April of 1966, Knoxville hosted perhaps its biggest operatic event since the 1800s. The Dogwood Arts Festival brought the Metropolitan Opera National Co., a short-lived touring version of the Met, to mount three different operas in the space of two days at the Civic Auditorium. Despite its brevity, it was declared “the first opera season here since the days of the old Staub Theatre.” The following “season” of 1966-67 brought more traveling operas, including Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Puccini’s La Bohème.

A few years later, the successful movement to save and renovate the 1909 Bijou Theatre offered a venue, and a motive, for a permanent opera company. Working

with the Lamar House – Bijou Preservation Committee, the Greater Knoxville Arts Council pushed for the establishment of a permanent opera company.

Attorney Lindsay Young (1913-2006) helped organize the nonprofit then known as the Knoxville Civic Opera Society. Decades later, Young’s bequest, the Aslan Foundation, is still a major supporter of the Knoxville Opera.

Substantial tactical assistance came from the University of Tennessee. William Starr, head of UT’s music department, and conductor of UT Symphony Orchestra, brought the music. Edward Zambara, a UT voice coach originally from Vancouver, became the opera company’s first artistic director.

But one woman made a big difference. Mary Costa, the East-Knoxville-raised soprano, was best known for singing the lead role for Disney’s 1959 movie Sleeping Beauty until she debuted with the Met in 1964. She drew praise all over the world for her renditions of dozens of operatic roles, so popular she was invited to perform TV spots with the likes of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. At an age when most sopranos are retiring, Costa became Knoxville Opera’s most effective promoter.

The opera company’s first production arrived in November, 1978, with Verdi’s La Traviata, at the Bijou. Mary Costa herself sang the lead role, Violetta. Another local star, mezzo-soprano Delores Ziegler of Alcoa, played Flora. The production that marked the launch of a new opera company earned a perhaps unexpected rave in the national Opera News.

Costa also appeared in the company’s second production, the following year: Vocalist and actress Mary Costa.

Public domain image courtesy of wikipedia.com The Merry Widow. She sang the title role.

Years later, Costa moved back to her hometown, is still one of the opera’s most loyal supporters and attendees.

Larger crowds forced a move from the Bijou to the Civic Auditorium and the Tennessee Theatre, where the opera finally settled in the 1990s. The Tennessee’s huge expansion and renovation project, completed 10 years ago, was partly driven by the demands of opera.

Source: Subject files and other resources at the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection.

For more about Knoxville Opera, and this weekend’s Rossini Festival, see www.knoxvilleopera.com.

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 2

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 23, 2015

April 23, 2015 Volume 01 / Issue 07 knoxmercury.com “We live in an age where there is a firehose of information, and there is no hierarchy of what is important and what is not.” —David Carr

14 Sunshine State?

COVER STORY

Tennessee sunshine laws are supposed to give residents a right to see most government records and attend meetings where elected officials and other

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“deliberative bodies” make decisions. But the weather seems to be clouding. In the first four months of this year, Knoxville has seen open meetings violations by its 911 board, including the police chief and sheriff; the state Legislature has acknowledged that most of its committees have been regularly holding secret “pre-meetings”; and legislators floated about 25 bills that either attempted or succeeded in reducing public access to records and meetings. S. Heather Duncan makes some information requests.

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The Scruffy Citizen Jack Neely wades into the Howard House saga, recalling a previous, even grander house on North Broadway.

Brendan Toller

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Architecture Matters George Dodds ponders the future of Knoxville’s most unloved stretch of highway, James White Parkway.

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The Scruffy City Film & Music Festival starts April 28, with a schedule of documentary films that examine music in some form or fashion. Coury Turczyn talks with director Brendan Toller, whose biography of music impresario Danny Fields is causing a stir on the festival circuit.

CALENDAR

Program Notes Who’s Guy Marshall? And Nick Huinker exhumes Chelsea Horror in Retro Grade.

investigation

END AR

’Bye Finish There: Sacred & Profane

by Donna Johnson, Crooked Street Crossword by Ian Blackburn and Jack Neely, Spirit of the Staircase by Matthew Foltz-Gray

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Howdy Start Here: Ghost Signs, Believe It or Knox!, Public Affairs, Quote Factory.

PLUS: Words With …

Trent Steele

OPINION

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From the Publisher

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The Knoxville Bike Facilities Plan Report released in February makes the bold claim that “Knoxville, Tennessee is experiencing a bicycling renaissance.” Is it, really? Maybe.

The ambitious plan proposes a decade’s worth of improvements. But can the city fund them? Eleanor Scott takes a look.

S s e t u e r u n legislat i r e c o m r d s transpa charged rency 911 policberutality

We’ll be manning the Knoxville Mercury booth at this Saturday’s international street festival, near the the Mast Store. Say hi!

DEPARTMENTS

36 Q&A: Filmmaker

Shelf Life Chris Barrett surveys new additions to the public library’s AV collection.

Music King Super and the Excellents rawk hard.

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Spotlights: Eddie Spaghetti, Elizabeth Cook, and Volapalooza

FOOD & DRINK

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Home Palate Dennis Perkins visits the North Corner Sandwich Shop to witness a hoagie under construction. Plus: Other notable sandwiches around town.

Classical KSO’s penultimate Masterworks portends a promising future.

Theater Clarence Brown’s Threepenny Opera misses the point.

Movies Monkey Kingdom adds drama to its docu.

April 23, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 3

FROM THE PUBLISHER O

In the Trenches

ne recent Wednesday evening, I stopped by the world headquarters of Saw Works Brewing Company to see Adam Palmer, the president and co-founder. I walked in with a few copies of the latest issue of the Knoxville Mercury, just off the truck from the printer. There were about 25 people gathered around a few big tables they had pulled together. I placed the papers on a table and someone asked me who I was and what my connection was to the paper. So I told them.

Everyone stood, applauded, and offered me food. They even bought me a beer.

Of course, this wonderful welcome had nothing to do with me. These folks missed having a free and independent newspaper in Knoxville and welcomed its return as the Knoxville Mercury.

The Wednesday Saw Works Crew is a group of business leaders, preservationists, and musicians who meet each week. All of them are active, passionate, and invested in the Knoxville community. Our distributor had installed a rack at Saw Works on March 11 and stocked it with the inaugural issue of the Knoxville Mercury. The group was there when it arrived, got excited, and captured the moment in the photo below.

That’s just one of the many personal stories I experience as I travel around Knoxville and beyond, visiting with potential clients and partners, drumming up business to sustain our new publication. They’re reminders of why we’re doing this: to bring back the

sort of paper that readers love, one that makes a difference to them and their communities.

Henry Holcomb, the former president of the Philadelphia Newspaper Guild and a journalist for 40 years, said that newspapers had a clearer mission when he started in the business: “Report the truth and raise hell.”

That mission has become hazy in the new era of journalism, with newspapers struggling to survive. It’s become more about staying in business and less about raising hell.

So, in the business of journalism, who are our customers and what is our product?

At the Mercury, Coury, Matthew, Jack, and the rest of the editorial crew know that you are our customers and journalism that tells the truth and raises hell is our product.

But as the publisher responsible for revenue, I have a different perspective. I’m trying to sell our readers to our clients. The Mercury audience, like the audience for Metro Pulse, is made up of Knoxville’s most informed and engaged citizens (with a higher than average income, too). We want to deliver that audience to our clients, who can benefit from communicating with these readers.

Balancing these two very different points of view can create a great publication. That’s why so many newspapers used to tout the “wall” between editorial and sales; readers would come for the integrity of the content, and advertisers would come to

Delivering Fine Journalism Since 2015 reach those passionate readers. That wall has tumbled in recent years as publishers strive to find new revenue to replace the money lost to digital media.

The local media scene is no different. Many of our free print competitors unabashedly blur the line between editorial and advertising, giving their clients coverage in return for ad purchases. These stories perhaps serve a purpose in showcasing local businesses, but the content is paid for by the advertisers. You can call it advertorial, but it’s not independent journalism.

And I wonder if it really holds much credibility with the people who see the articles.

To put it in perspective: If one of those publications were to suddenly disappear, would the citizens of Knoxville unite and dig into their pockets to support its return?

Would they miss those advertorials so much that they would hold public demonstrations? Would they even notice the absence?

At the not-for-profit Knoxville Mercury, we’re shoring up the wall between editorial and sales. While it’s inevitable for us to write about events or businesses that are advertised on our pages, none of those articles are paid for—they are chosen by the editors based on their newsworthiness. We believe Knoxville needs to know more about them, whether they advertise or not.

But please keep in mind that the Knoxville Mercury is free because it is largely funded by local business owners. Our local business owners help define our communities. These creative, dedicated, hard-working craftspeople, entrepreneurs, and brilliant minds make Knoxville unique and they need your support.

You have choices as a consumer about what you read and what you buy.

Choose local businesses and thank them for supporting the Knoxville Mercury.

—Charlie Vogel

CORRECTION

In last week’s news feature on Knox County Schools’ proposed balanced calendar, we misidentified Alex Goldberg—his name is clearly not Alex Goldman.

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 23, 2015

EDITORIAL EDITOR

Coury Turczyn coury@knoxmercury.com SENIOR EDITOR

Matthew Everett matthew@knoxmercury.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Jack Neely jack@knoxhistoryproject.org STAFF WRITER

S. Heather Duncan heather@knoxmercury.com CONTRIBUTORS

Victor Agreda Jr. Chris Barrett Ian Blackburn Patrice Cole Eric Dawson George Dodds Matthew Foltz-Gray 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 Joe Tarr William Warren Chris Wohlwend

DESIGN ART DIRECTOR

Tricia Bateman tricia@knoxmercury.com GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

Charlie Finch Corey McPherson CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

David Luttrell Shawn Poynter Justin Fee Tyler Oxendine CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATOR

Ben Adams

ADVERTISING PUBLISHER & DIRECTOR OF SALES

Charlie Vogel charlie@knoxmercury.com SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Scott Hamstead scott@knoxmercury.com Stacey Pastor stacey@knoxmercury.com ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Christopher Black chris@knoxmercury.com

BUSINESS DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Jerry Collins jerry@knoxmercury.com

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 706 Walnut St., Suite 404, Knoxville, Tenn. 37902 knoxmercury.com • 865-313-2059 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR & PRESS RELEASES

editor@knoxmercury.com CALENDAR SUBMISSIONS

calendar@knoxmercury.com SALES QUERIES

sales@knoxmercury.com DISTRIBUTION

distribution@knoxmercury.com The Knoxville Mercury is an independent weekly news magazine devoted to informing and connecting Knoxville’s many different communities. It is a taxable, not-for-profit company governed by the Knoxville History Project, a non-profit organization devoted to exploring, disseminating, and celebrating Knoxville’s unique cultural heritage. It publishes 25,000 copies per week, available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. © 2015 The Knoxville Mercury

April 23, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 5

Illustration by Ben Adams

HOWDY

Believe It or Knox!

BY Z. HERACLITUS KNOX

GHOST SIGNS BY BUD RIES

Perhaps nothing is ever truly perfect. But this old lettering for the Perfections Auto Body Shop on Broadway came pretty close.

Nothing lasts forever, either, and so it goes that this sign was painted over last year for a new development.

QUOTE FACTORY “I think it’s beautiful that [the local AKA chapter] has started their own for their girls.”

—Anne Trent, chairman of the board of the East Tennessee Presentation Society, in a News Sentinel story about the Dogwood Ball. Buried in the story was the nonprofit group’s criteria for its invitation-only debutante ball: young women must be college sophomores, unmarried, and white. The AKA Ball, however, does not require its debutantes to be African American. In a later WVLT interview, Trent denied ever stating that the group uses a racial criteria for its balls.

4/23 URBAN PLANNER GIL PENALOSA 4/25 OUTDOORKNOXFEST 2015 7 p.m., The Standard (416 W Jackson Ave.). Free.

As a former commissioner of parks for Bogota, Colombia, Penalosa helped transform that city’s public space during the late 1990s to promote walking and biking. As part of the Tennessee Bike Summit (see our news feature on page 12), he will be speaking on “creating a safe and joyful space for everyone from 8 to 80 years old.”

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 23, 2015

The Sanford Arboretum, a labor of love by Knoxville newspaper publisher Alfred Fanton Sanford, was a tourist attraction beginning in the 1920s. In his arboretum, Sanford endeavored to plant one example of EVERY TREE THAT GROWS INDIGENOUSLY IN TENNESSEE! Designed by the Olmsted Brothers, sons of famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the unique arboretum dominated the southeast corner of Cherokee Boulevard and Kingston Pike, stretching down to the river. It did not survive long after Sanford’s death in 1946, after which the land was subdivided for residential development. However, to this day, people who live in that neighborhood boast of “Sanford Trees” in their backyards.

In the 19th century, romantics liked to refer to the Seven Hills of Knoxville, an allusion to ancient Rome.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS THURSDAY

Due to its divided loyalties, Knoxville has never erected a Confederate or Union monument downtown. The monuments in the courthouse lawn commemorate the Spanish-American War and the grave of early governor and soldier John Sevier.

SATURDAY

9 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Outdoor Knoxville Adventure Center.

Free.

Outdoor Knoxville’s annual celebration of, well, outdoor Knoxville offers a plethora of activities in and around our Urban Wilderness: history hikes, open paddles, fly fishing clinics, group bike rides, and more.

Runs through Sunday. Info: outdoorknoxville.com.

4/26 FOURTH & GILL 25TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR OF HOMES SUNDAY

1-6 p.m., Central United Methodist Church (201 Third Ave.). $10.

The Fourth & Gill neighborhood was into historic preservation way before the rest of Knoxville latched onto the idea, and has seen a lot of classic Victorians refurbished in the past 25 years. Take a gander at the results in this quarter-century anniversary tour.

4/28 TENNESSEE THEATRE OPEN HOUSE TUESDAY

5-9 p.m., Tennessee Theatre. Free.

If you’ve ever been curious about the history of Knoxville’s movie palace, this is the event for you. The Tennessee Theatre is opening its doors for backstage tours, Wurlitzer organ music, and a history talk (at 8 p.m.) by Jack Neely—no tickets required. Tours will leave from the lobby at 5:30, 6, 6:30 and 7 p.m. and are limited to groups of 60 people per tour; wristbands will be distributed in the lobby beginning at 5 p.m. (Coincidentally, Neely will also be signing copies of his recent book about the Tennessee Theatre, 6:30-7:30 p.m.)

HOWDY WORDS WITH ...

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BY ROSE KENNEDY Trent Steele operates the Maverick Detection Services/Avian Management Authority, a recently opened business that employs his Weimaraners, Alex and Buck, to discourage nuisance geese and detect bedbugs for commercial enterprises. He also works as part of the geese management system at Cove Lake State Park.

What gave you this idea?

The idea of using dogs in general to chase off geese and detect bedbugs has been around a long time. A friend of mine in Virginia Beach who runs Mid-Atlantic Weimaraner Rescue, Dan Stallings, started using his rescues and personal pets to give them a job to do. Weimaraners are a highly-driven breed that needs mental and physical exercise. Doing both these duties stimulates their energy and minds.

How is the business doing?

We are still getting it off the ground. Geese patrol is hopping right now, as there are resident geese getting ready to nest. The migratory birds will be coming in soon to find a nest as well. We do jobs at airports, apartment complexes, and anywhere there is a nuisance of geese. At the same time, we are constantly training on the bedbug side of the business. I have a colony of bedbugs that we train with. We are always training, ready to go.

Do you have to have some sort of certification?

We are certified through National Detection Dog Academy.

How on earth do you train dogs to chase geese on command?

You have to remember, Weimaraners are German bird dogs. Their high drive is on all the time. They have obedience commands that they follow.

Has anything unusual ever happened during service calls?

I have lost a few remote-control boats in the Tennessee River. I use them in tandem with the dogs to scare the geese when they go in the water. They have to choose to come back to land or go somewhere else. One time I flipped a remote-control boat over near Cherokee Farms off Alcoa Highway and watched it float down the river. I then went to

Sequoyah Hills to watch it until it got hung in something. I went to River Sports to rent a canoe to go get it. When I was in the canoe, I thought I saw a bird in the water flapping its wings. It turned out to be a dog that had swam across the river from Sequoyah. I stayed near him and finally just scooped him up—he was shaking and shivering. I got my remote-control boat back and brought him back to shore. His owners were there crying, saying that was the first time he had swam.

Is this really mean to the geese?

We don’t consider it cruelty because we are using their fight or flight instincts. So right now, geese will be protective of their nests, for example. We don’t destroy nests or “addle� eggs—put corn oil on them to break down the membranes. We simply chase them so they know they are not wanted in an area. If they have something chasing them, they will leave. Putting out fake dogs or cardboard cutouts or even strobe lights does not work. They get used to the items. Only something live that is chasing them will do the trick. Also, their poop can carry harmful bacteria, and the majority of the areas we patrol are in parks, ponds, and business areas. Hazing geese—that’s the biz term—is actually recommended by PETA.

Alex is a dock jumper—does he use his technique with geese?

Alex is 6 and a member of Smoky Mountain DockDogs. His longest jump was 24 feet, 10 inches.

And he does use those skills for geese patrol, because it involves speed and then jumping in the water after them. Buck is 2 and he will jump off the dock if Alex does—not any other time. But he really enjoys sniffing out the bedbugs—his tail spins like a helicopter.

For more information, e-mail Steele at: alexandbuck@todetectandtoserve.com

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 7

SCRUFFY CITIZEN

The Howard House The current controversy is the latest chapter in a long, discouraging story

BY JACK NEELY

O

n Saturday afternoon, a dozen or so sign-carrying demonstrators stood along Broadway, in front of a pretty old tree-shaded house. For whatever it’s worth, dozens of drivers honked in support. The 1910 Howard House at 2921 Broadway, just this side of Atlantic Avenue, is a rarity.

Broadway used to have scores of especially pretty old houses, but over the years we’ve turned it over to parking lots, strip malls, drive-thrus.

As of this spring, at least, the Howard House is still there.

Built in 1910, it wasn’t just an example of its era—it was an exemplar. Featured in an early promotional brochure called “Greater Knoxville Illustrated” as one of the best examples of stylishly modern new Craftsman houses of that era, it was designed by local architect Charles Hayes. A University of Tennessee grad who trained with noted architect George Barber, Hayes did most of his work elsewhere, especially Atlanta and Mobile—but he designed this one in his hometown for his own brother, Lynn Hayes, who was Knox County Trustee during the World War I era.

Lynn Hayes was also a successful contractor who built some of the first houses on Cherokee Boulevard, which as a beautiful residential avenue arguably stole the place in Knoxville’s heart that used to belong to Broadway.

The same house later served as

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 23, 2015

home to Charlton Karns, Knoxville city manager and two-term city councilman. Later still, it was the Minton Tourist Home, in the days of the Dixie Highway. We’d call it a bed and breakfast. Maybe that’s an ideal use for it today.

The Howard family, who were in the plumbing and heating trade, but got involved in public life. Resident Paul Howard was a city councilman in the 1970s. That house was home to a county trustee, a city manager, two city councilmen. (Is there a house in Sequoyah Hills with such a record for municipal leadership?) The Howards lived there longer than anyone else— for 60-odd years—and took good care of the house. Now a developer known for preparing the way for regional Walmarts wants the property. The house site would become a small part of a proposed surface parking lot.

I suspect Walmart’s public-relations team is overworked, but it

might behoove them to recall a cautionary tale.

There are people who still despise one particular big-box store for doing in another Broadway landmark, just a couple of miles north. Of all Broadway’s grand residences, none of them were quite like Park Place. Designed by Baumann Brothers in the early 1890s for hotel developer J.C. Woodward, the 23-room mansion reigned over a hilltop at Broadway and Gibbs Drive and intrigued all passers by with a turret, balconies, wraparound porches, columns, stained-glass windows, and what were described by a scholar as “remarkably delicate carvings” in stone and terra cotta.

That was just what you could see on the outside. Most Fountain Citians never saw the inside of Park Place, but were proud of it anyway.

Target bought the property and, after a fight with some City Council folks and other erstwhile planners, tore down the house along with the hill it sat on and put in a flat ordinary store and parking lot there. All that happened 35 years ago. But even after more than a third of the century, some people in Fountain City still speak of it with regret and, specifically, disdain for Target.

That story comes with an all-too-familiar coda. By 2005 Target decided they didn’t need that store anymore and abandoned it. They’d proven who was boss. And having proven who was boss, nobody can tell them they can’t just move somewhere else.

In most preservation cases, I’ve found, it’s the proving who’s boss that turns out to be the important thing.

Now the site’s a strip mall with a Kroger and some other things. You’d never guess there was any history to it.

There are some differences between the Howard House and Park Place. The latter was more jaw-droppingly astonishing to see. It was also harder to suggest new uses for in an

Every time we tear down an old building, our city gets crappier.

era when most people live in households of two or three and few of us are coal barons.

The Howard House seems much more manageable.

T

here are lots of reasons to save old houses. One of the best ones is the one that’s chillingly practical. It’s that every time—and in my lifetime, it’s been every single time—we tear down an old building, what we replace it with is worse.

I’ll define my terms, here. By “old,” I mean a building 75 years old or more. And by “worse,” I don’t just mean something I personally like less, from some sentimental, nostalgic, past-worshipping point of view.

I mean categorically worse.

Cheaper, flimsier, uglier, less sustainable, less versatile, more dysfunctional.

Every time we tear down an old building, our city gets crappier.

Here’s a challenge: Can you think of an exception?

You’ll find some examples in the deeper past. Some interesting buildings, like the once-famous mid-Victorian McCrary & Branson studio, were torn down around 1925 to build the Tennessee Theatre. Some pretty houses and a notable 19th-century school were torn down for Church Street Methodist Church, which any agnostic would admit is an architectural monument.

It’s possible we might one day tear down an interesting old building for something that turns out to be worthy. I like modern architecture. I just can’t think of any living-memory examples of replacing an old building with something better. Can you? It doesn’t have to be that way; it just is.

It’s the way we do things now. It’s not just that materials are more expensive, though they are, or that workmanship is more expensive, though it is. Those facts do introduce some discouraging math. We can’t replace old buildings for any amount close to what our forefathers built them for, even adjusted for inflation.

But more than those realities, a take-the-money-and-run ethic dominates 21st-century Knoxville more than it ever has in history.

The people who call the shots in Knoxville development are rarely figuring on sticking around for long.

And you can’t blame them for shunning a city that’s more and more about parking lots.

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April 23, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 9

ARCHITECTURE MATTERS

Follow the Infrastructure What should we do with the James White Parkway?

BY GEORGE DODDS

I

nfrastructure wasn’t much of a hot-button topic in this country until relatively recently. There have always been occasional inter-beltway debates over Amtrak funding and other rail-related projects. That said, during the past few years it seems we have witnessed a sea change of sorts: Congressional diatribes regarding the meaning of “shovel-ready projects;” the governor of New Jersey putting the kibosh on a multi-billion-dollar rail-tunnel connecting Manhattan and northern New Jersey; the alarmingly high percentage of bridges in this country that are unsafe at any speed; our major airports operating at “developing nation” levels. All of which contributes to creating the controversial profile of what was, for decades, a dusty pro forma affair of state, and state of affairs.

Of course, public funding of infrastructure is not new. Writing in the last century before Christ, Marcus Vitruvius dedicates much space of his “10 Books on Architecture” to infrastructural matters, although he does not use the term. While in Augustan Rome the state paid for such things, this concept dissipated in the modern era. The construction of railways, roads, and canals increased dramati-

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cally during the 19th century, keeping pace with a radically industrialized West, yet many were privately owned (including parks).

In the early 20th century, before the invention of the modern military-industrial complex, the federal government invested in several large-scale infrastructural projects simultaneously: the Intracoastal Waterway, Hoover and Great Coulee Dams, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Works Public Administration, for reasons that were equal parts social, political, and economic.

Following World War II, our national appetite for massive infrastructural projects was as insatiable as our wartime industrial capacity seemed without limits. It was, after all, as Time magazine’s Henry Luce famously called it, “The American Century.”

In many cases, the desire to build roads seemed to far outpace demand. A photograph documenting the completion of the first portion of the Eisenhower Interstate System depicts a collection of beef-fed middle-aged white men standing in front of a large billboard proudly announcing “eight miles concrete pavement on US-40” that was “completed under provision of the new Federal Aid Highway Act of

1956.” That photograph, taken in Kansas, was in the middle of a markedly dusty vacant terrain. There are remarkably similar photographs documenting the construction of other stretches of interstates from the late 1950s, all of which have the look about them of Neil Armstrong grading roads in the Sea of Tranquility. Yet, there is something to be learned from the horror vacui provoked by these quintessentially American void-scapes.

It can be said of a path that it connects one place with another while a highway simply goes on. As anyone who has driven the James White Parkway knows, it is neither. Yet, nor is this conspicuous shard of infrastructure a parkway. It offers little utility and none of the ambiance that a parkway originally was intended to provide.

Frederick Law Olmsted and partner Calvert Vaux coined the term in 1866 to describe the Eastern Parkway, a scenic roadway they designed to connect one public park with another. For Olmsted, who also designed the site of the Chicago Columbian Exposition (1893), the Biltmore Estate (1895), the campuses of three dozen important schools and colleges, and the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, a parkway was a verdant, picturesque place, slow moving and serene, conceived as linear park, connecting one place with another, which incidentally carried vehicular traffic.

Certainly, based on its original meaning, the James White Parkway is no such thing; it is a blunt tool connecting nothing at all to nowhere in particular. And now that its extension into the wilds of South Knoxville seems to have died the slow death of multiple failed funding votes, it is time to seriously consider how the city and county will repair the environmental and cultural damage done by this road to nowhere. Not that the natural basin and First Creek that much of the parkway covers was a paradisaical garden prior to James White Parkway’s construction. By the middle of the 19th century, the basin at the eastern edge of center city had become a relatively rough and unpleasant place populated by Knoxville’s outcasts, and the creek little more than an open sewer.

There are a range of strategies to remediate the current dilemma posed

by JWP: from submerging it beneath an artificial platform on which the

pattern of existing streets are extended, physically connecting Central with Hall of Fame Drive, to simply building pedestrian walkways connecting the urban core’s east-west streets to cross the natural divide. In a more extreme proposal, the existing roadway would be excised, First Creek exhumed and rehabilitated, creating an inhabitable and sustainable urban landscape.

This new landscape would be an extraordinary amenity to a developing city and a long-term method of remediating the polluted runoff that daily filters its way through the ravine.

These are hardly new ideas as urban designers have been confronting, for decades, dilemmas such as the James White. I was introduced to this strategy of urban planning during my undergraduate studies in Detroit, where I spent a year working with Charles A. Blessing, the director of city planning for Detroit (1953-77). Blessing’s obituary in The New York Times notes that in addition to his work for the city and as an educator, immediately following the war he worked on city planning in Gen. MacArthur’s headquarters in Tokyo. Blessing was famous for his profound knowledge of the history of cities and his ability to draw beautifully what others could not yet see. While discussing the ubiquitous relation of Detroit’s many elevated or canalized expressways to the contiguous urban fabric, he often retorted: “Grass can always grow on the expressways!” He meant it, and he was right. Think of Boston’s Big Dig or Manhattan’s High Line. Anyone who can remain relentlessly optimistic after confronting post-nuclear Japan, or post-OPEC Detroit for that matter, is a man worth listening to.

Make no mistake about it; Infrastructure has always been a powerful force in the shaping of cities.

Infrastructure does not follow the expansion of the modern city; it anticipates it. Certainly, the James White foresaw a certain vision of a particular part of our future metropolis. In the case of this hopelessly dysfunctional means of vehicular conveyance, however, if we follow this infrastructural fragment, it leads us nowhere. For we miss the point if we focus on how and where it begins and ends. The critical matter before this city now is what lies on either side, and what can be gained from bridging the gap, joining center and edge in support of a reinvented urban core

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Caroline Cooley, Bike Walk Knoxville

With the TN Bike Summit in town this week, Knoxville assesses its bicycling future

BY ELEANOR SCOTT

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T

he Knoxville Bike Facilities Plan Report released in February makes the bold claim that “Knoxville, Tennessee is experiencing a bicycling renaissance.”

Is it, really? Maybe.

An April 8 public meeting introducing the city’s new bicycle plan drew a near-capacity audience at the East Tennessee History Center. In her opening remarks, Mayor Madeline Rogero observed that 2013 was the fi rst year the city set aside money— about $60,000—to fund bicycle-related projects. In 2015, the city budgeted $250,000 for bicycle infrastructure.

But with over 220 projects planned at a projected cost of $38 million over 10 years, the city may have to get creative with funding sources as it begins implementation. The developers of the

bike plan say they are counting on state, federal, and private grants to put the plan into action.

The bike facilities plan was developed by the city engineering department, the Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization, the consultant group Kimley Horn, Toole Design group, and a steering committee of bike advocates. It’s a flexible blueprint for future bike lanes, signed bike routes, and lane markings within the city. The list of projects is ranked in priority, based on factors like existing dangerous conditions and possible connections between popular destinations. (See sidebar.) Bike advocates say increased bike use will promote health, improve the environment by reducing car use, and allow people without cars a mode of cheap transportation.

The public meetings on the plan have drawn lots of positive comments and gestures of support by local bike advocates, and the Rogero administra-

tion has been taking pro-bike measures, evidenced by its 2013 creation of an alternative transportation coordinator in the engineering department. Still, the bike plan faces challenges—namely, finding the money to pay for it while also overcoming a car- centric culture.

According to city communications director Jesse Mayshark, the city intends to start implementing the plan with next year’s budget. Rogero will announce the exact amount proposed for 2015-16 at her State of the City address on April 29—and, like the rest of the budget, it will be subject to approval by City Council. “But the bike plan is defi nitely a priority,” Mayshark says. “Obviously, any other funds—state, federal, etc.—will help do more things sooner.”

Jon Livingood, the city’s alternative transportation coordinator, has been seeking out those other funding sources. In addition to applying for a Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Improvement grant to fund improvements to Chapman Highway (see sidebar), he has also submitted for the TDOT Multimodal Access Fund, which could fund improvements to Kingston Pike along the West Knoxville bike route. Some other grants he plans to apply for range from the relatively small nonprofit People for Bikes to the Transportation Alternatives Program, which is federal money managed by TDOT. Livingood aims to patch together these various sources of money to fund the bike projects piecemeal, with the idea that having an overall bike plan on paper will make the city’s requests more appealing to potential grant funders.

The city’s installation of bike facilities has received a little pushback in the past year. One local business owner complained about new bike lanes in front of his store, Livingood says, as well as opposing the conversion of one street-parking space near his front door to bike parking, complete with racks.

“His reaction was instant anger. It blew my mind. He wanted it to go back to four lanes of cars in front of his store,” says Livingood, adding that some people don’t understand the benefits of bicycles.

That public-relations gap presents another problem for the plan: How likely will the city be able to carry out its ambitious slate of projects if the plan lacks widespread public support?

“It’s likely if people speak up and email their councilpersons and the mayor and become more active in the county,” says Monika Miller, one of the organizers behind the 4th Annual Tennessee Bike Summit, which is meeting April 23-24 at the Knoxville Convention Center to specifically address how cities can better accommodate bicycles. “There is plenty of understanding for why these facilities are needed on a city level, but in order to justify it financially, people need to reach out to their elected officials.

Then it’s absolutely possible.”

Miller spent her teenage years in West Knoxville, where she was frustrated by the lack of bike facilities.

After college she briefly lived in Portland, Ore., a city famous for its bike

infrastructure, and returned to Knoxville with a renewed sense of possibility.

She reached out to TPO’s Bicycle Advisory Committee and got involved.

Miller and Caroline Cooley, unpaid volunteers, are the principle organizers of the TN Bike Summit, with help from Livingood, TPO’s Kelley Segars and Ellen Zavisca, and the advocacy group Bike Walk TN. Cooley is a founding member and current president of Bike Walk TN’s local chapter, Bike Walk Knoxville.

Miller, an architect at Elizabeth Eason, and Cooley, a physician at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center, both regularly bike to work.

“As a physician, I see the health consequences of people not having what Monika calls ‘incidental activity’ in their lives,” says Cooley. “It’s having a sidewalk in front of your house. It’s walking to meet your friends.”

In other words, it’s exercise people get almost by accident as a result of a city that allows physical activity to be an ordinary part of everyday life, something for which Cooley has advocated for years through Bike Walk TN. But can progressive bike and pedestrian infrastructure affect real change in the health and culture of a city?

Liliana Burbano, project coordinator of Knox County Health Department’s Healthy Kids Healthy Commu-

In 2013, former city hydrologist Jon Livingood was hired by Knoxville director of engineering Jim Hagerman, an avid bicycler himself, to become the city’s first alternative transportation coordinator, overseeing bike and pedestrian engineering issues. Livingood says that when he worked at the City County Building he biked or walked to work almost all the time. Now he’ll be working to make Knoxville’s new bicycle plan a reality, creating a more bike-friendly city.

“Whether it’s longitudinal cracks in the road, drainage grates oriented the wrong way, hills—these things matter that people normally don’t think of when they’re driving a car, so it’s really important to have someone who thinks of these things,” says Livingood, who,

nities program, attended the public bike meeting with her toddler, Gabriela, on her lap. A native of Bogotá, Colombia, Burbano witnessed firsthand her city’s civic awakening through bike- and pedestrian-infrastructure improvements initiated in the 1990s by Mayor Antanas Mockus and continued by Mayor Enrique Penalosa and his brother, commissioner of parks Gil Penalosa.

Burbano is an enthusiastic supporter of Bogotá’s infrastructure changes, famous worldwide in public-health circles, which she says benefited the whole city by promoting a culture of healthy physical activity and even strengthening democracy by making public spaces enjoyable for young, old, rich, and poor residents alike. Burbano says Bogotá’s network of bike paths allowed her to use the city as never before, encouraging her to bike to places like the library and park.

“Before the ciclorutas, I never did it, comfortably,” Burbano says. “The fact that you were completely separated gave you confidence. [The city planners] understand that bicyclists and cars are not on the same level, therefore they cannot be in the same space. When a bicyclist hits a car, who’s winning? The car.”

Burbano is what planners call an “interested but concerned” potential

biker. Since moving to Knoxville in 2009, she has not bicycled like she did in Bogotá.

“It’s too dangerous,” Burbano says, “I have the desire. I live close to work—it should take like 20 minutes.

But it is so dangerous. People are so rude to bicyclists.”

Gil Penalosa, that former Bogotá commissioner of parks and now executive director of the non-governmental organization 8-80 Cities, happens to be the featured guest speaker at the TN Bike Summit. 8-80 Cities advocates for safe, navigable cities for all, especially the very young, the very old, and the poor— groups less likely to drive cars. His talk, “Creating Vibrant and Healthy Communities,” will be part inspirational speech and part reality check for Knoxville’s bike advocates.

“We need to be bold, and we need to be ambitious,” Penalosa says, “We need to move from talking to doing.”

In Penalosa’s experience, two major changes effectively get large numbers of people biking and walking.

First, Penalosa is adamant about the benefits of lowering car speeds. If a car hits you at 40 mph, you have an 85 percent chance of dying, he says. If the car is going 20 mph, the chance of death drops to 5 percent.

Second, Penalosa advocates

along with Kelley Segars, the bike representative of TPO, acted as co-project manager of the bike plan.

The number-one project on the bike plan affects the stretch of Chapman Highway between Lippencott Street and Henley Bridge.

The city plans to create a two-way protected cycle track along the west side of Chapman Highway, where there is an existing 12-foot shoulder. Henley Bridge currently has two narrow bike lanes running along either side of the car traffic lanes. The city’s plan will reconfigure the lanes on Henley Bridge, moving the northbound bike lane on the east side over to the west side, continuing the two-way protected cycle track across the bridge. Flexible plastic bollards will create a clearly designated bike way. This cycle track will allow South Knoxville commuters a direct connection to Maplehurst Court, where they can connect to the Second Creek Greenway in a “seamless, safe manner,” Livingood says.

Obviously, a good time for this project would have been a few years ago, when Henley Bridge was closed for renovations. A

major part of Livingood’s job is reviewing upcoming road projects and altering the order of bike-plan projects to align with other construction in a timely manner.

“Use of common sense and good judgment must prevail,” reads the bike plan.

Another part of Livingood’s job is applying for grants.

He recently applied for a $1 million Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Improvement grant from the Federal Highway Administration, which he hopes will help fund the Chapman Highway project. The premise of the grant application rests on the idea that increased bicycle commuting relieves traffic congestion and taking cars off the road improves air quality.

“Separated bike ways are known to attract less confident riders and get a whole lot more people riding,” Livingood says.

Gateway Apartments, a large college housing complex, sits just off Lippencott Street. A strong bike connection to the University of Tennessee may prove useful to the student population living there. With the

constructing a citywide grid of protected bikeways, like the ciclorutas he oversaw in Bogotá, ensuring people can bike comfortably between destinations like libraries, parks, and markets.

If bikes are to become a major form of transportation, the city needs serious infrastructure that keeps bicyclists safe from cars and facilitates good routes, Penalosa says. An ideal bikeway is a paved trail, completely separate from car traffic by a median or even taking a divergent route, maybe meandering through scenic woods and along waterways, as is the case with our existing greenways. Bike racks, signed routes, and painted sharrows are nice features for confident bicyclers, says Penalosa, but they don’t work to encourage the majority of people to feel safe enough to get out and bike.

Unfortunately, the level of desirability for bicyclists coincides with cost. Sharrows, the painted arrows on the road that indicate vehicular traffic and bikes will share the lane, cost $4 a linear foot, and the plan calls for 6 miles of additional marked pavement. Meanwhile, a separated bike lane with road widening costs $362 per foot, with an additional 5 miles of bike lanes included in the plan. Can Knoxville find the money and the will to fund both?

planned South Waterfront development, city engineers anticipate a bike infrastructure “sweet spot” just south of the river—that is, a large population frequently making 3- to 4-mile trips, about the distance a healthy person can comfortably bike.

The second project on the bike plan connects another high-density neighborhood, Fort Sanders, to Tyson Park and the popular Third Creek Greenway, which leads to shopping centers out west. The project may include building a tunnel under the train tracks to the low-traffic road Metron Center Way, which carries a projected cost of $249,000.

“Right now we have a signed downtown-West Knoxville route that takes you on a narrow sidewalk that goes underneath the train tracks on Cumberland Avenue. It’s really not optimal,” Livingood says.

The third project plans for a new greenway from Victor Ashe Park to Middlebrook Greenway.

—E.S.

April 23, 2015

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most likely to get into a car accident on the way to work, how many weapons are found at our child’s school, whether our neighborhood is getting city sewer service, and even how much of our yard will be torn up when the pipes are installed.

You can find out lots about other people, too. How much did the house next door sell for? Did your mayor pay his taxes? Did he use your taxes to take a trip to Hawaii? In theory, public records can answer those questions, too.

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f knowledge is power, we should all be superheroes.

Perhaps no one in this information age has more knowledge about us, our families, and our livelihoods than the government. And legally, most of that information is ours, too, because we pay the taxes that make our government run. The information kept in public records can reveal things we didn’t even know about our own lives.

For example, government documents can tell us where we are

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But only if you can see them.

Tennessee law gives residents a right to see most government records and attend meetings where elected officials and other “deliberative bodies” make decisions. The rules, which are sprinkled throughout many different sections of the state code, are referred to as “sunshine laws” because they shine a light on the workings of government, empowering voters to influence decisions. But the weather seems to be clouding.

In the first four months of this year, Knoxville has seen open meetings violations by its 911 board, including the police chief and sheriff; the state Legislature has acknowledged that most of its committees have been regularly holding secret “pre-meetings”; and legislators floated about 25 bills that either attempted or succeeded in reducing public access to records and meetings. Over the last year, several local governments across the state lost high-profile court cases

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because they “willfully” withheld documents from the public, and still others got away with illegally charging for people to simply look at public records.

The light is getting dim.

Outdated aspects of Tennessee’s sunshine laws cloud things further.

Before the digital age, “documents” were all assumed to be pieces of paper in a file. “Meetings” were when people spent time in the same room together.

Now most files are kept electroni-

cally and business is done by email, video conference, or even text message. Plus, electronic data often attaches reams of coded information about when files were created and who updated them, where photographs were taken, and more.

Ann Butterworth, Tennessee open records counsel , says a growing number of conflicts arise over when leaders can communicate with each other digitally about public issues, and how they share digital information with

the public. “[The Open Records Act] is somewhat of a law focused on paper records that is now attempting to deal with the current universe,” Butterworth says. At the request of legislators, Butterworth will hold hearings this summer about updating the act.

This plan took shape in the wake of controversy over a bill that would have allowed local governments to charge residents just to look at records.

“I think anything the Legislature

looks at hopefully will anticipate that the landscape of public records will be changing even faster in the future,” Butterworth says.

The majority of people who check out public records are Regular Joe citizens. The Office of Open Records Counsel, a division of the state Comptroller of the Treasury, fields questions about Tennessee sunshine laws and sometimes runs interference between deadlocked governments and citizens.

About half of those who contact the April 23, 2015

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open records counsel for help are members of the general public, Butterworth says. She estimates that 40 percent more are government officials seeking guidance about public records and open meetings, and the remaining 10 percent are reporters.

The thirst for public information— or, perhaps, the difficulty in getting it— is growing. When the office of Open Records Counsel was created, Butterworth says, it received about 600 inquiries a year. During the past 12 months, there have been 1,800, says Butterworth, who took over the job in October.

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“If every Tennessee citizen went to every government to ask for a record, we could shut down government in Tennessee.”

—ANN BUTTERWORTH, Tennessee open records counsel

It’s not even her only job. She is also the assistant to the state comptroller for finance.

If negotiation can’t resolve a conflict over the sunshine laws, citizens are left with two (lousy) choices: walking away empty handed, or suing for information. And unlike many states, Tennessee provides no penalties for governments or elected officials who flout sunshine laws.

Just a few weeks ago, a judge ruled in favor of Gov. Bill Haslam’s administration after it denied a request from a tax attorney seeking the release of a business tax study. In response to the 16

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 23, 2015

lawsuit, state Revenue Commissioner Richard Roberts argued that the study process did not culminate in a single document, and he refused to release individual ones because they could be taken out of context. The Associated Press quoted Roberts claiming in an affidavit that he has wide latitude to deny information requests based on what is “in the best interests of the state,” an exemption to the sunshine law we have yet to locate. Sometimes transparency is kind of opaque.

Sometimes it’s less like sunshine than Morse code flashing in the dark.

OPEN RECORDS: THE WRITING ON THE WALL

The most significant new limit proposed to Tennessee’s public records access this year was in a bill sponsored by Rep. Steven McDaniel, R-Parkers Crossroads, and Sen. Jim Tracy, R-Shelbyville, on behalf of the Tennessee School Boards Association.

It would have allowed a “reasonable” charge for viewing records that took more than an hour to gather. Tracy did not return phone calls for this article.

The bill was driven by a concern that some broad information requests are deliberately used as a form of harassment. An example repeatedly given is a request by a parent to the Williamson County school board that was so large the board considered hiring a contractor to handle it.

Transparency is important, Butterworth emphasizes, but, “There does need to be consideration of the cost of transparency. If every Tennessee citizen went to every government to ask for a record, we could shut down government in Tennessee.”

David Connor, executive director of the Tennessee County Services Association, says he doesn’t think burdensome record requests are a widespread problem, although he has heard anecdotes about politically-motivated efforts to cripple an office with a broad request. “There’s probably a way to go at it by restricting people from harassing an office or official, rather than charging for the inspection of records,” he says.

Officials with the City of Knoxville, Knox County, and Knox County Schools say they haven’t encountered excessive records requests, although they see the potential.

“We want to be as open as possible and we don’t want to put up a lot of barriers to people getting the information they need,” says Knoxville

Mayor Madeline Rogero. “But we do need to be able to do our day-to-day business …. I don’t know where the magic balance is.”

School board member Lynn Fugate, who also serves on the board of the Tennessee School Boards Association, suggests that any new law should include a specific definition of an “excessive” request. She says it’s best the bill didn’t pass without broader study. “It was sort of like taking a sledgehammer to put in a nail,” Fugate says. “So let’s find the right tool to deal with the right abuse.”

The City of Knoxville does not receive requests that lead to significant charges, says Communications Director Jesse Mayshark. (The largest in the last three years was probably about $150, city officials agreed.) But it does receive a large number of smaller requests from former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe, who writes a column for The Shopper. None take more than an hour, “It’s just that there are so many of them,” Mayshark says. In addition, a local attorney has also started filing many formal requests on behalf of an anonymous client, many of them almost identical to Ashe’s, Mayshark says.

Requests can require expertise to gather (for example, a technology professional to search all the emails on a server) or to remove protected personal information like Social Security numbers. Currently, local governments can charge for an employee’s time to do this only when the requester wants copies and the work takes more than an hour. (The law was written when “copies” meant someone standing in front of a photocopier. Now many copies are provided in PDF format via email, but governments can still charge for them.)

The bill as proposed would not have stipulated whose salary would be used to figure out a “reasonable” hourly rate for gathering public records to view. Often an attorney is in charge of removing protected information, and those salaries are among the highest.

Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, says charging for access to public records can create a scenario where only people with deep pockets can afford to see them.

“We also don’t want a situation where fees might be used by a government official as a way to block access,” she says. “(Public records are) a responsibility of government. But if

governments see it as a burden, I don’t think being able to charge citizens per hour and create a new revenue stream is going to prompt a local government to look for ways to be more efficient.”

Knox County Commission Chairman Brad Anders didn’t much favor the concept, either. “I don’t think we should punitively charge people to look at things,” he says.

Local and state governments have already been trying to do that, even without the law on their side. Just last week the Tennessee Benefits Administration agreed to stop trying to charge The Tennessean newspaper $1,500 to inspect records showing how much taxpayers are forking out to subsidize insurance for state lawmakers who voted down Gov. Bill Haslam’s plan to subsidize health care for the poor.

And late last year, the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga got away with charging a college student $1,767 to look at records it didn’t even produce until long after payment. According to a summary by the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, the state Office of Open Records Counsel informed the utility it was violating the law. But the power board disagreed and refused to refund the money.

These kinds of battles led groups like the Tennessee Press Association and the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government to oppose new fees for examining records. An amendment was considered that would have offset the change with another to let in more light: giving local governments five business days instead of seven to respond to an information request. “It would have tried to improve some of the problems citizens see on delays of records,” Fisher says.

Given the complexity of the issues, sponsors pulled back the bill and asked Butterworth and the Advisory Committee on Open Government to hold hearings over the summer, leading to a recommendation to the Legislature by January 15. The advisory committee includes 17 representatives from government, citizens and the press.

“What we’re looking for is to have some robust discussion of these real issues over the summer, so if something comes back next year, it will really make some strides for transparency but also answer local governments’ questions about how they can respond to big requests with the least amount of cost,” Fisher says.

OPEN MEETINGS: CRACKING THE DOOR

This winter, a 911 radio contract led some Knoxvillians to flash back to “Black Wednesday” of 2007, when Knox County commissioners made deals outside a public meeting, appointing cronies to office. Those shenanigans drew national attention and made most Knoxville politicians hypersensitive to open meetings requirements, especially the rule barring members of a governing body from discussing its business outside meetings.

In January, a Knoxville News Sentinel public records request revealed that members of the Knox County E-911 board, including law enforcement officers, had violated open meetings laws by discussing a multi-million dollar emergency radio contract in private meetings and emails. Knoxville’s law director acknowledged that board members colluded ahead of time to essentially kill a contract deal without discussion or a vote.

Rogero, a member of the board, had been sending a proxy to serve on her behalf. She says this led her to forget at least once that she couldn’t receive emails about the contract from Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch outside 911 board meetings. (She has since begun attending the meetings herself.) Last week the News Sentinel reported that the 911 board agreed, at Rogero’s request, to ask attorneys to clarify Open Meetings Act requirements for a key committee made up of emergency response officials who use the 911 radios.

Knox County Sheriff J.J. Jones has denied his discussions and emails with Rausch about the contract broke the law. He wrote in an editorial rebuttal to the Knoxville News Sentinel on the sheriff ’s department web site, stating that he believes the open meetings law needs to be revisited “when a major media outlet manipulates it.” Jones declined to speak to the Knoxville Mercury for this story because the radio contract is still under discussion.

Rogero says she believes at least some of the 911 board members, particularly those who were appointed rather than elected, did not realize the board had to follow sunshine laws.

The experience led Rogero to ask the city’s law department to identify all the “deliberative bodies” of the city, or boards on which city representatives serve, that must follow the open meetings law. She says she was

shocked at how many qualified, because the law also covers groups like the Greenways Commission that advise public boards.

The city is requiring sunshine law training for all employees who serve on these boards, as well as the boards’ attorneys. The city is also offering it to boards it doesn’t control, Rogero says.

Fisher said most open meetings violations could be easily avoided with this kind of training of public officials, who may need reminding that the law applies to texts and emails, too.

That is becoming more relevant even during meetings, when board

labor COST

attorney-client privilege

delay

proprietary

denied

FORMS

executive session “We don’t want a situation where fees might be used

by a government official as a way to block access.”

—DEBORAH FISHER, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government members could text each other “in private” about the topic being discussed aloud (a practice Rogero, Fugate, and Anders all agreed would violate the law).

Although she doesn’t believe texting has been a problem on her board, Fugate says it might be wise to eventually require elected officials to check their devices at the door. “Any kind of tech that could be perceived or could actually be used as a way to circumvent the law is probably something they need to take a look at,” she says.

Some local officials have set up April 23, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 17

private email accounts to handle contacts from constituents. Anders and Fugate cited the recent Hillary Clinton email scandal—in which the former secretary of state used a private email server to store official emails—as an example of why this is not a good idea.

A government can’t produce emails stored on a private server in response to an open records request. Even if nothing sneaky is intended, that’s hard

Seeking Info

to prove to the public.

“Citizens want and deserve a chance to understand why decisions are being made by local governing bodies, and best way to do that is to have open discussions,” Fisher says.

“That improves trust and confidence, and could maybe even improve the decision-making.”

The Tennessee House of Representatives faced some loss of public

trust last month when reporters discovered most House committees and subcommittees were holding secret “pre-meetings” to discuss legislation. No crimes were committed, because the General Assembly has always exempted itself from the very sunshine laws it required for local governments. Still, for politicians, perception is reality—and it didn’t look great. Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nash-

Local public offices each handle records requests a bit differently

BY S. HEATHER DUNCAN

Although state law sets ground rules for public records requests, there is still leeway for local governments to handle them each a little differently, which can add to citizens’ confusion. And some make it easier than others. In an ironic twist, Knox County would not respond to questions about how it handles citizen requests. Law director Richard Armstrong Jr. would respond only with an email stating that Knox County follows state law and the opinions of the Tennessee Attorney General.

DO ALL REQUESTS GO TO A SINGLE PERSON? City of Knoxville: Mostly Knox County Schools: Yes MPC: No Development Corporation/Industrial Development boards: Mostly Knox County E911: Yes

Here’s a sampling of how requests are handled locally:

WHEN DO YOU CHARGE FOR GATHERING INFORMATION TO COPY? HOW DO YOU DETERMINE THE AMOUNT? City of Knoxville: Charges when it takes more than an hour. Mostly when personal information has to be redacted (removed) from the documents. For emails they charge twice—once for the emails to be gathered and once for an attorney to redact them.

Charge is based on hourly rate of each of these people.

Knox County Schools: In six years, they say they have not had a request that took a single person over an hour to fulfill. Sometimes requests require people from multiple departments to help gather, but the district counts each person’s time separately and doesn’t charge unless a single employee spends more than an hour. Communications director says district may get a couple of requests a week and fulfilling them takes about 15 percent of her time.

MPC: Charges if it takes more than an hour, using the base pay of the person doing the gathering.

Development Corporation/Industrial Development boards: Only had a couple of requests in last seven years (both to Knoxville IDB); both took more than an hour, but did not charge.

Knox County E911: Yes, $50 per hour beyond the first hour. The amount was set by the Knox County Emergency Communications District board.

DO YOU REQUIRE REQUESTS TO BE IN WRITING? City of Knoxville: No. However, city does provide a sample form online for requester convenience; they are asked to fill out if they are asking for emails or have a complicated request. The form requires a photo ID. Knox County Schools: Not unless the requester invokes the Tennessee code section dealing with open records. Then the request must be submitted in writing.

Metropolitan Planning Commission: No, except for “larger requests that will take a fair amount of staff time.” The form requires a photo ID. Development Corporation of Knox County/City and county Industrial Development boards (same staff): If the request is to inspect records, no. For copies, yes. The form requires a photo ID. Knox County E911: Yes, either by their standard form (no photo ID required) or by email.

DO YOU CHARGE FOR COPIES? HOW MUCH? City of Knoxville: Usually don’t charge “unless it’s a really big request;” then charge 15 cents per page. There’s no set threshold to determine when they start charging. “It depends on how difficult it was to put together.”

Knox County Schools: A few pages free, otherwise 15 cents per page.

MPC: Vast majority of requests are handled with no fee, and don’t charge for a small number of copies. For larger requests, the cost is 15 cents per page.

Development Corporation/Industrial Development boards: 20 cents per page Knox County E911: Usually no charge for paper reports like CAD printouts. For audio recordings with accompanying computer printouts, there is an initial fee of $50. These are mostly requested by attorneys.

ARE COPIES AVAILABLE ELECTRONICALLY IF SOMEONE PREFERS TO RECEIVE THEM THAT WAY? City of Knoxville: Prefers to provide them electronically, typically as PDFs. Knox County Schools: Usually.

MPC: Almost everything is available electronically (many online even without a request).

Development Corporation/Industrial Development boards: Never had a request for electronic. Would ask attorney.

Knox County E911: Text copies can be provided electronically. Audio requests cannot, because of their large file size.

Sources: City of Knoxville: Communications Director Jesse Mayshark; Knox County Schools: Communications Director Melissa Ogden; Metropolitan Planning Commission: Information & Research Manager Terry Gilhula; Development Corporation of Knox County: Board & Office Administrator Brenda Wilson Spence; Knox County E-911: Records Specialist Michael Mays 18

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 23, 2015

ville, asked committee and subcommittee chairs to start letting the public know about pre-meetings and allowing outsiders in.

More local government meetings could have been closed, too, under a bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Jack Johnson. He says officials with his hometown of Franklin asked for a law change to allow closed meetings (“executive sessions”) to consider real estate purchases. He says they were concerned that discussing specific property in public would drive up its price.

Johnson worked with the Tennessee Press Association to craft the bill.

In exchange for agreeing to support it, the association asked for requirements which would have lit a candle for openness: Boards would have to notify the public before holding an executive session, begin the meeting in public, give a reason for closing it, and hold a vote to do so.

Under an amendment added to the bill, these requirements would have also applied for the first time to meetings that are closed for the purpose of discussing a pending lawsuit. The legal right for boards to consult their lawyer about this behind closed doors was established through a court case, says Frank Gibson, public policy director for the Tennessee Press Association. In the absence of clear state law, boards can discuss lawsuits without notifying the public that they will be together at all.

“We tried to get it in code in 2007, and we got the shit kicked out of us,” says Gibson, who literally wrote the book on Tennessee’s sunshine laws, Keys to Open Government.

It didn’t go much better this time.

Sen. Johnson says the City of Franklin objected, claiming it needed to be able to have closed meetings about lawsuits on short notice without notifying the public. “They said the bill would do more harm than good,” he says, so he’s going to see that it dies.

Knox County Commission Chairman Brad Anders says he doesn’t see the need to close meetings dealing with real estate purchases. “If we’re looking to build something, like a school for example, the public knows it anyway because it’s in the capital plan,” says Anders, who with other commissioners will soon be considering the Knox County school board’s request to fund several new schools. “I really don’t see how you facilitate the

“We want to be as open as possible and we don’t want to put up a lot of barriers to people getting the information they need.

But we do need to be able to do our day-to-day business.”

—KNOXVILLE MAYOR MADELINE ROGERO public not knowing you’re trying to plot something.”

Anders adds that the public should be notified of all meetings beforehand, even those that will be legally closed. “I don’t think you should do anything that the public doesn’t know about,” he says.

PUT IT ON MY BILL

Although the sweeping bills to carve away at open government protections failed, plenty of others passed.

“There have been a remarkable number (of bills) this year that have protected information,” says state Rep. Bob Ramsey, R-Maryville, who serves as a non-voting member of the state’s Advisory Committee on Open Government.

Some of the new exemptions passed by the Legislature this session were no-brainers, like protecting bank account and credit card information kept by the state and Social Security numbers held by county trustees.

Others that passed (although some of these still await the governor’s signature at press time) would newly hide a variety of specific records from the public eye: job performance evaluations of state university and other specific state employees, email addresses collected by the state’s Division of Business Service, consumer-specific water usage information, medical records kept by state claims offices, and the records of notaries who do not charge for their services.

The bill to cloak business emails was an effort to save the Secretary of State $117,000 a year in the cost of mailing out 250,000 annual renewal notices to corporations, Ramsey says.

Businesses might not agree to have the notices emailed if those emails were public, he says.

The University of Tennessee

requested privacy for job performance evaluations, says Ramsey, who sponsored that bill in the House.

Senate sponsor Ken Yager,R-Kingston, did not return repeated phone calls.

The performance evaluations of many state civil service employees became secret several years ago. The same exemption will now apply to employees of state colleges and universities, the secretary of state, treasury comptroller, and state treasurer. The law will presumably protect Yager’s own job evaluations because he is an assistant professor at Roane State Community College.

Anthony Haynes, vice president for government relations and advocacy for the UT system, says job evaluations haven’t been used effectively because managers feared hurting employees by creating a critical public record.

“There’s a belief that at some point in time the employee should be afforded some level of privacy,” he says. “So problems get handled verbally and if a manager leaves, there is no record to help continue the improvement,” he says.

However, Fisher says making evaluations secret removes some government accountability, especially if past employee performance raised red flags. For example, if a professor is caught in an inappropriate relationship with a student, old performance evaluations might show whether it happened before and how a college handled it, she says.

“So it’s really more about accountability of the government than the personal information of the individual employee,” Fisher says.

Such concerns weren’t raised in committee discussion of the bill, Ramsey says. Haynes argues that the rest of the employee file remains open, and any serious problems should be

documented elsewhere within.

Other bills were more controversial. Several of these appear to have stalled, such as an effort to require state supreme court justices to deliberate in public when choosing an attorney general (more sunshine), or an effort to keep private the driver’s license information of law enforcement officers (more clouds). An effort to push public hospital boards into the light is dead, Gibson says; it would have eliminated their ability to hold closed meetings about marketing and strategic planning.

A law passed this week making certain information held by a private state athletic association private. This comes at the request of the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, which tried and failed to convince the courts last year that its records weren’t public. The question arose when the association refused to turn over records to The City Paper in Nashville during an investigation of cheating in student athlete recruitment. (The judge ruled the athletic association served as a “functional equivalent” of a government. Although the association appealed, the state supreme court declined to hear the case.)

The initial bill floated in the Legislature would have completely exempted the association from open records laws, but the revised version would close specific records, similar to school district records that aren’t public: student academic, medical, psychological, financial and personal family information. The bill passed out of committee in both houses and awaits a vote.

The City Paper lawsuit is one of a series in the last year or so in which the courts found in favor of those requesting records.

If a local government “willfully” withholds records that it understands are public, taxpayers are on the hook for the challenger’s legal fees. As tracked by the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government website, these payouts included $71,343 last year by the city of Chattanooga and $31,000 by the city of Murfreesboro, both to citizens whose requests were ignored or only partly filled.

So even when residents win, other residents are the ones who pay.

In the end, when governments block access to information, everyone loses.

We’re all just left stumbling around in the dark.

April 23, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 19

P rogram Notes

RETRO GRADE

BY NICK HUINKER

Chelsea Horror Untitled EP (recorded 2004; previously unreleased) immediately. He just has a knack for melody that added another layer of nuance to what we already had going on.

DRUMMER MAT HARMON: I just tried to make it as dancey and party as I could with these little hints of chaos brooding underneath, like a frenzy could have broken out at anytime.

Up on Cripple Creek Guy Marshall’s busy spring kicks off with RN’B main-stage performance

T

he Rhythm N’ Blooms Cripple Creek stage on the east end of Jackson Avenue served as the home base for festival headliners the Decemberists, the Drive-By Truckers, and Delta Spirit. But the massive main stage also hosted a set by buzzy Knoxville Americana act Guy Marshall.

The band—fronted by husband and wife Adam and Sarrenna McNulty and supported by Eric Griffin, Jonathan Keeney, Travis Bigwood, and Zach Gilleran—secured the spot by winning the festival’s Drafted: Journey to Rhythm N’ Blooms contest, a threedate event that found local acts vying for a the main stage spot via performances at various Casual Pint locations. The winner was determined by a combined score from online voting and an industry panel.

“We were so encouraged to have such an awesome turnout at our Casual Pint show,” Sarrenna says in a recent email interview about the band’s set at CP’s Northshore Drive location.

“It was a part of town we’ve never been to, and the turnout was, to our surprise, great. Playing the main stage was super-loud, but it was great to see some familiar faces show up to see us.”

Guy Marshall, named after Adam’s grandfather, has a handful of May tour dates scheduled across the Southeast.

“Adam is doing a lot of push-ups in preparation,” Sarrenna jokes.

The band is also in the process of releasing its first full-length album, recorded with the help of local producer Scott Minor. “We are done with everything except for artwork, mass production, and packaging,” Sarrenna writes. “We hope to get it out by June.”

Once the album drops, the band plans to take it easy for the remainder of the summer.

“Our only plans are going to the pool a lot and then going to the fair together in September,” Sarrenna says.

“It’s the only thing in the band contract this year: ‘Mandatory band fair trip.’”

—Carey Hodges

29

30

20

Shelf Life: Beautiful Lives

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 23, 2015

Music: King Super and the Excellents

There are few more memorable debuts in recent Knoxville rock than Chelsea Horror’s set as the Stooges at Pilot Light’s 2003 Halloween masquerade, which ended with frontman Henry Gibson wearing nothing but syrup, peanut butter, and glitter. When the band took to the same stage a month later to debut their own material, though, the sound was notably different: a gothy, glammy hard rock verging on darkened new wave. Among other things, Chelsea Horror introduced Knoxville to Gibson and Brandon Biondo, but it wasn’t built to last. After less than a year together, the band splintered—before they had a chance to release their untitled EP, available here for the first time in more than a decade. Visit knoxmercury.com to read the full interview and listen to the EP. VOCALIST/GUITARIST HENRY GIBSON: I was just coming out of playing in emo bands and was looking to play music more in line with my taste at the time. So the songs were kind of leftovers from ideas I had in the last band I was in, but trying to eventually make them more dance punk with an electronic tinge to it.

BASSIST COURTNEY BRYANT: Musically we all came from different places. But when the four of us got together, we had a little bit of an ’80s sound. It was really different than what other bands in Knoxville were doing at the time.

CB: We also recorded a song called “Sirens” with Arrison Kirby for the El Deth compilation Sunspheric Sounds. That was personally my favorite song we wrote.

HG: I listen to some of those songs every two or three years and cringe a bit, but overall it was the best we could do at the time, and it’s a nice walk down memory lane. I really wish I could’ve taken “Sirens” on to the next band I had played in. That was the last song we wrote, and seemed like the direction of the band fully realized.

ZL: We played our last show at the Pilot Light, what I thought was a good set. After that last song ended, Brandon smashed his guitar to bits on stage and said he quit. I was never really sure why he quit, I think he just wasn’t in to it anymore. He could have saved himself a few hundred bucks and just quit, but hey, that’s rock ’n’ roll.

MH: Brandon told me he was gonna smash his guitar because he didn’t like it anymore. I didn’t believe him, but he did. I had only seen smashing guitars on footage of bands I grew up loving, I was so jazzed that he broke that guitar that night.

GUITARIST ZACH LAND: We were together a few months before I started talking to Brandon and invited him to come play with us. He fit in

Henry Gibson works at McKay’s and is preparing a new round of solo material. Zach Land is a video editor at Jupiter Entertainment. Courtney Bryant works at Disc Exchange and plays in Wampus Cat. Mat Harmon plays in Amour and the Overlook.

Brandon Biondo currently plays in the New Romantics and declined to explain what it was he disliked so much about that guitar.

31

32

Classical Music: KSO Review

Theater: The Threepenny Opera

FE

April 25, 2015 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Downtown Knoxville

S T I VA L G

500,000 fans can’t be wrong!

• YMCA FunZone returns featuring all-day play for kids of all ages!

• Constellation Wines & Spirits of the World tasting tent!

• Rossini’s first ever Brewtopia: A Craft Beer Garden presented by The Casual Pint

E

14th Annual

D I U

The Right Direction Stage director Keturah Stickann looks for psychological truth in Il Trovatore’s melodrama

BY ALAN SHERROD

IL

T

he nature of evil was a subject that composer Giuseppe Verdi visited over and over throughout his operatic career of over 50 years. However, Verdi’s attraction was not to the absolute evil of horror stories or genocidal tyrants but rather the tragic and inevitable consequences that result when superstition and ignorance spawn vengeance, jealousy, and blind hatred. In fact, it is revenge in all its aspects that defines the action of a number of his operas, including Otello, Rigoletto, La Forza del Destino, and this season’s Knoxville Opera Rossini Festival production, Il Trovatore.

Despite the opera’s tale of gruesome executions, sworn revenge, and bloody vengeance, Keturah Stickann, stage director for Il Trovatore, feels that staging operatic evil must reflect the truth behind a character’s motivations, even if it is not immediately obvious. In the case of Il Trovatore, Stickann insists that none of the opera’s characters are truly evil.

“People like to think of Count di Luna as evil or Azucena as evil because they’ve done these atrocities, these terrible things,” Stickann says. “This is not the case. You’re looking at a woman who lost her mother at a very young age, and who killed her own son. … You have Manrico, who is living in the shadow of this woman who is touched and has gone a little crazy. You have Count di Luna, who lost his baby brother when he was a child. If you really look at that side of the story, you don’t really see any evil people here. You see people who are trying to live up to what their ancestors have brought upon them. That makes for some very interesting psychological moments on stage.”

Finding psychological moments and allowing them to define what the audience sees and feels appears to be Stickann’s approach to much of her work. Il Trovatore is the fourth production for Stickann with Knoxville Opera—in 2011, she directed both Manon and La Traviata. In the latter, audiences were challenged by an intriguing haunted-dream approach in which the character of Violetta on her deathbed remained on stage

2 | ROSSINI

2015 festival guide

T R O VA T O R E

WHAT Knoxville Opera: Il Trovatore WHERE Tennessee Theatre (604 S. Gay St.) WHEN Friday, April 24, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 26, at 2:30 p.m.

HOW MUCH $18-$95 MORE INFO knoxvilleopera.com

throughout. More recently, Stickann’s 2013 helming of Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann for KO wove a complex relationship between Hoffmann and the Nicklausse/Muse character.

However, just as no two operas are the same, each production offers its own unique challenges.

The director must not only create relevant and credible action and environment for the singers but also find a way to explain to the audience what may be unseen and unheard.

“The biggest problem for directors of Il Trovatore is that all the action takes place off stage,” explains Stickann. “All the fights take place off stage, all the death, destruction, and burnt babies take place before we even start the show.

Most of the other things that we discuss on stage during Il Trovatore either happened just before the scene or are about to happen after the scene. And we don’t get to see any of it. There’s a more tangible way to explore these emotions—I try to get whatever is in Azucena’s head out and make it manifest for the audience, allow them to actually live inside what Azucena is dealing with, because I think that is the key to the story.”

Another challenge for Stickann, or any director of Il Trovatore, is the hurdle of making an

implausible plot seem believable for the audience.

But opera is theater, after all, where psychological impact often trumps reality.

“People want to find the plot ridiculous because they see it as melodramatic,” Stickann says. “The notion of throwing the wrong baby in a fire has become sort of an operatic joke that we like to laugh about. But when you really think about what is happening here, when you think about a woman who has a child whose mother is dragged through a crowd of screaming people, tied to a post, and burned to death in front of her, it splits something in her brain. … And why play it if it’s not fantastic? It’s what makes it cathartic for us.”

Another aspect of a stage director’s job is to create a workable environment that contains the opera’s action and leads the audience through the story. In mid-sized opera companies like Knoxville Opera, budget usually dictates the set—often rented rather than constructed from scratch. But that’s not necessarily a negative if one is comfortable with a bit of abstraction, as Stickann has demonstrated in her previous Knoxville productions.

“This was a difficult one to put together,” she says. “There are eight scenes. The locations have to change. We go from a palace to a convent to a fortress to a cave in the mountains, so we’ve got some drops, some hard sets, some platforming. I tend toward more abstract, more spare, and that’s where I am going with this one, too.”

Although the story of ll Trovatore is fictional, it’s set among the actual historical events of the Spanish civil war of 1412. The palace and its prison, which figure prominently in the opera, are based on the existing Aljaferia Palace in Zaragoza.

“The prison is actually not in a dungeon—it’s in the top of a tower,” Stickann explains. “And so everything has giant archways, but when you look out, you’re looking out at the sky. Behind you, there is nothingness.”

Of course, even nothingness in opera is something—just ask a stage director.

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festival guide

ROSSINI 2015 | 3

Beer Vendor

WINE

Wine Vendor

ATMs

MERCH

237a 237b 236 235

FOOD

Faces Gone Wild Balloon Walk-Abouts Gyro-X-Treme

WINE

VOLUNTEER TENT

WATE Television WATE Television TCDE Bake Sale BATHROOMS

S8 S9 S10 S11 S12 S13 S14

S11 S12 S13 S14

MARKET SQUARE GREENSPACE

S10 S9 S8 S7 S6 S5

FOUNTAIN

STAGE

FunZone

233 232 231

147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155a 155b 155c

BATHROOMS WINE

FOOD

ATM

133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146

BEER

SEE INSET FOR DETA

BEER

MARKET SQUARE S1 Journal Broadcasting S2 Journal Broadcasting S3 Journal Broadcasting S4 Journal Broadcasting S5 S6 S7

MARKET SQUARE

258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269

Cheesecakes by Rick Southern Specialties Southern Specialties Kitchen Art KDD Jewelry Brianvale Pottery LeafFilter North Morning Dew Tie-Dyes Carol’s Jewelry Creations Wright Mason Jar Lamps Doc Monday Magic Medicinals Garden to Gourmet Goodness Majestic Moonlit Woods Majestic Moonlit Woods Edgecliff Studios/ Barbara’s Atlas Oil Watson & Co. Glass Renewal by Andersen Airport Honda Airport Honda Airport Honda 2nd Generation Design Mrs Grissom’s Salads Food Tickets Beer Wine Wood Oven Eats Yelp

U1 U2 U3 U4 U5 U6 U7 U8

MERCH Opera Merchandise ATM

243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257

S1 S2 S3 S4

KRUT M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8

BEER

BATHROOMS

Food Tickets

218 The International 219 Bonnybee Designs 220 Philly Pretzel Factory 221 Greek Corner Foods 222 Greek Corner Foods 223 Popculture 224 Festive Vending 225 Denenie Weenies 226 TN Education Lottery 226c Concessions by Cox 227 Hawg Dawgs 228 Hawg Dawgs 229a Rainbo Ice and Funnel Cakes 229b This Is It Pizza 230 This is It Pizza 231 KP Mugs 232 Bluegreen Vacations 233 El Baul 234 Riot Printing Merchandise 235 Crafty Bee Accessories 236 Regal Entertainment 237a Hungarian Sausage King 237b Hungarian Sausage King 238 Wine 239 Beer 240 Food tickets 241 Wendy’s Hospitality 242 Wendy’s Hospitality

ATM

FOOD

ATM

Costco Wholesale Glitz and Gigglez Endless Impressions Madaris Windows Asparagus Soap Living Lockets The Sleepy Armadillo The Sleepy Armadillo Design by Denae Natural Treasures Pinnacle Home Improvements 135 Knoxville Rotary Club 136 Mini-Pictures Jewelry 137 Holston Mt. Hats

Murphy Cinnamon Nuts Concessions by Cox Concessions by Cox Wine Beer Food Tickets Knoxville Opera Merchandise Tom Wilson Art Southern Prettys Fancy Paints Happy Skin Naturals Just 4U Jewelry Mack Hickey Pottery Rebecca Hiatt Photography Creative Outlets M&L Concessions Baked Coconut Macaroons Greek Corner Foods Knox Academy of the Blade Barony of Thor’s Mountain Barony of Thor’s Mountain Dazzo’s Pizza Coast 2 Coast CYM Productions The Amber Lady African Hut Planet Beach Automated Spa T.H.E Pearl Pagoda

125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132

124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134

282 101 281 NORTH STAGE 102 280 103 279 104 278 105 277 106 276 107 275 108 274 109 273 110 272 111 271 112 270 113 269 113 268 114 115 116 117 118 119 WINE 120 121 BEER 122 123 FOOD 124

GAY STREET 110 111 112 Real Foot Studios 113 Coco Bongos 114 Coco Bongos 115 Papaw’s Eats & Treats 116 Papaw’s Eats & Treats 117 Knoxville Mercury 118 Jo Blythe Designs 119 Creative Arts by Cathy 120 Native Southwest 121 Native Southwest 122 Wire Art 123 Mark’s Designs

164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 212 213 214 215 216 217

264 263 262 261 260 259 258 257 256 255 254 253 252 251 250 249 248 247 246 245 244 243 242 241

EV

AP M T EN

138 Refreshed by Janet 139 Premier Martial Arts 140 Brown Chiropractic 141 Younique Cosmetics 142 Time and Again Designs 143 Nectar of the Vine 144 Sapphire 145 Five 146 Greek Corner Foods 147 Denton’s Fun Foods 148 Denton’s Fun Foods 149 Denton’s Fun Foods 150 Denton’s Fun Foods 151 Denton’s Fun Foods 152 Simply Gourdgeous 153 Kitty Siegel Designs 154 Mitchell Glassworks 155a Crooked Creek Designs 155b Granite Transformations 155c Glassadazical 156 Seven Barrels 157 Jessica Klaaren Jewelry 158 Set in Stone Sisters 159 Intoxicating Aromas 160 Oliver Shea Butter Products 161 Coolato Gelato 162 Lackey Concessions 163 The Lunch Box

MARKE

KRUTCH PARK EXTENSION K1 TNT Glass Art K2 Kristine Riis Designs K3 Fresh Squeezed Lemonade K4 Food Tickets K5 Beer K6 Wine K7 Honey Dew Naturals K8 Pictureface Illustrations K9 Victory Chiropractic K10 K11 K12

K1

K2

K3

Sculpture

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SELFIE STATION

“A Hard Sing” Tenor Jonathan Burton tackles one of opera’s most difficult roles

BY ALAN SHERROD

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ccording to legendary tenor Enrico Caruso, success with Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Trovatore is simple. “All it takes is the four greatest singers in the world,” he said.

Tenor Jonathan Burton, making his debut in the role of Manrico in that opera with Knoxville Opera this weekend, has no qualms about tackling a role made famous by Caruso and sung notably in recent years by Marcelo Álvarez at the Metropolitan Opera and Jonas Kaufman at the Bavarian State Opera. But he’s also realistic.

“It’s a tough one,” he admits. “It’s a hard sing.”

Burton grew up around lots of music in his hometown of Portsmouth, Ohio, but not opera.

He began playing guitar when he was 8 and was teaching guitar lessons at his cousin’s record store by 13. He also played in rock bands and in recording studio sessions for country-music albums. When Burton was asked to audition for the local high-school production of West Side Story, his mother suggested that he take a lesson or two from a voice teacher, Stanley E. Workman Jr., who had recently moved back to Portsmouth. What started simply enough as a voice lesson with Workman became an introduction to the world of opera.

“For the next three years, I was at his house every day, sort of like an apprentice with a cobbler or a blacksmith, just learning the trade,” Burton says. “When it was time to go off to college, it felt like slowing down, going from daily voice lessons to weekly.”

While Burton spent time at Westminster Choir College and the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, professional experience has been his real teacher. His first operatic roles came at the Southern Ohio Light Opera in Portsmouth, starting in 1994. Although he sang as a baritone for three years, he subsequently made the transition to tenor. Since then, his mature operatic experience has extended

6 | ROSSINI

2015 festival guide

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“Manrico is not blameless or faultless, but he is a good and noble person. Many characters are complicated and messy, like Pinkerton in Madama Butterf ly. Canio in Pagliacci stabs his wife.

Don Jose in Carmen stabs his girlfriend.

So it’s nice to be a good, solid person for a change.”

—!JONATHAN BURTON

deep into the heart of the tenor repertoire: Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly; multiple productions of Puccini’s Tosca and La Fanciulla del West, as Cavaradossi and Dick Johnson respectively; Don Jose in Carmen; Canio in I Pagliacci; Florestan in Beethoven’s Fidelio for Kentucky Opera; and, most recently, the title role in the original Paris version of Verdi’s Don Carlos for Sarasota Opera.

Burton welcomes the venture into his latest Verdi role.

“Manrico is a very nice role,” he says. “It’s one of those rare opportunities to play someone who is not a caricature. Manrico is not blameless or faultless, but he is a good and noble person. Many characters are complicated and messy, like Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. Canio in Pagliacci stabs his wife. Don Jose in Carmen stabs his girlfriend. So it’s nice to be a good, solid person for a change.”

Needless to say, however, there are no guarantees for good guys in opera. “Manrico is absolutely a victim,” Burton says. “He was kidnapped at birth and raised in the woods by gypsies. But he’s a good person, an upstanding guy. Loves a lady. Does the honorable thing. But he’s certainly a victim of circumstance.”

Burton acknowledges that the role has become something of a show-off role for tenors, despite the fact that, as written, it tops out at an A. “All the Cs and B-flats have been added in by singers over the years,” explains Burton. “But it does sit higher in the tenor range, on average.”

How, then, does a tenor deal with a role that is consistently high?

Burton’s approach is to remain vocally pure.

“The issue with a role like Manrico is getting so wrapped up emotionally in all the bad things that are happening to the character that you let that reside in your throat,” he says. “The challenge is to convey what the character is feeling, but to stay vocally detached.”

Rossini Festival 2015 What’s new at Knoxville’s biggest (and longest, at 11 hours) street festival

BY DENNIS PERKINS

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R E E T FA I R

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hen spring springs in Knoxville, it does so with a force of festivity that’s almost too good to believe—and that’s especially true when the city’s largest festival takes a big slice of downtown and covers it with an international street fair.

On Saturday, April 25, Knoxville Opera’s 14th annual Rossini Festival will continue its grand tradition of entertainment, and this year that means two additional hours of merriment and music. The festival will open an hour earlier than years past, commencing at 10 a.m. and going for 11 hours.

The Krutch Park extension looms large in the temporal expansion—it’s home to the last hour of the festival, which features a concert by the Soulful Sounds Revue. It may seem like an odd end to an opera-inspired event, and Michael Torano, KOC’s marketing director, acknowledges that the concert is “a different take for the Rossini Festival,” but it’s one that reflects and celebrates the event’s broad audience. Torano says that last year’s attendance exceeded 100,000, which, by any objective standard, has to include more than a few folks who would appreciate a jazzy Motown sound from a band that Torano describes as loud and fun. “They have lots of energy—everybody will be dancing,” he says. “It’s a free concert that the band is donating to the festival and East Tennessee.”

The extension is also the home of the festival’s opera main stage. It’s one of five festival stages that will host about 800 entertainers. In addition to Knoxville Opera, the festival stages celebrate a wide spectrum of music and include a chorus and choir stage near Summit Hill Drive and Gay Street,

a jazz/Americana stage at Market Street and Clinch Avenue, and an instrumental and orchestra stage in the parking lot across from the Bijou Theatre. The stage in Market Square will be devoted entirely to dance. And if you can tear yourself away from the outdoor fun, Knoxville Opera offers two opportunities to see its production of Verdi’s Il Trovatore in the Tennessee Theatre.

Another new nod to the broad tastes of Rossini fair-goers comes in the form of Brewtopia, a craft-beer garden from the folks at the Casual Pint.

“The beer garden will serve 10 or 11 craft beers, including five Tennessee brews that will be available on draft,” Torano says. “It’s the only place in the festival where draft beer will be sold.” The list includes a specially designed Rossini Beer from Saw Works that will be tapped between 3 p.m. and

4 p.m. A $5 wristband is required for entry to the tent, but it’s good for admission all day and comes with a greeter beer ticket that’s redeemable for a Yuengling Black & Tan. The lineup includes brew from Sweetwater, Wiseacre, Kona, RJ Rockers, and New Belgium.

Constellation Brands’ Wines and Spirits of the World returns to the Krutch Park extension again this year from noon to 9 p.m. A $20 entry fee gets fair-goers the opportunity to taste over 20 samples from Italy and around the world, including wines from Ruffino, Kim Crawford, and Franciscan.

Of course, there will be beer and wine available at various points around the festival, and this year there will be six booths (that’s one more than last year) serving those potent potables.

Still, the festival is a family-friendly event, and once again the YMCA Fun Zone will take over much of Market Square. The Fun Zone is part of the YMCA’s Healthy Kids Day, a national initiative that happily coincides with Rossini. All around the Square there will be kid’s activities and games from hopscotch to cornhole boards as well as a moon walk, a spider jump, and face-painting to boot. A $5 wristband gets unlimited access to all the Fun Zone activities, so, says Torano, “a kid can spider-jump or moonwalk all day if they wanted.”

The Festival occupies most of the area between Market and Gay streets, with more than 100 vendors and 400 volunteers working to make this year’s festival more fun than the previous 13.

There’s plenty to do and lots to hear for everyone— whether they love opera or just show up to gorge on fair food and dance in the streets.

festival guide

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CLINCH AVE. JAZZ STAGE 10:00 Black Oak Brass Quintet 11:00 New Radio Dialect Jazz Quintet 12:00 Pellissippi State College Bluegrass Ensemble 1:00 William Lovelace Harp Ensemble 2:00 UT Fab Freshmen Jazz Quintet 3:00 UT Jazz Messengers 4:00 Brandon Gibson, bass, Slade Trammel, piano 5:00 Shamrock Road Celtic Ensemble 6:00 Norwegian Wood Strings 7:00 The Fine and Dandies Barbershop Quartet N. CHORAL STAGE 10:15 VOLume and ReVOLution, UT School of Music 11:15 Cedar Bluff Middle School Concert Choir 12:15 Sound Company Children’s Choir 1:15 Smokyland Sound Barbershop Chorus 2:15 Hardin Valley Academy Chorus 3:15 Webb School Madrigal Singers 4:15 Knoxville Gay Men’s Chorus 5:15 Variations, Pellissippi College 6:15 Cantemus Women’s Choir 7:15 Knoxville Opera Gospel Choir

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YMCA MKT SQ STAGE 10:30 Vikhr Russian Dancers 11:30 Sandsation Dance Troupe 12:30 Sangria Dancers 1:30 Debka and the Oasis Dancers 2:30 Broadway Academy of Performing Arts Dancers 3:30 K-Town Swings 4:30 Lucia Andronescu Flamenco Dance Troupe 5:30 Albi Belly Dance Troupe 6:30 Go! Contemporary Danceworks 7:30 Circle Modern Dance/Momentum Dance Lab 8:30 TN Conservatory of Fine Arts & Ballet Gloria S. INSTRUMENTAL STAGE 10:45 UT Jazz Big Band 11:45 Knoxville Community Band 12:45 Ensemble Swing Time Jazz Band 1:45 Pellissippi State College Brass Ensemble 2:45 Knoxville Jazz Youth Orchestra 3:45 HartStrings 4:45 Pellissippi State College Jazz Band 5:45 Dor L’Dor Klezmer Band 6:45 TBA 7:45 UT Trombone Choir

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PILOT FLYING J OPERA STAGE 11:00 UT Opera Theatre: Mozart’s The Magic Flute 12:00 KNOXVILLE OPERA IL TROVATORE CAST: Sarah Fitch, mezzosoprano Kevin Doherty, baritone 12:30 Sarah Fitch. mezzosoprano 1:00 Kevin Doherty, baritone 1:30 Patrick Blackwell, bass 2:00 Jonathan Burton, tenor Nelson Martinez, baritone 2:30 Mayors’ Welcome Ceremonies Maestro Brian Salesky Rochelle Bard, soprano Jonathan Burton, tenor Nelson Martinez, baritone 3:00 Dana Beth Miller, mezzosoprano 3:30 Scott Bearden, baritone 4:00 Melanie Burbules, mezzosoprano 4:30 Makoto Winkler, baritone 5:00 Murrella Parton, soprano 5:30 James Eder, bass 6:00 Melanie Burbules, mezzosoprano 6:30 Makoto Winkler, baritone 8:00 SoulFul Sounds Revue Dance Band

Thank you for supporting the cultural arts in East Tennessee

Robert H. & Monica M. Cole Foundation

festival guide

ROSSINI 2015 | 8

Shelf Life

Beautiful Lives New picks from the Knox County Public Library’s AV department JIMMY GREENE Beautiful Life (Mack Avenue, 2014)

Leader and saxophonist Jimmy Greene created this album as an elegy for his daughter, Ana Grace, who was among the victims at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 in Newtown, Conn. She was 6. The result is more impressive and successful than should be possible from a bereaved father—the father of a youngster he knew less as a person than as someone who once promised a life that will never be lived. Neither morbid nor morose, the music is celebratory and uplifting.

Greene chose well while gathering this fellow-feeling ensemble, which includes bassist Christian McBride, pianist Renee Rosnes and Knoxville’s new favorite jazz drummer, Lewis Nash. It’s a pretty happy ending to a story that should not need to be told.

ANTHONY BRAXTON AND JOHN MCDONOUGH 6 Duos (Wesleyan, 2006)

A new record by Anthony Braxton is generically good news. New evidence that Braxton is aging so well is great news. He was 61 when these duets with trumpeter John McDonough were recorded. In the nine years since, saxophonist Braxton has composed and recorded work to fill more than a dozen new albums. At age 70, with summer tours scheduled for Europe and the U.S., he appears to be as inventive and capable as ever. This music has the excitement of improvisation plus the polish of forethought. And the choice and diversity of compositions is nearly ideal. If you’ve ever wondered about the sustained, rapid problem-solving processes involved in creating and playing longer pieces like “Improvisation” or “Composition 168 + (103),” much becomes clear when Braxton and McDonough turn to John Philip Sousa’s sprightly march “Hail to the Spirit of Liberty.” They join

together across octaves and keys to create harmonics and trick off of the melody for short diversions that appear to be necessary in order to keep the music interesting to them.

LED ZEPPELIN Physical Graffiti deluxe reissue (Atlantic, 2015)

Guitarist/composer Jimmy Page’s genius was to compose rock music in a symphonic form that mainstream DJs and their adherents could not resist, even if they did not know why. Page’s method was probably most evident on 1975’s Physical Graffiti, where bandmate John Paul Jones arranged strings for “Kashmir,” of which you can hear a previously unreleased rough mix here.

AA-B2B_2015-BLISS-4.625x5.25.indd 7

3/27/15 3:55 PM

AKI KAURISMÄKI

It seems plausible that in some better place, in some finer future, it could become desirable and admirable to strive to live one’s life in such a way that it might be represented by one of the humble, profound, and accidentally beautiful characters who populate the films of Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki. The library has recently added to its collection the Criterion editions of his exquisite Proletariat Trilogy: Shadows in Paradise (1986), Ariel (1988) and The Match Factory Girl (1990). Kaurismäki’s films are essentially character studies of unexceptional people given ordinary things to do and not much to say. The first and second films are quiet cases of romance chanced upon, full of deadpan humor and scenes that arrange humans almost as if they were ornaments in a Zen garden. The Match Factory Girl contains many of the same elements—loneliness and longing, articulate despair, plain beauty set against a grim existence—but ends less cheerfully than the others. Oddly, the tragedy is as easy to enjoy and participate in as the comic romances.

April 23, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 29

Music

Cover Charge King Super and the Excellents play ’em like they wrote ’em, whether they did or not

BY MIKE GIBSON

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 23, 2015

train” for more road shows, says drummer Scuba Steve, all in the midst of a series of video releases via the Knoxville-based Live and Breathing, which produces stripped-down, intimate video sessions by local and touring performers.

But it’s still an open question what the Excellents’ lineup will look like during all this upcoming activity.

Recently, founding bassist Georgie Paul took another gig, filling in with local Americana artists the Black Lillies after a couple of their members left.

“The Lillies were in a pickle, and I guess their pickle became our pickle,” says King Super, chuckling over a plate of lukewarm eggs from the South

found a new cover that really stuck,” says Scuba Steve. “And ultimately our plan was not to be pigeonholed as a cover band. We want to play our songs.

And as our material has grown, it’s gotten to the point where we don’t have a lot of extra room. A 90-minute show flies by now.”

King Super describes the band’s live shows as “us flying by the seat of our pants.” And that approach—or lack thereof—describes pretty much everything about the Excellents. When asked for the band’s plan for the coming years, Scuba Steve replies that, “This is not a five-year-plan kind of band. When we started out, it was like, oh, we’re going straight to the moon.

But once you get into the business side of things, it can be soul-crushing—like a YouTube clip with nine likes and six dislikes or a drive to South Carolina to play to 10 people in a steel warehouse.”

Those moments are more than balanced by the better nights, when crowds are held in thrall by Super’s brash showmanship, by the band’s over-the-top chops and goofball theatrics and fabulous fashion sense.

“We’re proud to say we’ve never had a bar owner come up afterwards and say, ‘Don’t ever do that again,’” says Scuba Steve. “Surprisingly enough.”

WHO King Super and the Excellents with the Burnin’ Hermans WHERE Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (200 E. Jackson Ave.) WHEN Friday, April 24, at 10 p.m.

Photo by Bill Foster

magine Knoxville’s King Super and the Excellents as they walk into a seedy biker bar in Dayton, Ohio, a joint full of burly badass men in leathers and dirty jeans, all unruly beards and concealed weapons and jailhouse neck tattoos. And the Excellents, four nerdy average joes toting guitars, wearing the evening’s stage ensemble of matching full-length checkered spandex body suits, standing up in front of the marauding bunch to play a set list that includes a Britney Spears cover and a mash-up of Lorde and K.D. Lang.

“Surprisingly, they loved us,” says leader singer King Super, he of the magnificent mustache. And yes, the band members like to be recognized by their stage pseudonyms when they’re speaking to the press.

It’s another night in the life of the eccentric 5-year-old outfit, which surely qualifies as 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.

Audiences seem to love them, regardless of whether they’re in on the joke.

“We get wedding requests all the time,” says Super. “We usually turn them down. We can’t do some of that stuff in front of grandma.”

These are interesting times for the Excellents. They have a busy spring that includes a Barley’s gig, a festival show at the French Broad Spring Thing, and a Cookeville show for a gathering of spelunkers at the opening of a local cave.

Then it’s “back on the booking

Knoxville Shoney’s breakfast bar. “He’s supposed to be coming back when he finishes their road gigs. But in the meantime, we got ourselves a ringer.”

The ringer comes in the form of new bass player Rodeo Hawkins, whose prior allegiance was to local cover band extraordinaire Shiffty and the Headmasters.

And all the while, the band is releasing its latest batch of original songs—the follow-up to their 2013 debut release, Hammertime Country— via Live and Breathing. The first song, “Toaster,” an urgent rocker that sounds like a one-off with Queen and the Foo Fighters, is already posted on the Live and Breathing website. The next, “Pearl Harper,” will be unveiled at the upcoming Scruffy City Film and Music Festival, with the remainder to be released in the coming weeks.

The band hopes the new tunes will continue to establish the Excellents as a formidable original act—not that the band ever really lacked in originality, even when their entire set list consisted of other people’s songs. Who else would think, for instance, to throw a note-perfect rendition of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” solo into the middle of “… Baby One More Time” or to arrange a lounge-lizard version of Green Day’s “Basket Case”?

“It’s been a minute since we’ve

MORE INFO barleysknoxville.com

Classical Music

Forward Motion KSO’s next-to-last Masterworks concerts of 2015 offer promise for the future

BY ALAN SHERROD

W

ith the final concerts of Maestro Lucas Richman’s tenure with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra coming up in May, and the last nine months of guest conductor appearances completed last weekend, one is tempted to speculate on what audiences might expect next season as the six music-director candidates each make their case for the position. Under the circumstances, one could easily forgive the orchestra for being mired in confusion in performance, its ensemble togetherness and energy wavering under a cloud of uncertainty. Remarkably, though, the exact opposite thing has occurred—the KSO is now playing with a precision, artistry, and apparent joie de vivre that exceeds even the loftiest recent expectations.

That’s a bold statement. Validation of it came in last weekend’s concerts with guest conductor Vladimir Kulenovic, a concert that offered Bedrich Smetana’s Overture to The Bartered Bride and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and concluded with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”). Numerous factors figure into such outstanding performances, but it was clear that Kulenovic’s razor-edged precision and meticulous massaging of dynamics and textures aligned perfectly with a KSO that was intensely invested in a memorable showing. It is worth noting that Kulenovic conducted the Smetana and the Beethoven

without a score, something that is indeed impressive on its face, but, in this case, had a deeper importance. It allowed the conductor to be a part of the orchestra and permitted his musical point of view to flow through the players, not just at them.

Starting with the Smetana, one was immediately impressed by the crispness and energy of the direction and the tight ensemble togetherness, most noticeably in the combined violin sections. Just as in the Beethoven later in the evening, the ensemble cohesiveness made each passage an event, and each change of dramatic mood, a new musical day. In a fresh, organic way, it felt as though one was hearing this familiar overture for the first time.

Pianist Antti Siirala joined Kulenovic and the orchestra for Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in F-sharp Minor, the composer’s Op. 1.

The work was first performed in 1892, when Rachmaninoff was 19 years old, but was later revised in 1917 into the work heard today. While the revision reflected the musical maturity and orchestration ability gained by the composer over 20 years, the work still pales by comparison with his Second and Third piano concertos. Nevertheless, it shows Rachmaninoff’s remarkable inventive personality in writing for the piano and for juxtaposing it against the orchestra in a consummately entertaining way.

Rather matter of factly but skillfully, Siirala explored the contrasts of the work’s density to its moments of translucent shimmer. The second movement’s solo section had a purposeful but meandering quality that leads the listener along without really being sure of the destination. In the Finale movement, Siirala moved between the moments of quirky, restive rhythms and the lyrical sweet spots with a silken touch. Although there seemed to be some visual cues that indicated the synchronization between the conductor and soloist might be an issue, they certainly didn’t result in audible distractions; Siirala and Kulenovic stayed the course and left us with a reassuringly jubilant close.

While the average listener will invariably place Beethoven’s Fifth and Ninth symphonies among his most complex works—and they are—musicians probably agree that the Sixth, the “Pastoral,” has a degree of difficulty and depth that is not always apparent.

Kulenovic’s approach to that work on the second half of the concert was to take a moderate tempo while still luxuriating in the delicious details of country life that Beethoven provides.

Themes sprang forth with clarity and definition, like a peasant wagon crossing our path; the fourth-movement storm caught us by surprise, then retreated with the hymn-like suggestion of thanks.

On this trip to the country, Maestro Kulenovic was thankfully accompanied by some superb twittering cuckoos, chirping birds, dancing peasants, and overall sublime pastoral textures from KSO players Claire Chenette (oboe), Nicholas Johnson (flute), Gary Sperl (clarinet), Aaron Apaza (bassoon), and Jeffery Whaley (horn). And the beginning of that second movement, “Scene by the Brook,” opened with some of the most radiant and velvety ensemble playing from KSO violins heard all season.

While the anxiety level will inevitably rise as the KSO proceeds into the music-director selection process next season, last weekend’s performances proved audiences have nothing to fear—and clearly, a whole lot to gain.

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April 23, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 31

Theater

Missed Message CBT’s big production of Threepenny Opera muffles the musical’s socialist critique

BY ALAN SHERROD

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1994. This version suggests a more contemporary age riddled with anachronisms. Macheath (Brian Herriott) is a dangerous but dapper criminal on the run from the police and romantically involved with young Polly Peacham (Stephanie Lee). Polly’s father, J.J. Peacham (Roderick Peeples), operates a business that employs beggars and takes a cut of the proceeds, while Mrs. Peacham (Katy Wolfe) enjoys the tangible results of J.J.’s exploitation of the downtrodden.

The Peachams are unhappy with Polly’s entanglement and enlist the aid of an ex-girlfriend of Macheath’s, Jenny Diver (Lise Bruneau), to turn him over to the police. Conveniently, though, Macheath and the police chief, Tiger Brown (Neil Friedman), have a bond from their colonial military days;

Darin version. Inexplicably, the character doesn’t return until later in the first act.

Neil Friedman is an actor worth watching closely, for he offered up police chief Tiger Brown with a generous helping of comic moves and subtle gestures that gave the role substance. Melissa David as Lucy Brown was a fabulous counterpoint to Polly in their number “Jealousy Duet.”

Josafath Reynoso’s set is truly a visual feast of arches, steps, and scaffolding, encompassing the entire width and depth of the CBT stage and side aprons. Threepenny Opera posters of historic-looking origin line the walls of the audience area with chandeliers hanging above. A huge rear projection screen succeeds as an environment creator, although other set pieces partially block it. Similarly, lighting designer Kristen Geisler and costume designer Poua Yang contributed mood, definition, and style to this massive environment.

Although a few politically-inspired harrumphs were heard from audience members uncomfortable with the Brechtian message, most seemed to drift off into the night as the house lights came up, greatly admiring the theatricality of this huge production but sadly having been deprived of the point.

WHAT Clarence Brown Theatre: Threepenny Opera WHERE Clarence Brown Theatre (1714 Andy Holt Drive)

Photo courtesy of the Clarence Brown Theatre

n director Calvin MacLean’s program notes to his current Clarence Brown Theatre production of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, he emphasizes that the work should be “vicious, terrifying, theatrical fun.” Theatrical fun, it was. Vicious and terrifying? Read on.

The theatrical fun rises from a scaled-up, bubbling cauldron of light, color, music, sound, and images that is the production’s environment, and from a feast of fascinating vocal and dramatic performances. In fact, the production contains everything in detail and abundance that contemporary audiences generally want in theater.

Unfortunately, the production is neither vicious nor terrifying, perhaps not even Brechtian, in the ideal sense.

Brecht’s concept of verfremdungseffekt, the idea of yanking the audience from its comfort zone in order to increase the impact of the social message, vanishes amid the huge scale and the visual creativity and technology needed to pull it off. Size and scale is not what Brecht meant by “epic theater.”

Brecht’s message of the evils of capitalism, the hypocrisy of the affluent, and the exploitation of the poor is as unsettling for some today as it was at the time of the original production in 1928. MacLean followed Brecht’s suggestions for briskly separating dramatic action and the message; music numbers were punctuated with lighting changes and projected song titles. Despite this, an audience in 2015, comfortable with presentational abstraction, probably needs a more painful slap across the face.

The CBT production is using the Robert MacDonald/Jeremy Sams translation of dialogue and lyrics from

Brown has been protecting him for years. All the while, another Macheath admirer, Lucy Brown (Melissa David), has helped him elude the police.

Herriott’s attractive vocal performance as Macheath was absolutely top-shelf, but there was strangely nothing in his physical or dramatic portrayal that even slightly suggested a sinister or vicious figure who could knife a victim at the drop of a hat. Lee’s Polly Peacham was deliciously duplicitous in her comic fickleness, an attitude that bounced unpredictably between schoolgirl giddiness and heartless business practicality. In addition, her strong voice ranged from lyrical to punctuating, nicely contrasting the moments of her disingenuous naiveté.

Peeples was brilliant as the devious but smooth J.J. Peacham. There is an art to “non-singing” singing, and Peeples nailed it in Peacham’s music numbers, notably “Peacham’s Morning Song” and “The Song of Inadequacy.”

Katy Wolfe’s Mrs. Peacham was equally devious, with a slice of hypocrisy thrown in for good measure.

Bruneau’s Jenny Diver opens the show with the hauntingly dark but chillingly beautiful “The Flick Knife Song,” otherwise known as “Mack the Knife” but light-years away, in style and substance, from the familiar Bobby

WHEN Through May 3 HOW MUCH $26-$32 MORE INFO clarencebrown theatre.com

Movie

Monkey Business Disney’s entertaining Monkey Kingdom ventures into the realm of docudrama

BY APRIL SNELLINGS

D

isney has long been accused of manipulating the subjects of its nature documentaries, with the most notorious example being that time they allegedly imported and murdered a herd of lemmings for the 1958 life-inthe-Arctic doc, White Wilderness.

At the far less maniacal end of the scale is the bubbly and entertaining Monkey Kingdom, the eighth film to be released under the company’s Disneynature documentary label. It’s safe to assume the filmmakers took a handsoff approach to the monkey action that plays out onscreen, but unless directors Mark Linfield and Alastair Fothergill happened upon a wild monkey troop that is remarkably well versed in Disney plot contrivances, Monkey Kingdom indulges in enough narrative finagling to place it firmly in the realm of docudrama. By the end of the film, two monkeys have been knocked off, one has been knocked up, and life lessons have been learned by all.

There’s even a scrappy princess of

sorts in the form of Maya, who quickly emerges as Monkey Kingdom’s heroine. Likely chosen because she’s got a mop of yellow hair and a distinctive pattern of freckles that instantly sets her apart from her fellow monkeys, Maya is a toque macaque whose troop lives among the ruins of the ancient Sri Lankan city of Polonnaruwa.

Macaques are famous for their rigid social structure, and Maya is a lowborn, placing her at the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to food, shelter, and every other facet of survival. This becomes especially problematic when she’s impregnated by a wandering male who is then drummed out of the troop, leaving Maya to fend for herself and her newborn son, Kip. Most of the film concerns the single mom’s efforts to feed and protect her child; since the highborn monkeys—including alpha male Raja and a trio of spoiled, red-faced monkeys known as the Sisters—have dibs on the most

nutritious food and the safest living quarters, Maya must leave the relative safety of the village in search of new resources. Adventure, danger, and hijinks ensue.

The stars of Monkey Kingdom are the most fiercely anthropomorphized subjects of any Disneynature film so far, probably for obvious reasons. It’s virtually impossible not to ascribe human emotions and motives to their actions, regardless of whether you lean toward the idealistic or the cynical. The monkeys dote on their young, mourn their dead, and put aside internal rivalries to protect the community from invaders. They also ruin a human kid’s birthday party, gang-mug a squirrel, and vandalize a cellphone tower. Any way you look at it, they’re awesome and fun to watch.

They’re also beautifully filmed.

Linfield and Fothergill, veterans of both the Disneynature franchise and the groundbreaking BBC miniseries Planet Earth, spent two and a half

years in the field with the macaques, and they came back with some truly extraordinary footage. Highlights include a scene that finds the monkeys swimming beneath the surface of a lily pond as a 7-foot monitor lizard lurks above and a magic-hour feast where Maya and her compatriots leap into the air to snatch winged termites. The movie is just as fun, if not as visually striking, when the macaques venture into a nearby city to rob street vendors.

Those scenes of urban monkey mischief are amusing, but they also push the movie out of the nature-doc territory where it finds its biggest successes. The farther we get into Maya’s journey, the more tempting it becomes to wonder just how much of the film’s narrative was invented after the fact, based on available footage. As the film goes on, the voiceover narration—delivered with a perfect balance of warmth and sardonic humor by Tina Fey—seems to become less tied to the events depicted onscreen.

The filmmakers claim to have adhered to a strict non-interference policy, and even Disneynature ambassador Jane Goodall insists that editorial intervention was limited to essentially bribing local humans to let the monkeys do whatever they wanted. Add to that the fact that these monkeys have been meticulously studied by researchers for several decades and are therefore quite used to human contact, and it answers a lot of questions about too-perfect camera placement and sequences that seemed staged, including the aforementioned birthday-party raid.

While Monkey Kingdom is definitely a satisfying viewing experience, its relentless effort to humanize its subjects detracts a bit from the overall effect. It’s hard to decide whether to view it as a documentary or an old-fashioned Disney narrative, and that ambiguity sometimes robs it of the feral majesty of predecessors like Oceans and Bears. But perhaps that’s the point. By dismantling some of the experiential barriers between us and the natural world, Monkey Kingdom chips away at that sense of otherness that has helped place Maya and her kin on the endangered species list.

April 23, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 33

CALENDAR Thursday, April 23 CHARLIE AND THE FOX TROTS WITH THE RADIO BIRDS • Preservation Pub • 10PM FIREKID WITH THE RAGBIRDS • Scruffy City Hall • 7PM FRONT COUNTRY • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM TIM GRIMM WITH ANDREW SCOTCHIE AND THE RIVER RATS • WDVX • 12PM • FREE HOME FREE • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • When country a cappella band Home Free was crowned Season 4 Champions of NBC’s The Sing-Off this past December, their victory was by no means the beginnings of a career for the five country stars from Minnesota’ rather it was a satisfying culmination of nearly a decade of hard work and commitment to a vocal craft growing in popularity.

They arrive to town on the heels of their debut release on Columbia Records, Crazy Life. • $30-$103 DAVE KENNEDY • Clancy’s Tavern and Whiskey House • 6PM KNOXVILLE JAZZ YOUTH ORCHESTRA • Redeemer Church of Knoxville • 7:30PM • The Knoxville Jazz Youth Orchestra will present a concert with guest artists Joe Gross, trumpet, and Bill Huber, trombone. • FREE DENNY LAINE WITH THE CRYERS AND JOHN SALAWAY • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 7PM • $20 • See Spotlight on page 41 NAKED BLUE WITH BROOKS WEST • The Grove Theater • 7:30PM • The Maryland duo Jennifer and Scott Smith have been making beautiful music together for over two decades under the moniker Naked Blue.

Friday, April 24 CITY HOTEL • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE FREEQUENCY • Cru Bistro and Wine Bar • 8PM • Folk-pop and covers with three-part harmony.

THE GEE BEES • Preservation Pub • 10PM THE GET RIGHT BAND WITH JOSIAH ATCHLEY AND THE GREATER GOOD • Preservation Pub • 10PM MIC HARRISON AND THE HIGH SCORE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM KING SUPER AND THE EXCELLENTS WITH THE BURNIN’ HERMANS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • See story on page 30 LEE AND THE FEDERATION WITH THE GET RIGHT BAND • WDVX • 12PM • FREE STEFF MAHAN AND JESSI LYN • Kristtopher’s • 9PM • $10 THE MONDAY MOVEMENT • The Square Room • 8PM • $12 NORWEGIAN WOOD • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • FREE RANDOM RAB WITH SAQI • The Concourse • 9PM • Presented by Midnight Voyage Productions. • $8-$12 THE RIVER RATS WITH BASEBALL • Scruffy City Hall • 10PM ROCKY TOP BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL • George Templin Memorial Athletic Field (Rocky Top) • 5:30PM • Bobby Osborne and his band Rocky Top X-Press will be joined by other well known groups including Lonesome River Band, Blue Highway, Junior Sisk and Rambler’s Choice, The Boxcars, and Flatt Lonesome. • $25-$50 SOULFULSOUNDS REVUE • Knoxville Museum of Art • 6PM • $10 TESTAMENT WITH EXODUS AND SHATTERED SUN • The International • 6PM • Two titans of ‘80s Bay Area thrash bring the noise to Knoxville. • $22-$25 LEROY TROY • Laurel Theater • 8PM • Leroy Troy delivers a strong solo old-time banjo performance in the tradition of

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Q&A: Brendan Toller

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 23, 2015

their aptly titled fifth full-length album, Black Widow. • $20-$25 KUKULY AND THE GYPSY FUEGO • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM LOW CUT CONNIE • WDVX • 12PM • FREE LOW CUT CONNIE WITH THE KENNY GEORGE BAND • Preservation Pub • 10PM TURKUAZ • The Concourse • 8PM • Turkuaz combines healthy doses of jittery, world-pop-power groove—reminiscent of Remain In Light era Talking Heads—and a passion for Motown and R&B, resulting in a refreshing twist on the funk idiom. • $7-$10

Uncle Dave Macon, Grandpa Jones and Stringbean. • $14 VOLAPALOOZA 2015 • World’s Fair Park • 5PM • $35-$100 • See Spotlight on page 42 Saturday, April 25 MARK BOLING • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE JAY CLARK AND JEFF BARBRA • Laurel Theater • 8PM • With a style best described as a mixture of folk and bluegrass, Jay Clark’s handcrafted lyrics run the gamut of hard living, hard drinking, civil disobedience, and old-time religion. Jeff Barbra, along with his wife, Sarah Pirkle, were the hosts and producers of the popular WDVX Behind The Barn radio program for almost five years and now produce Behind the Barn at Barley’s Maryville broadcast live on WFIV i105 as well as Sunday morning’s In the Spirit. • $12 ELIZABETH COOK WITH DEREK HOKE • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 8PM • $20 • See Spotlight on page 39 JACKSON EDWARDS WITH THE STAGGER MOON BAND AND ROMAN REESE AND THE CARDINAL SINS • Preservation Pub • 10PM FIVE40 WITH TREEHOUSE, SUN-DRIED VIBES, AND ROOTS OF A REBELLION • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM FOSSIL CREEK WITH JOHN D’AMATO • WDVX • 12PM • FREE GUY SMILEY • Paul’s Oasis • 10PM • FREE HEYDAY REVIVAL • Preservation Pub • 8PM • Local “cabaret bluegrass.”

KITTY WAMPUS • Whiskey River Wild • 9PM • Rock, R&B, blues, and soul.

LIARS DICE WITH SAM KILLED THE BEAR • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • All ages. • $7 LINEAR DOWNFALL • Pilot Light • 10PM • 18 and up. • $5 JENNIFER NICELEY • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE ROCKY TOP BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL • George Templin Memorial Athletic Field (Rocky Top) • 11AM • Bobby Osborne and his band Rocky Top X-Press will be joined by other well known groups including Lonesome River Band, Blue Highway, Junior Sisk and Rambler’s Choice, The Boxcars, and Flatt Lonesome. • $25-$50 EDDIE SPAGHETTI • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • See Spotlight

Wednesday, April 29 BIG SEAN WITH CASEY VEGGIES • The International • 8PM • Big Sean’s career has exploded in the last 2 years since the release of his debut album ‘Finally Famous.’ • $25-$70 JULIA AUTUMN FORD WITH THE KENNY GEORGE BAND • WDVX • 12PM • FREE FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 6:30PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE THE GREG HORN BAND WITH BRANDON FULSON AND THE REALBILLYS • Preservation Pub • 10PM

SALES • Pilot Light • 8PM • $8-$10 GARRITT TILLMAN’S JAZZ INQUISITION • The Bistro at the Bijou • 7PM • Live jazz. • FREE Thursday, April 30 68 WITH A LOT LIKE BIRDS AND THE MIGHTY • The Concourse • 6PM • $10-$12 SAM LEWIS AND RYAN JOSEPH ANDERSON WITH TRACY WALTON • WDVX • 12PM • FREE SAM LEWIS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM RAMAJAY INTERCOASTAL • Preservation Pub • 10PM WHISKEY AND WOOD • Clancy’s Tavern and Whiskey House • 6PM THE WHISKEY SESSIONS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM Friday, May 1 75 DOLLAR BILL • Pilot Light • 10PM • The singular music of this instrumental duo draws various sources from around the world and across disciplines, everything from Mauritanian guitar to raw minimalism and blown-out urban blues. • $5 CRIZZLY WITH ANTISERUM, LAXX, AND EDE GEE • The

Photo by Kevin Baldes

MUSIC

Thursday, April 23 - Sunday, May 3

Sunday, April 26 THE BROCKEFELLERS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM THE EMPTY POCKETS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • Chicago indie country and rock ‘n’ roll.

SHIFFLETT AND HANNAH • The Bistro at the Bijou • 12PM • Live jazz. • FREE

EDDIE SPAGHETTI

Monday, April 27 THE BLUEPRINT • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM THE CURE FOR THE COMMON COLD • Preservation Pub • 10PM • Funk from Idaho.

DARK WATERS WITH BLUE VELVETS • Scruffy City Hall • 10PM MY GRAVEYARD JAW WITH JMAC AND JUNIOR • WDVX • 12PM • FREE THE REGINALS • Suttree’s High Gravity Tavern • 9PM • FREE

Eddie Spaghetti has been leader of the Supersuckers, the Greatest Rock ’n’ Roll Band in the World—if you say it often enough, you know it must be true—for more than 20 years. And now he’s got his own solo gig, too, presumably as a means of exorcising the quieter demons that somehow don’t get purged by the ’suckers beer-sotted brand of hell-bound grunge-icana. The music on his 2011 release, Sundowner, and his 2013 platter, The Value of Nothing, finds Spaghetti clutching an acoustic guitar instead of an electric bass, playing music that sounds, at times, of a piece with the boozy traditional country and honky-tonk sounds Spaghetti tried to escape as an insurgent punk rocker growing up in Tucson, Ariz. Don’t fret, though, because while Spaghetti’s solo material might be a little darker and quieter than that of the Supersuckers proper, the music is still driven by the same bent wit that shaped ’suckers classics like “Must’ve Been High” and “The Evil Powers of Rock ’n’ Roll.” (Mike Gibson)

Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (200 E. Jackson Ave.) • Saturday, April 25 • 10 p.m. • barleysknoxville.com

Tuesday, April 28 IN THIS MOMENT WITH UPON A BURNING BODY AND BUTCHER BABIES • The International • 6PM • Led by frontwoman Maria Brink, the Los Angeles hard rock outfit In This Moment strikes with a seductive metallic bite on

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Spotlight: Elizabeth Cook

41

Spotlight: Denny Laine

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Spotlight: Volapalooza

CALENDAR International • 9PM • Channeling hyperactive energy and uncontainable swagger, the San Antonio DJ and producer Crizzly ignites crowds with an intoxicating, infectious, and inimitable blend of dubstep and hip-hop, which he affectionately terms, “Crunkstep.” 18 and up. • $15-$35 FREEQUENCY • Buckethead Tavern • 8PM DEVAN JONES AND THE UPTOWN STOMP • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE KID INK • NV Nightclub • 9PM • Don’t miss The Hot 104.5 End of Semester Bash with L.A. rapper Kid Ink (“Tat It Up,” “La La La”) on his Full Speed Tour and support from our own DJ Subsurgence. 18 and up. • $20-$30 STEVE MOAKLER WITH JILLIAN EDWARDS • The Square Room • 8PM • In 2006, Steve moved from his hard working hometown (Pittsburgh, PA) to the songwriting capital of the world (Nashville, TN) to pursue his dream of becoming a singer/songwriter. • $12-$20 BRAD POYNER AND THE LOST FIDDLE STRING BAND • Preservation Pub • 8PM ROAD TO ROO BATTLE OF THE BANDS • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6PM • 103.5 WIMZ and The Shed are teaming up with Bonnaroo to give 1 lucky band the opportunity of a lifetime: a slot to perform at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. • FREE ROBINELLA • Knoxville Museum of Art • 6PM • Robin Ella’s early influences were Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, and others. Later, while in college, she discovered the song stylings of Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone, and she has been a genre-defying singer ever since. • $10 THE SAINT FRANCIS BAND WITH THE KEVIN FRATER BAND • WDVX • 12PM • FREE THE WILD THINGS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • Local covers of the British Invasion and ‘60s garage rock.

Saturday, May 2 CAROLINA STORY WITH FREEQUENCY • WDVX • 12PM • FREE SILVIU CIULEI • Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan • 7PM • Knoxville Guitar Society presents classical and flamenco guitarist Silviu Ciulei, who was recently named one of the Top 30 under 30 guitarists by Acoustic Guitar Magazine. • $20 THE DEADBEAT SCOUNDRELS • Clancy’s Tavern and Whiskey House • 9PM JAKE AND THE COMET CONDUCTORS • Preservation Pub • 8PM THE DAVID MAYFIELD PARADE WITH THE CARMONAS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • David Mayfield may be one of the most original performers on the Americana scene, known for his bombastic stage presence as much as his virtuosic guitar talent and songwriting prowess.

MISERY AND GIN • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE OFFING WITH WRAY • Pilot Light • 10PM • $5 SOUL MECHANIC WITH CALABASH • Preservation Pub • 10PM TUESDAY’S GONE: THE ULTIMATE LYNYRD SKYNYRD TRIBUTE WITH COUNTY WIDE • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 8PM • $15 THE WEIGHT • The International • 7:30PM • The Weight, a five-piece ensemble featuring Jim Weider and Randy Ciarlante from The Band, Brian Mitchell and Byron Isaacs of the Levon Helm Band and Marty Grebb, who worked with Rick Danko and Richard Manuel of The Band, remains a vehicle through which we can continue to share those stories and dance to those back beats. Come and take a load off. • $25-$28 Sunday, May 3 ANTIGONE RISING • Kristtopher’s • 7PM • $13

STEVE GREEN • Monte Vista Baptist Church • 6PM • Throughout his years of ministry, Steve’s music has been honored with four Grammy nominations, 13 No. 1 songs, and seven Dove Awards, Christian music’s highest honor.

With 33 recordings to his credit, including children’s projects and Spanish-language albums, Green has sold over three million albums worldwide. • $10-$15 J.C. AND THE DIRTY SMOKERS • Preservation Pub • 10PM AMY LAVERE AND WILL SEXTON • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM • Amy LaVere, born Amy Fant, is an American singer, songwriter, upright bass player and actress based in Memphis, Tennessee. Her music is classified as Americana, combining a blend of classic country, gypsy jazz, and southern soul.

PAPA ROACH WITH WE ARE HARLOT AND DIVIDED WE STAND • The International • 7PM • Papa Roach have been known as chart-toppers since the explosion of their first album and their smash single “Last Resort” in 2000. In January, the band celebrated the 15th anniversary of Infest by releasing their 8th studio album and most infectious, invigorating, and incendiary body of work to date, F.E.A.R. 18 and up. • $27.50-$50 SHIFFLETT AND HANNAH • The Bistro at the Bijou • 12PM • Live jazz. • FREE

OPEN MIC AND SONGWRITER NIGHTS

Thursday, April 23 BREWHOUSE BLUES JAM • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8 p.m.• Free Friday, April 24 TIME WARP TEA ROOM OPEN SONGWRITER NIGHT • Time Warp Tea Room • 7PM • Songwriter Night at Time Warp Tea Room runs on the second and fourth Friday of every month. Show up around 7 p.m. with your instrument in tow and sign up to share a couple of original songs with a community of friends down in Happy Holler. • FREE Monday, April 27 BLUEGRASS AND BREWS OPEN JAM • Suttree’s High Gravity Tavern • 7PM • A weekly jam session followed by a band performance. • FREE Tuesday, April 28 BARLEY’S OPEN MIC NIGHT • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM OLD-TIME JAM • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15 p.m. • Hosted by Sarah Pirkle. • Free Friday, May 1 TIME WARP TEA ROOM OPEN SONGWRITER NIGHT • Time Warp Tea Room • 7PM • Songwriter Night at Time Warp Tea Room runs on the second and fourth Friday of every month. Show up around 7 p.m. with your instrument in tow and sign up to share a couple of original songs with a community of friends down in Happy Holler. • FREE

DJ AND DANCE NIGHTS

Friday, April 24 THE ART OF HOUSE WEEKENDER DANCE PARTY •

IN THE MOOD A 1940’S MUSICAL REVUE

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29 • 7PM

LEWIS BLACK SUNDAY, MAY 3 • 7PM

SHERYL CROW WITH SAM OUTLAW

SATURDAY, MAY 23 • 8PM

ON SALE FRIDAY, 4/24 AT 10AM!

With Rich Dworsky, Fred Newman, and special guests

THURSDAY, AUGUST 13 • 8PM More information at www.prairiehome.org

also upcoming:

RICK SPRINGFIELD: STRIPPED DOWN • 5/5 THE DOOBIE BROTHERS - SOLD OUT! • 5/6

www.TennesseeTheatre.com Tickets available at the Tennessee Theatre box office, Ticketmaster.com and by phone at 800-745-3000.

April 23, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 35

CALENDAR

Talk Show

Secret Svengali With Danny Says, documentary filmmaker Brendan Toller reveals one of rock’s essential trendsetters

BY COURY TURCZYN

D

anny Fields has probably had a more lasting influence on contemporary rock ’n’ roll than most record-label executives, producers, critics, and, for that matter, rock stars.

Yet he’s probably one of the leastknown figures in modern music history, and it’s highly doubtful he’ll ever be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He didn’t so much try to shape the industry through force of will as through his taste for truly rebellious music—and by being in the right place at the right time.

Even from his earliest years as a journeyman editor at teen rag Datebook in the mid-’60s, he caused waves: It was Danny Fields who published John Lennon’s quote that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus. In the same period, he was inducted into Andy Warhol’s Factory scene, becoming friends with Lou Reed, Nico, and other tastemakers. He talked his way into

36

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 23, 2015

becoming the Doors’ press agent, and then in turn talked his way into becoming an A&R rep for their label, Elektra. He traveled to Detroit, where he signed the MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges. Later, he championed the New York Dolls and Jonathan Richman’s Modern Lovers. In 1974, he went to CBGB’s, witnessed the Ramones, and asked to be their manager. They said he’d have to buy them a new drum kit first. So he borrowed the money from his mother.

And got them signed to Sire Records.

It is highly unlikely any of those bands would’ve gotten anywhere except for Danny Fields’ ability to persuade record labels to take a chance. They are now recognized as elemental forces in rock history, if not exactly mainstream successes. Meanwhile, Fields turned down bands that could’ve made him rich, but who he just didn’t care for— Johnny and Edgar Winter and Aero-

smith, among others.

While Fields has been mentioned in rock-history books before, he’s never been the focus of study until now.

Documentary filmmaker Brendan Toller met Fields in the course of shooting his 2008 film, I Need That Record!, a look at the death and (possible) resurrection of the independent record store. While he didn’t use his interview, Toller decided Fields would make a great documentary subject himself—so he kept asking him until he said yes. That was over five years ago, and now Danny Says (named after a Ramones song) is being featured at the Scruffy City Film and Music Festival.

How would you describe Danny Fields’ role in the rock scenes of the ’60s and ’70s?

There’s not a word for it, and there’s not any people really doing what he did today. He created a context for a lot of artists to exist. There was no one else who was going to bring Joey Ramone or Iggy Pop into the spotlight or onto the mainstream. There were no bidding wars for the Ramones or the Stooges.

His oeuvre was the American underground that informs every band that plays today. I think he was driven by his brilliance. And the people driven by their brilliance today, if they drop out of Harvard, they do it to start an app. I

wish more people that are as brilliant as Danny would find their way into the realm of pop music again.

Did you ever feel the need to fact-check some of his stories?

You know, I did with a lot of people that are living and sometimes it was more of a Rashomon tale, but I trust Danny.

He is maybe one to exaggerate sometimes, or embellish, but it’s always for the right reasons. I never came across a story that was absolutely not true.

Maybe when Tommy Ramone said he didn’t actually say he wanted to be their manager the night he saw them. He did stick around on the sidewalk, but Tommy remembered it differently—I think he said that Lou Reed convinced him, and now I’m wondering if that Lou Reed tape was the crux for Danny to say, “Hey, I should bring these guys into the light for everyone.”

Did you come across any other really historic conversations like the Lou Reed tape featured in the film, in which Reed professes his admiration for the Ramones?

If you consider Iggy Pop crying about his dead parakeet in 1970 as historic, yeah. There’s also a full play of Fun House over the phone to Danny, and there’s a track-by-track impression breakdown of what he thinks. Iggy’s just super proud of it, one of the

CALENDAR Southbound Bar and Grill • 11 p.m. • Featuring resident DJs Rick Styles, Mark B, and Kevin Nowell. 21 and up.

greatest records of all time.

One thing I wanted to know more about after watching the film: What’s Fields doing now? Does he still look for talented musicians?

I don’t think he’s looking, but he’s supporting the artists that he knows, just as friend and confidant. I’m an example of that. He could’ve gotten any documentary filmmaker to do this movie—Andy Warhol wanted to write his biography in the late ’80s, and then Andy passed away. I think the music business has obviously changed, but Danny is still falling in love with bands—he’s really into this band called Fat White Family, who just moved to Brooklyn. He’s always telling me about things that three years later are going to blow up big.

What do you think motivated him through his eras of rock music?

I think it was: You’re smart, you’re a wit, and you’re a cute boy or girl. I think in terms of people, that’s what attracted him. And definitely people with a rebellious punch, too. There’s a reason he dropped out of Harvard law.

Could you have produced Danny Says without Kickstarter, or has that become a necessary tool for independent filmmakers?

Kickstarter has certainly changed the landscape for fundraising and possibilities. It’s not easy—I mean, it’s not like you just put your project up and money comes your way. You have to actively be promoting yourself and doing the ask every day. It was great, and it really forced me to put a lot of materials together and get the project out there so it wasn’t just me in a room editing on a computer, or me interviewing Danny and his friends. It opened it up to other people to lend their support or get in touch about photographs or archives they might have. Yeah, it’s totally an amazing way for artists to be able to gain support and get the ball rolling.

SCRUFFY CITY FILM AND MUSIC FESTIVAL: DANNY SAYS • Scruffy City Hall (32 Market Square) • Friday, May 1 • 7 p.m. • $10 • knoxvillefilms.com

@knoxmercury.com

Read the full-length version of this interview online—it’s got lots more dirt!

Musical Highlights at Scruffy City’s Film Fest The Scruffy City Film and Music Festival, organized by Michael Samstag of Knoxville Films and running April 28 through May 3 at Scruffy City Hall, has always thrown together filmmakers and musicians for a multi-day party. But this year, the festival has honed its focus with programming that truly exemplifies the union of the two mediums. Its Film Score offers a schedule of movies (as well as seminars) that delve into music in some form or fashion and are not available for viewing elsewhere: Butch Walker: Out of Focus: This documentary on Butch Walker and his band the Black Widows takes a behind the scenes look at the musician.

Co-director Peter Harding will be in attendance, and a short Q&A will follow the screening. Tuesday, April 28, at 7 p.m. $10.

A Film About Kids and Music: Conducted by Joan Chamorro, Barcelona’s Sant Andreu Jazz Band brings together children between 6 and 18 years old around a classic jazz repertoire with lots of swing. Thursday, April 30, at 9 p.m. $10.

Danny Says: See above! Friday, May 1, at 7 p.m. $10.

East Jerusalem/West Jerusalem: In early 2013, Israeli singer-songwriter David Broza arrived in predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem with Grammy winner Steve Earle to record songs with musicians from Palestine and Israel. Saturday, May 2, at 7 p.m. $15 Made in Japan: The remarkable story of Tomi Fujiyama, the world’s first female Japanese country-music star. Sunday, May 3, at 5 p.m. $10 Plus many more films and live performances. More info: knoxvillefilms.com

Saturday, April 25 THE ART OF HOUSE WEEKENDER DANCE PARTY • Southbound Bar and Grill • 11 p.m. • Featuring resident DJs Rick Styles, Mark B, and Kevin Nowell. 21 and up.

TEMPLE DANCE NIGHT • The Concourse • 9PM • Visit templeknox.com. 18 and up. • $5 Sunday, April 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 LAYOVER BRUNCH • The Concourse • 12PM • Featuring music by Slow Nasty, Psychonaut, and Saint Thomas Ledoux. Presented by Midnight Voyage Productions on the last Sunday of each month through October. • FREE Sunday, May 3 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

Friday, April 24 KNOXVILLE OPERA: IL TROVATORE • Tennessee Theatre • 8PM • A powerhouse cast delivers Verdi’s thrilling score, led by internationally lauded Joyce El-Khoury, and Nelson Martinez, who gave a brilliant, heartbreaking performance as Knoxville Opera’s Rigoletto. Performed in Italian with projected English translations. • $18-$95 • See Rossini Festival insert Sunday, April 26 KNOXVILLE OPERA: IL TROVATORE • Tennessee Theatre • 2:30PM • $18-$95 • See Rossini Festival insert Wednesday, April 29 KSO Q SERIES • The Square Room • 12PM • This brand new recital series will feature one-hour lunchtime concerts by the Woodwind Quintet and the Principal Quartet at the Square Room, located behind Café 4 in Market Square in downtown Knoxville. Tickets include a boxed lunch; seating is limited. Visit knoxvillesymphony.com. • $15-$20

UP NEXT!

JASON BONHAM

LEDtuesday, ZEPPELINmayEXPERIENCE 5 • 8pm WIMZ PRESENTS

THE BLACK JACKET SYMPHONY PERFORMS EAGLES’ HOTEL CALIFORNIA saturday, may 9 • 8pm

JENNY LEWIS w/ Nikki Lane tuesday, may 12 • 8pm

JEFF DANIELS

& THE BEN DANIELS BAND tuesday, may 19 • 7:30pm

Sunday, May 3 KSO CHAMBER ORCHESTRA: LUCAS RICHMAN’S CHAMBER FINALE • Bijou Theatre • 2:30PM • Featuring Schuman’s Symphony No. 5 (Symphony for Strings), Strauss’ Serenade, Brahms’ Serenade No. 1, Op. 11, D Major. • $11-$31.50

ON SALE FRIDAY, 4/24 AT 10AM!

COMEDY AND SPOKEN WORD

THE STEELDRIVERS

Saturday, April 25 COMEDY BOOZE CRUISE • Star of Knoxville Riverboat • 7PM • The Comedy Booze Cruise is back—a special early show featuring Ahmed Bharoocha from Los Angeles. This show features JC Ratliff, Evan Brooks, Trae Crowder and possibly the final Knoxville performance of Jeff Blank before he moves away. • $10-$15 CHRISTOPHER TITUS • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • Fresh off of his sixth comedy special release, Christopher Titus brings

ALLEN STONE

w/ Brynn Elliott monday, june 1 • 8pm

friday, august 7 • 8pm ALSO UPCOMING!

Anjelah Johnson • 7/26

KNOXBIJOU.COM TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE TENNESSEE

THEATRE BOX OFFICE, TICKETMASTER.COM, AND BY PHONE AT 800-745-3000

April 23, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 37

CALENDAR

Thursday, April 23 - Sunday, May 3

his dark, yet outrageously funny style of comedy to the Bijou Theatre. Titus is known for his TV show “Titus,” ABC’s “Big Shots,” and currently, “Pawnography” on the History Channel. He has released six ninety-minute, televised comedy specials since 2004. • $27-$37

comedic brilliance lies in his ability to make people laugh at the absurdities of life, with topics that include current events, social media, politics and anything else that exposes the hypocrisy and madness he sees in the world. • $35-$59.50

Sunday, April 26 AHMED BHAROOCHA • Preservation Pub • 8PM • Knox Comedy presents the Comedy Central personality.

THEATER AND DANCE

Monday, April 27 SOUTHPOCALYPSE TOUR 2015 • Pilot Light • 8PM • The Southpacolypse tour is roaring through the South, headlined by Derek Sheen, coming all the way from the Northwest, with brand new material in preparation for the recording of his second album. Supporting Derek on the tour is Justin Thompson from Atlanta and on this show we’ll have local support from Jeff Blank and Joe Leeper.

Plus it’s hosted by Matt Chadourne. • $8-$10 Tuesday, April 28 HAL AND PHIL OFF THE RECORD ROUND 2 • Bijou Theatre • 7:30PM • NewsTalk’s favorite hosts, Hallerin Hill and Phil Williams, take their antics from the radio to the big stage once again for an evening of comedy, music, and fun. • $21.50 Sunday, May 3 LEWIS BLACK • Tennessee Theatre • 7PM • Known as the king of the rant, Lewis Black uses his trademark style of comedic yelling and animated finger-pointing to skewer anything and anyone that gets under his skin. His

Thursday, April 23 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: THE THREEPENNY OPERA • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • With a haunting jazz score and biting lyrics, Brecht’s masterpiece of epic theater originated the popular songs The Ballad of Mack the Knife, Soloman Song and Pirate Jenny. For mature audiences. Contains adult content and language, and gunshots. April 16-May 3. • $22-$42 • See review on page 32 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: AN INSPECTOR CALLS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8 p.m. • J.B. Priestley’s supernatural absurdist mystery about guilt, money, power, and sex. April 17-May 3. • $15 Friday, April 24 PELLISSIPPI STATE AND DUCK EARS THEATRE COMPANY: THE TEMPEST • Pellissippi State Community College • 6:30PM • A magical storm. A shipwreck. Monsters and magic. Revenge, forgiveness and true love. Playgoers will find these and more in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”

April 17-26. • $12 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: THE THREEPENNY OPERA • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • April 16-May 3. •

$22-$42 FOOTLIGHTS PRODUCTIONS: THE CURIOUS SAVAGE • Broadway Academy of Performing Arts • 7:30PM • “A comedy about money, family—and the insane.” April 24-26. • $15 WESTMINSTER PLAYERS: ALL IN THE TIMING • Westminster Presbyterian Church • 7:30PM • Six short one-act plays by David Ives.

THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: AN INSPECTOR CALLS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8 p.m. • April 17-May 3. • $15 Saturday, April 25 PELLISSIPPI STATE AND DUCK EARS THEATRE COMPANY: THE TEMPEST • Pellissippi State Community College • 6:30PM • April 17-26. • $12 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: THE THREEPENNY OPERA • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • April 16-May 3. • $22-$42 FOOTLIGHTS PRODUCTIONS: THE CURIOUS SAVAGE • Broadway Academy of Performing Arts • 7:30PM • “A comedy about money, family—and the insane.” April 24-26. • $15 WESTMINSTER PLAYERS: ALL IN THE TIMING • Westminster Presbyterian Church • 7:30PM • Six short one-act plays by David Ives.

THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: AN INSPECTOR CALLS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8 p.m. • April 17-May 3. • $15 Sunday, April 26 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: THE THREEPENNY OPERA •

Clarence Brown Theatre • 2PM • April 16-May 3. • $22-$42 PELLISSIPPI STATE AND DUCK EARS THEATRE COMPANY: THE TEMPEST • Pellissippi State Community College • 2PM • April 17-26. • $12 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: AN INSPECTOR CALLS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 3 p.m. • April 17-May 3. • $13 FOOTLIGHTS PRODUCTIONS: THE CURIOUS SAVAGE • Broadway Academy of Performing Arts • 2PM • “A comedy about money, family—and the insane.” April 24-26. • $15 WESTMINSTER PLAYERS: ALL IN THE TIMING • Westminster Presbyterian Church • 2PM • Six short one-act plays by David Ives.

Wednesday, April 29 IN THE MOOD: A 1940S MUSICAL REVUE • Tennessee Theatre • 7PM • From 1994 to 2014, In the Mood has performed worldwide for tens of thousands of people to sell out crowds. Small towns and cities to major metropolitan areas, crowds came out to listen to the great sounds of the String of Pearls Big Band Orchestra and the exciting In the Mood Singers and Dancers, carrying out the great traditions of the big bands, the vocalists and the swing dancers. • $29-$49 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: THE THREEPENNY OPERA • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • April 16-May 3. • $22-$42 Thursday, April 30 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: THE THREEPENNY OPERA • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • April 16-May 3. • $22-$42 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: AN INSPECTOR CALLS •

Bonnaroo or Bust!

WUTK WANTS TO SEND YOU TO

www.bonnaroo.com

Register now until April 29 to be one of our 90 finalists for our Bonnaroo or Bust reverse drawing to win a pair of Guest Access passes to Bonnaroo 2015!

Registration boxes are at:

Central Flats & Taps, 1204 N. Central St., Happy Holler Ft. Sanders Yacht Club Barcade, 17th Street near The Strip

The Bonnaroo or Bust Reverse Drawing Party happens May 5 at Central Flats & Taps.

Tune in to WUTK and follow our social media for more chances to qualify!

From your festival hook-up in knoxville...

On the Air and Streaming 24.7.365 WUTKRADIO.COM or listen on your

smart phone and iPad app.

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38

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 23, 2015

CALENDAR Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8 p.m. • April 17-May 3. • $13 Friday, May 1 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: HARRIET THE SPY • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • Harriet loves writing and wants to be a spy when she grows up. So what could be more natural for Harriet than keeping a journal? May 1-17. • $12 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: THE THREEPENNY OPERA • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • April 16-May 3. • $22-$42 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: AN INSPECTOR CALLS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8 p.m. • April 17-May 3. • $13 Saturday, May 2 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: HARRIET THE SPY • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM and 5PM • May 1-17. • $12 STUDIO ARTS FOR DANCERS SPRING CONCERT • Tennessee Theatre • 5PM • Studio Arts For Dancers will be participating in their Spring Concert. All seats are reserved. Studio Arts for Dancers was founded in 1991 by Lisa Hall McKee. For more information, contact Studio Arts for Dancers at 539-2475. • $15-$20 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: THE THREEPENNY OPERA • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • April 16-May 3. • $22-$42 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: AN INSPECTOR CALLS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8 p.m. • April 17-May 3. • $13 Sunday, May 3 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: THE THREEPENNY OPERA •

Clarence Brown Theatre • 2PM • April 16-May 3. • $22-$42 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: AN INSPECTOR CALLS • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 3 p.m. • April 17-May 3. • $13 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: HARRIET THE SPY • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 3PM • May 1-17. • $12

FESTIVALS

Saturday, April 25 EARTH DAY IN OAK RIDGE • Arthur K. Russell Park • 11AM • Join us on Saturday, April 25, a free, family-friendly celebration of Earth Day. 11 am - 4 pm in A.K. Bissell Park.

Visit orearthday.org. • FREE ROSSINI FESTIVAL ITALIAN STREET FAIR • Downtown Knoxville • 10AM • When spring springs in Knoxville, it does so with a force of festivity that’s almost too good to believe—and that’s especially true when the city’s largest festival takes a big slice of downtown and covers it with an Italian street fair. On Saturday, April 25, the Knoxville Opera’s 14th annual Rossini Festival will continue its grand tradition of entertainment, and this year that means two additional hours of merriment and music. The festival will open an hour earlier than years past and close an hour later, too. That means the festivities commence at 10 a.m. and keep going for 12 hours. The Festival occupies most of the area between Market and Gay streets, with more than 100 vendors and 400 volunteers working to make this year’s festival as much fun and more than the previous 14. There’s plenty to do

ELIZABETH COOK The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (1820 W. Lamar Alexander Parkway, Maryville) • Saturday, April 25 • 6 p.m. • $20 • smh-d.com

According to interviews, Elizabeth Cook’s parents discouraged her from attending college, steering her instead toward a music career. We should all appreciate the advice—Cook’s most recent albums, Balls (2007) and Welder (2010), are minor classics of contemporary country, hitting a sweet spot you may never have noticed, right between Emmylou Harris and Loretta Lynn. In a different world, Cook might have had a few charting singles from those albums, but mostly she’s had to stay content with critical acclaim from The Washington Post, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and the Nashville Scene’s annual country-music poll. On her 2012 EP, Gospel Plow, Cook turned toward bluegrass-inflected country gospel, an unexpected but satisfying departure that highlights her twangy vocals. We’re likely to get a little bit of both—the sophisticated urban singer/songwriter and the hardcore roots traditionalist—when Cook returns to the Shed this weekend. (Matthew Everett)

and lots to hear for everyone—whether they love opera or just show up to gorge on fair food and dance in the streets. • FREE Thursday, April 30 BLUE AND GRAY REUNION AND FREEDOM JUBILEE • Downtown Knoxville • Knoxville will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, April 30 through May 3. A series of programs and activities will highlight Union, Confederate, and African American perspectives, with a focus on Reconstruction, remembrance, and reconciliation. Visit www. easttnhistory.org/BlueGray.

Friday, May 1 BLUE AND GRAY REUNION AND FREEDOM JUBILEE • Downtown Knoxville • Knoxville will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, April 30 through May 3. A series of programs and activities will highlight Union, Confederate, and African American perspectives, with a focus on Reconstruction, remembrance, and reconciliation. Visit www. easttnhistory.org/BlueGray.

CLINCH RIVER SPRING ANTIQUE FAIR • Historic Downtown Clinton • This Fair starts with a Kick-Off Party on Friday, May 1st from 6 to 9 p.m. with musical entertainment. The shops on Market and Main Street will be open late and food vendors will be set up in Hoskins-Lane Park. On Saturday, May 2nd from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., over 100 exhibitors from East Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio will offer a wide range of antiques and collectibles to suit every taste. A wide selection of foods from local vendors will be available all day. For more information, call 865-457-4547.

BOOGIE ON THE RIVER • Huff Farm (Maryville) • Music, contests, kids’ events and more to raise money to financially assist local cancer patients.

TOWNSEND SPRING FESTIVAL AND OLD TIMERS DAY • Townsend Visitor’s Center • 10AM • A celebration of Appalachian history and crafts, bluegrass music, wildflower walks, storytelling, BBQ, clogging, the Young Pickers Contest, book signings, bake sales, and much more! FREE. $8 parking per day( goes to Volunteer Fire Department). NO PETS. Begins at 10 am daily. • FREE ROCK AROUND THE DOCK FOR AUTISM • The Shrimp Dock • 6:30PM • Tickets to the Margaritaville-style event are $50 and include live entertainment by Tall Paul, Cajun shrimp boil by The Shrimp Dock, complimentary wine, beer, and non-alcoholic beverages, side dishes and dessert, and admission to the silent auction. All proceeds benefit the Autism Society East Tennessee, a nonprofit that provides support, services, advocacy, education, and public awareness for all individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and their families as well as educators and other professionals throughout 36 East Tennessee counties.

For tickets, visit www.shrimpboilforautism.com. • $50 Saturday, May 2 BLUE AND GRAY REUNION AND FREEDOM JUBILEE • Downtown Knoxville • Knoxville will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, April 30 through May 3. A series of programs and activities will highlight Union, Confederate, and African American perspectives, with a focus on Reconstruction, remembrance, and reconciliation. Visit www. easttnhistory.org/BlueGray.

BOOGIE ON THE RIVER • Huff Farm (Maryville) • Music, contests, kids’ events and more to raise money to financially assist local cancer patients.

CLINCH RIVER SPRING ANTIQUE FAIR • Historic Downtown April 23, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 39

CALENDAR Clinton • This Fair starts with a Kick-Off Party on Friday, May 1st from 6 to 9 p.m. with musical entertainment. The shops on Market and Main Street will be open late and food vendors will be set up in Hoskins-Lane Park. On Saturday, May 2nd from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., over 100 exhibitors from East Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio will offer a wide range of antiques and collectibles to suit every taste. A wide selection of foods from local vendors will be available all day. For more information, call 865-457-4547.

TOWNSEND SPRING FESTIVAL AND OLD TIMERS DAY • Townsend Visitor’s Center • 10AM • A celebration of Appalachian history and crafts, bluegrass music, wildflower walks, storytelling, BBQ, clogging, the Young Pickers Contest, book signings, bake sales, and much more! FREE. $8 parking per day( goes to Volunteer Fire Department). NO PETS. Begins at 10 am daily. • FREE

SPORTS AND RECREATION

Thursday, April 23 BACKPACKER MAGAZINE GET OUT MORE TOUR • Mast General Store • 6PM • Tips, stories, and gear demonstrations from the staff of Backpacker magazine. See more at backpacker.com. • FREE Saturday, April 25 OUTDOOR KNOXFEST • Outdoor Knoxville Adventure Center •

40

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 23, 2015

Thursday, April 23 - Sunday, May 3

The ultimate outdoor recreation event, Outdoor KnoxFest offers a weekend of biking, hiking, paddling, fishing, and other activities for people of all ages and skill levels. If you have ever wanted to try a new adventure or join an outdoor activities club, this is your chance. An initiative of Legacy Parks Foundation, Outdoor KnoxFest brings together many of the area’s top outdoor organizations, outfitters, event sponsors, and retailers to promote their activities and products. Visit outdoorknoxville.com/outdoorknoxfest.

DOGWOOD ARTS FESTIVAL BIKE AND BLOOMS SCENIC RIDES • Outdoor Knoxville Adventure Center • 3PM • Observe the beauty of the Dogwood Trails from the seat of a bicycle as you ride to the colorful gardens that frame Island Home Boulevard. Riders will enjoy river views and tranquil forests as they continue on the greenway to Ijams Nature Center before returning.

Sunday, April 26 OUTDOOR KNOXFEST • Outdoor Knoxville Adventure Center • Visit outdoorknoxville.com/outdoorknoxfest.

DOGWOOD ARTS FESTIVAL BIKE AND BLOOMS SCENIC RIDES • Outdoor Knoxville Adventure Center • 3PM • Behold the colorful displays of our native dogwood trees that fringe our boulevards and gardens. Bikers will ride through downtown and loop through historic neighborhoods in North Knoxville.

Friday, May 1 WEST HILLS BAPTIST PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN BENEFIT GOLF TOURNAMENT 2015 • Avalon Golf and Country Club • 12AM • $125/player and $450/foursome.

Proceeds go to academic curriculum, security, teacher

development, classroom supplies, playground/gym equipment. Golf/sponsor-donate/volunteer. Information at www.wherechildrengrow.org or 865-690-4251.

Saturday, May 2 BICYCLE SAFETY CLINIC AND RODEO • Founders Park (Maryville) • 9AM • A bicycle safety clinic and rodeo that allows participants 7 to 9 years old to learn and practice bicycle skills.

FILM SCREENINGS

Tuesday, April 28 SCRUFFY CITY FILM AND MUSIC FESTIVAL • Scruffy City Hall • 5PM • A celebration of film and music, the Scruffy City Film & Music Festival features live musical performances, music documentaries, music videos, animation, shorts and feature films. The six-day event includes five days of live regional music on three stages; music videos and documentaries; animated shorts; feature and short films with strong musical narratives; a singer/songwriter competition; a music-composer challenge; panels, workshops, and Q&As; a daily happy-hour mixer exclusively for filmmakers and musicians; and craft-beer and food pairings. Visit knoxvillefilms.com for more info. See Q&A on page 36 TWIN PEAKS VIEWING PARTY • The Birdhouse • 7PM • Bi-weekly viewing parties for every single episode of the cult TV series. Attendees encouraged to dress as their favorite characters. Trivia, Twin Peaks-themed giveaways, donuts and coffee, plus some surprises. Trivia begins at

7:00pm with viewing to follow at 8:00pm. • FREE Wednesday, April 29 SCRUFFY CITY FILM AND MUSIC FESTIVAL • Scruffy City Hall • 5PM • Visit knoxvillefilms.com for more info.

Thursday, April 30 SCRUFFY CITY FILM AND MUSIC FESTIVAL • Scruffy City Hall • 5PM • Visit knoxvillefilms.com for more info.

Friday, May 1 SCRUFFY CITY FILM AND MUSIC FESTIVAL • Scruffy City Hall • 5PM • Visit knoxvillefilms.com for more info.

Saturday, May 2 SCRUFFY CITY FILM AND MUSIC FESTIVAL • Scruffy City Hall • 5PM • Visit knoxvillefilms.com for more info.

Sunday, May 3 SCRUFFY CITY FILM AND MUSIC FESTIVAL • Scruffy City Hall • 5PM • Visit knoxvillefilms.com for more info.

ART

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts 556 Parkway, Gatlinburg MARCH 30-MAY 9: A Naturally Picked Stacked Attraction of Glitz, the 2015 artists-in-residence exhibition.

CALENDAR Art Market Gallery 422 S. Gay St. APRIL 3-30: Artwork by Marilyn Avery Turner and Gray Bearden; MAY 1-30: Artwork by Inna Nasonova Knox and Mary Saylor (an opening reception will be held on Friday, May 1, from 5:30-9 p.m.)

Central Flats and Taps 1204 N. Central St. APRIL 3-29: New artwork by Beth Meadows and Matthew Higginbotham.

Clayton Center for the Arts 502 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway (Maryville) APRIL 2-30: Dogwood Arts Festival Synergy Student and East Tennessee Educator Art Exhibition.

The District Gallery 5113 Kingston Pike APRIL 24-MAY 30: Automata: Art Cars by Clark Stewart Downtown Gallery 106 S. Gay St. APRIL 24: Strangers and Stand-Ins, video works by Sunita Prasad; MAY 1: Richard J. LeFevre’s Civil War series of mixed-media works Emporium Center for Arts and Culture 100 S. Gay St. APRIL 3-25: Dogwood Arts Regional Fine Arts Exhibition

APRIL 3-30: I Wish I Could Fly, paintings by Angel Blanco.

THROUGH APRIL 26: Monoprints by Marilyn Avery Turner and needlepoint pillows by Coral Grace Turner.

Ewing Gallery 1715 Volunteer Blvd.

MAY 1-JUNE 12: UT BFA Honors Exhibition (an opening reception will be held on Friday, May 1, from 5-9 p.m.)

LECTURES, READINGS, AND BOOK SIGNINGS

International Arts and Entertainment Center 748 N. Fourth Ave. MAY 1: First Friday open house featuring artwork by Hawa Ware Johnson

Thursday, April 23 GIL PENALOSA: “CREATING VIBRANT CITIES FOR ALL” • The Standard • 6PM • How can we create vibrant and healthy cities for everyone, regardless of age or social status? What is the role of the streets, which are the largest public space in any city? Gil Penalosa answers these questions while also explaining a simple and effective principle for inclusive city building: ensuring the safety and joy of children and older adults (from 8-year-olds to 80-year-olds) are at the forefront of every decision we make in our cities.

• FREE • See news story on page 12

Knoxville Museum of Art 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive 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.

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture 1327 Circle Park Drive JAN. 22-MAY 24: Drawn From the McClung Museum, an exhibition of work by 27 artists inspired by the McClung Museum collection. Ongoing: The Flora and Fauna of Catesby, Mason, and Audubon and Life on the Roman Frontier.

Saturday, April 25 CIVIL WAR HISTORY HIKE • Fort Dickerson Park Greenway • 10AM • Join the McClung Museum’s Civil War Curator, Joan Markel, for a History Hike at Fort Dickerson Park as a part of Outdoor Knoxfest 2015.Participants are invited to join this free guided walk on trails within the Battlefield Loop of the Urban Wilderness with our curator and a representative from TrekSouth. • FREE

Urban Bar 109 N. Central St. APRIL 3-MAY 30: Paintings and drawings by Charlie Pogue.

Sunday, April 26 JOAN MARKEL: “FOUR YEARS OF WAR, FOUR YEARS OF COMMEMORATION” • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 2PM • The McClung Museum’s 5th annual Civil War Lecture series concludes with “Four Years of War, Four Years of Commemoration: a recap of events 150 years ago in Knoxville and the accomplishments of the Sesquicentennial Commemoration Effort.” • FREE

Westminster Presbyterian Church Schilling Gallery 6500 Northshore Drive

Photo by Reid Rolls

VOLAPALOOZA World’s Fair Park • Friday, April 24 • 5 p.m. • Free-$100 • volapalooza.utk.edu

Lupe Fiasco has been all over the place since his 2006 debut, Food and Liquor—his troubled 2011 album, Lasers, especially, was marred by its Eurodance vibe and creative interference from Atlantic Records, and 2012’s Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1 felt like a stop-gap release. But Lupe’s new album, Tetsuo and Youth, released in January, is a welcome return to form, full of precise, literate rhymes and production that’s just ambitious enough without alienating mainstream listeners. The Chicago rapper is headlining this year’s Volapalooza concert, the University of Tennessee’s annual end-of-semester spring concert, which is returning to World’s Fair Park after a few years at Thompson-Boling Arena. He’ll be joined by California indie-rock veterans the Cold War Kids, up-and-comers the Bad Suns, Nashville’s Kansas Bible Company, and Nashville’s Screens. Admission for opted-in students is free; for everybody else, it’s $35 in advance or $40 at the gate. VIP passes are available for $80/$100 at the gate. (Matthew Everett)

Tuesday, April 28 TUESDAYS WITH TOLSTOY • Lawson McGee Public Library • 6PM • Knox County Public Library and the University of Tennessee’s Department of Modern Languages present Tuesdays with Tolstoy throughout April to encourage readers to try Tolstoy’s classic story of passion. Each week, participants will read a section of the book, which they will discuss at the Library. Tuesdays with Tolstoy is held in conjunction with the UTK’s Leo Tolstoy Festival, which takes place April 23-25. • FREE Saturday, May 2 DAVID JOY: ‘WHERE ALL THE LIGHT TENDS TO GO’ • Union Ave Books • 2PM • Joy will read from and sign copies of his novel. • FREE Sunday, May 3 CONNIE JORDAN GREEN: ‘HOUSEHOLD INVENTORY’ • Union Ave Books • 2PM • Green will read from her new collection of poems, Household Inventory. • FREE

FAMILY AND KIDS’ EVENTS

Thursday, April 23 SHAKESPEARE BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION • Blount County Public Library • 9AM • Whether you have a love for the Bard or whether you’d like to know more about him, you’re invited to help “Celebrate William Shakespeare’s Birthday” in a day-long mini-festival at the Blount County April 23, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 41

CALENDAR Public Library. • FREE

CLASSES

Thursday, April 23 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted.

BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 Saturday, April 25 AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • Westminster Presbyterian Church • 9AM • Call Carolyn Rambo at (865) 382-5822.

LEARN TO MEDITATE WORKSHOP • Lawson McGee Public Library • 2PM • Led by Mike Wright, author of 800 Stepping Stones to Complete Relaxation. Call (865) 851-9535 or email mikewright102348@gmail. com. • FREE Monday, April 27 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 5:30PM • Call 865-5772021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted.

AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • South Knoxville Senior Center • 8AM • Call Carolyn Rambo at (865) 382-5822.

AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • Valley Grove Baptist Church • 9AM • Call Carolyn Rambo at (865) 382-5822.

Tuesday, April 28

Thursday, April 23 - Sunday, May 3

GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted.

AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • Valley Grove Baptist Church • 9AM • Call Carolyn Rambo at (865) 382-5822.

Thursday, April 30 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted.

BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 Saturday, May 2 LEARN TO MEDITATE WORKSHOP • Lawson McGee Public Library • 2PM • Led by Mike Wright, author of 800 Stepping Stones to Complete Relaxation. Call (865) 851-9535 or email mikewright102348@gmail. com. • FREE

MEETINGS

Monday, April 27 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.

Wednesday, April 29 THE BOOKAHOLICS BOOK GROUP • Union Ave Books • 12PM •

AMERICAN AQUARIUM FRIDAY, MAY 15

9:00 PM

| THE STANDARD

416 W. Jackson Avenue | $5 cover at the door

42

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 23, 2015

Union Ave Books’ monthly book discussion group. • FREE

ETC.

Thursday, April 23 TENNESSEE BIKE SUMMIT • Knoxville Convention Center • Bicycling and sustainable transportation advocates, traffic engineers, planners, public health officials, landscape architects, researchers, cycling retailers, and elected officials are gathering for the 2015 TN Bike Summit to share knowledge, create common understanding, and challenge each other to build safe roads, strong communities, and a Tennessee where everyone is able to enjoy the benefits of bicycling and walking. Visit tnbikesummit.org. • $45-$85 UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE LEO TOLSTOY FESTIVAL • University of Tennessee • Two days of lectures, seminars, public readings, and film screenings about the life and work of Leo Tolstoy. • FREE NEW HARVEST PARK FARMERS MARKET • New Harvest Park • 3PM • FREE LITTLE RIVER TRADING CO. PINT NIGHT • Little River Trading Co. (Maryville) • 5PM • A benefit for the Boys and Girls Club of Blount County.

PELLISSIPPI STATE STUDENT DESIGN SHOWCASE • Pellissippi State Community College • 4PM • Pellissippi State Community College graphic design students will display their coursework during the annual Communication Graphics Technology Student Design Showcase. • FREE

Friday, April 24 TENNESSEE BIKE SUMMIT • Knoxville Convention Center • We invite bicycling and sustainable transportation advocates, traffic engineers, planners, public health officials, landscape architects, researchers, cycling retailers, and elected officials to join us for the 2015 TN Bike Summit to share knowledge, create common understanding, and challenge each other to build safe roads, strong communities, and a Tennessee where everyone is able to enjoy the benefits of bicycling and walking. Visit tnbikesummit.org. • $45-$85 UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE LEO TOLSTOY FESTIVAL • University of Tennessee • Two days of lectures, seminars, public readings, and film screenings about the life and work of Leo Tolstoy. • FREE LAKESHORE PARK FARMERS’ MARKET • Lakeshore Park • 3PM • FREE THE LAST STRIKE • University of Tennessee • Lace up your bowling shoes for the Last Strike at the University of Tennessee’s Carolyn P. Brown Memorial University Center.

Students, employees, alumni and the community are invited to visit the University Center, which has served as a central hub for activity on campus, before it closes in late May. The Last Strike event will feature free bowling, billiards, table tennis and other activities in the center’s Down Under Recreation area from Friday, April 24, through Sunday, April 26.

Saturday, April 25 OAK RIDGE FARMERS’ MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 8AM • FREE

CALENDAR ADMIRAL VETERINARY HOSPITAL OPEN HOUSE AND PET FAIR • Admiral Veterinary Hospital • 10AM • Free food, dogs and cats for adoption/rescue groups, bounce house, face painting, reptile/amphibian exhibits, hospital tours, vendors, door prizes. Free and Open to the Public! • FREE JDRF ONE WALK • World’s Fair Park • 10AM • The JDRF East Tennessee Chapter will be holding the 25th Annual JDRF One Walk (formerly the Walk to Cure Diabetes). Check-in will begin at 8:30 a.m. and the 5k event will step off at 10 a.m. Register your team at walk.jdrf.org. JDRF’s mission is to find a cure for type 1 diabetes and its complications through the support of research.

EAST TENNESSEE VINYL AND CD COLLECTORS SHOW • Days Inn North • 10AM • This event features music dealers from all over the Southeast, selling vintage vinyl LPs and 45s, bargain records, CDs, DVDs, memorabilia, and more at a variety of price ranges. • $2 AFFORDABLE CARE ACT INFORMATION • Blount County Public Library • 1PM • Professionals and trained volunteers with the Tennessee Health Care Campaign will provide information about the Affordable Care Act. For more information, go to healthcare.gov website or call 1-844-644-5443. • FREE MARBLE CITY COMICON • Knoxville Expo Center • The convention has exhibitors that cater to a wide-spectrum of interests including comic books, magazines, toys, games, movies, television, anime, manga, cosplay, artwork, sketches and apparel plus much more. In addition, a roster of comic industry professionals and fandom-related celebrities are in attendance for attendees to meet and greet. • $20-$75 THE LAST STRIKE • University of Tennessee • Lace up your bowling shoes for the Last Strike at the University of Tennessee’s Carolyn P. Brown Memorial University Center.

Students, employees, alumni and the community are invited to visit the University Center, which has served as a central hub for activity on campus, before it closes in late May. The Last Strike event will feature free bowling, billiards, table tennis and other activities in the center’s Down Under Recreation area from Friday, April 24, through Sunday, April 26.

LITTLE RIVER WATERSHED ASSOCIATION SPRING STREAM CLEANING • Greenbelt Park (Maryville) • 9AM • The Little River Watershed Association will host its annual community-wide Spring Stream Cleaning and volunteer appreciation event. For more information, please contact caitlin.hoy@littleriverwatershed.org. • FREE FULTON HIGH SCHOOL COMMUNITY CLEAN-UP • Fulton High School • 10AM • Volunteers will be scouring the Fulton campus and surrounding areas, picking up litter and debris from the landscape. Email: ariel@keepknoxvillebeautiful.org Phone: 865-521-6957.

HISTORIC CEMETERY TOUR • Potter’s Field Cemetery • 2PM • Historic Cemetery Tour-Knox County Potter’s Field was established as a proprietary cemetery before the Civil War. Local historian Joe Stephens will be conducting a free historical tour of the Potter’s Field. In the event of inclement weather the tour will be held the following Saturday, May 2 at 2:00p.m. The cemetery is located at 305 South Kyle Street. For more information please contact Joe Stephens at JoeStephens10@hotmail.com. • FREE Sunday, April 26 MARBLE CITY COMICON • Knoxville Expo Center • $20-$75 THE LAST STRIKE • University of Tennessee • Lace up your bowling shoes for the Last Strike at the University of Tennessee’s Carolyn P. Brown Memorial University Center.

Students, employees, alumni and the community are invited to visit the University Center, which has served as

a central hub for activity on campus, before it closes in late May. The Last Strike event will feature free bowling, billiards, table tennis and other activities in the center’s Down Under Recreation area from Friday, April 24, through Sunday, April 26.

WORLDWIDE PINHOLE PHOTOGRAPHY DAY 2015 • The Center for Creative Minds • 12PM • Stop by any time between 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. to be a part of this worldwide celebration. Suggested donation of $5.00 to participate.

No previous photography or darkroom experience is necessary. All ages welcome. Visit pinholeday.org for more information.

HAPPY BABY DAY FAIR • Fountain City Loft • 1PM • New and expecting parents will be shopping locally for their babies and toddlers at the very first boutique “Happy Day Baby Fair.” Admission is free and includes refreshments and door prizes.

Monday, April 27 KNOXVILLE MARRIAGE PLUS RALLY • Knoxville Sunsphere • 7 p.m. • On the night before the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the Tennessee and other marriage cases, join the Tennessee Equality Project to rally as a community to take in the historic moment and remember all that remains to be done to achieve equality in all areas of life. Bring your signs! For more info knox@ tnequalityproject.com.

Tuesday, April 28 EBENEZER ROAD FARMERS’ MARKET • Ebenezer United Methodist Church • 3PM • FREE TENNESSEE THEATRE TOURS AND JACK NEELY BOOK-SIGNING • Tennessee Theatre • 5PM • Join us for this free event from 5:00-9:00pm featuring backstage tours, Wurlitzer organ music, a book signing from 6:30 to 7:30 and a talk with Jack Neely, author of our new book, starting at 8pm. Tours begin at 5:30, 6:00, 6:30 and 7pm.

Space for tours is limited and is first-come, first served.

This event is sponsored by Downtown Knoxville.

Thursday, April 30 NEW HARVEST PARK FARMERS MARKET • New Harvest Park • 3PM • FREE Friday, May 1 CITY PEOPLE DOWNTOWN HOME TOUR • Downtown Knoxville • Set apart by its eclectic architectural design and interior decor — the City People home tour has been steadily growing since its inception in 1985. The strong interest in the tour reflects the fact that downtown has become a viable and popular place to live. • $15-$20 LAKESHORE PARK FARMERS’ MARKET • Lakeshore Park • 3PM • FREE Saturday, May 2 CITY PEOPLE DOWNTOWN HOME TOUR • Downtown Knoxville • Set apart by its eclectic architectural design and interior decor — the City People home tour has been steadily growing since its inception in 1985. The strong interest in the tour reflects the fact that downtown has become a viable and popular place to live. • $15-$20 OAK RIDGE FARMERS’ MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 8AM • MARYVILLE FARMERS MARKET • Founders Park • 9AM MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 9AM • FREE 2015 WALK MS KNOXVILLE • Sequoyah Park • 10AM • An annual fund-raising walk to fight MS. Visit Walk MS for more information.

THE MERCURY QUESTION OF THE WEEK!

What kind of food or restaurant does Knoxville need?

THIS WEEK’S PRIZE GOES TO: PAIGE TRAVIS! WHO ANSWERED: “A dedicated, inventive vegetarian restaurant --I'm talking kale & quinoa & micro greens & butternut squash 8 ways!

A Thai place downtown or near downtown.

An Indian buffet downtown or near downtown.”

PAIGE WILL RECEIVE 2 TICKETS TO VOLAPOLOOZA FOR BEING OUR WINNER...

KEEP CHECKING BACK FOR MORE CHANCES TO WIN! DID YOU KNOW?

93%

of our participating readers have tried a restauarant because they saw an interesting advertisement.

(How very observant y’all are!)

in partnership with

April 23, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 43

FOOD

Home Palate

Photos by Justin Fee

Haute Sammies We watch the creation of a special turkey hoagie by sandwich artisan David Blevins

BY DENNIS PERKINS

O

ne might say that a sandwich is a sandwich is a sandwich. After all, there’s not much more to it than slapping some stuff between two slices of bread. Of course, we all know that that’s not true. In Knoxville, now, perhaps more than ever, ingredient quality matters, and nobody I know is really looking for a peanut butter and sauerkraut on rye. Even so, given the sales of pseudo-food at chain sandwich joints, you’d think we didn’t know a good sammie from a bad one.

That’s particularly sad because Knoxville is home to some great sandwich chefs—folks who see the sandwich not as a convenience food but as a platform for food artistry. One of the best is David Blevins whose haven of hoagie happiness, North Corner Sandwich shop, is found on Central Street, a mile north of Happy Holler.

Blevins brings a fine-dining background to the corner of Central and Springdale, and that training and his years of

44

KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 23, 2015

experience show up in the details of every hoagie, grilled cheese, or chocolate chip that crosses his counter.

I visited Blevins on a Saturday morning when the restaurant is normally closed—but even so, our presence attracted a customer who, after visiting the day before, came back looking for more. Blevins’ business is driven by a regular slate of familiar faces. Even I returned to the shop the following Monday for lunch, and as I waited, Blevins called customers by name, some even before they walked in the shop: “That’s Mary pulling up, I’ve got her [lunch order] right here.”

It’s no wonder—Blevins is an intuitive host and a sandwich from his kitchen sates the appetite and thrills the taste buds. His wares are both tasty and timely, so there’s plenty to attract even the hipster-est eater: sea-salt chocolate chip cookies and bacon potato-salad share the menu board with the selection of hoagies, Grilled

Cheesesters, and other deli delights.

And while he’s mindful of what is going on in the world of food appreciation, he doesn’t get caught up in the ingredient or food fad of the moment.

Blevins isn’t interested in building sandwiches that don’t fit his criteria, so he’s immune from the siren call of the buzzworthy ingredient; you won’t him contemplating a matcha and Sriracha sandwich.

“I’m not trying to reinvent or do the most gimmicky thing that maybe people will talk about … [something that] doesn’t make sense flavor-wise, but has all these weird combinations of things going on,” he says. “I only do stuff like that if it makes sense.”

As for what keeps folk talking about his food, Blevins doesn’t mince words, because, for him everything returns to basic, good food sense: “You have to start with quality ingredients,” and, he adds, “how you put them together. You want to bring different

textures and flavors; so if you’ve got something rich on there, you want to balance it out, like with something acidic. You don’t want to overload on one flavor profile—you don’t want a ton of rich flavors.”

In addition to his quest for balance, Blevins draws on both his experience and imagination when he starts putting together a new idea for a hoagie. His ideas spring from any number of sources. When he explains the origin of his turkey hoagie, he holds up a well-thumbed copy of the Food Lover’s Companion and says, “I’ve got probably hundreds of cookbooks, this is something I read in the evenings just to get ideas. This turkey thing I’m going to do for you started out because I saw a post in here for Crab Louie. It’s real old school—it’s lettuce, it’s crab, it’s got this gussied up Thousand Island dressing that’s got green pepper and boiled eggs.

So I started thinking about really good homemade Thousand Island; so that’s

FOOD More Unique Sandwiches TORTA AL PASTOR

how the turkey special started out—with the dressing and the green peppers.”

As he begins to build the sandwich, he immediately goes to straighten his work place, gather things that he’s pulled out for the photographer and put them where they belong. In this moment you see his training as he assembles his mise-en-place to keep every ingredient in order. As he works, Dave talks about technique and ingredients in simple terms with the same passion and respect that you’d expect to hear in a starred kitchen.

As he reaches for produce he pauses to note that, “Tomatoes aren’t really good right now, but people pretty much expect tomatoes year round, especially on a sandwich.” While Blevins would like to keep everything seasonal, he says, “The reality is that when you’re doing something like this you have to make a compromise. But I pick them out, I go to the market, I don’t

order cases of tomatoes. I pick out my heads of lettuce.”

In addition to tomatoes, the Turkey Hoagie is also topped with chopped green peppers, which Dave salts and lets them rest before he uses them because, he says, “that takes a lot of the moisture out. It’s a simple thing, but that way you’re not getting a lot of watery veggies on top of your sandwich. And it seasons them; of course, you season as you go.”

Eggs are a simple but surprising addition in the finished product, but they add an alluring layer of flavor and a pillowy softness to each bite that’s as exciting to feel as it is to taste. All the flavors work nicely together, especially the combination of turkey and salami which, believe it or not, is an equal match to the happy marriage of turkey and bacon. The real surprise is the Thousand Island dressing—the name alone conjures up images of bad,

North Corner Sandwich Shop’s success rests on a combination of good food that’s put together with consideration for classic technique and, above all, careful attention to every detail of the meal’s components.

El Girasol, 4823 Newcomb Ave., 865-588-0202 Really, you could be happy with any of the options available for these Mexican sandwiches: chorizo, lengua, asada, etc. The whole experience rests on the indulgence of the preparation—a soft butter-soaked bun is grilled to a perfect, golden crisp and then filled with a slice of avocado, a sliver of pickled jalapeño, plenty of mayo, shredded lettuce, tomato, and whatever meaty filling you prefer. The al pastor option is filled with generous hunks of spit-roasted marinated pork (cooked like your favorite gyro filling). These are best eaten hot and on the spot.

NORTH CORNER SANDWICH SHOP 2400 N. Central St. 423-737-0760 FB: NorthCornerSandwichShop Monday-Friday: 11 a.m.–3 p.m.

bottled salad fare and messy burgers from the golden humps—but Blevins’ recipe, though recognizable and traditional, is light, lively, creamy. It brings complimentary hints of both sweetness and tang to the hoagie’s medley of flavors and textures.

Blevins assembles the whole thing carefully with the turkey and salami acting as a cradle for the veggies and eggs—it’s a simple twist to hoagie assembly that lets you gather the bread around the whole lot of its parts, so it’s easy to eat and not wear home. The hoagie’s bread base is something that Blevins brings in from Philly; it’s a good-tasting loaf that he likes, in part, because it gets what he calls “an eggshell crunch” after he toasts it in the oven; that adds another level of textural pleasure to an already enjoyable chewing experience.

“When I build a hoagie, I build the sandwich all the way to the end, so that first bite isn’t just a dry hunk of bread … So it’s not just the ingredients, but it’s how you put them together. It seems common sense but a lot of people get in a hurry and don’t take the time to do that.”

BANH MI Bida Saigon, 8078 Kingston Pike, 865-694-5999 bidasaigon.net East meets West in this mouthful of Vietnamese sausage and ham with cucumber, cilantro, and carrot that’s surrounded by a crunchy French baguette. The banh mi comes in different forms that include pâté, fried egg, and shredded pork, and while all are tasty, there’s a particular magic about Vietnamese sausage and ham in the banh mi dac biet (or #25) that makes it a consistent favorite. Usually there’s a noticeable slice of fresh jalapeño in the mix that brings an exciting jolt of fresh and lively flavor (and some heat) when you get it in a big bite of everything—part of the banh mi’s appeal is its blend of both heating and cooling flavors. Unless you’re allergic, go for it.

SCHWIENBACH Restaurant Linderhof, 12740 Kingston Pike (Renaissance Center), 865-675-8700 restaurantlinderhof.com Truthfully, this indulgent sandwich is very much like a grilled Reuben, but anything made with stuffed pork belly merits a second look. The meat itself is a thinly sliced cold cut that’s reminiscent of good bologna (and, yes, there is such a thing) that delivers a nice porcine flavor with a silky texture. The combination of meat with dark ale mustard, Swiss cheese, and butter-grilled rye is elevated by good house-made kraut that walks a pleasant line between savor and tang. The sandwich comes with a choice of several good sides, but I wouldn’t miss the kassespaetzle—it’s a tasty scoop of soft little flour dumplings cooked with four different kinds of cheese.

April 23, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 45

’BYE

Spir it of the Staircase

BY MATTHEW FOLTZ-GRAY

WANT TO FIND A COPY OF THE KNOXVILLE MERCURY?

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY April 23, 2015

Sacred & Profane

Diary of a Compulsive Shopper Or, when shopping is no longer fun

BY DONNA JOHNSON

I

am a person of many addictions.

Some are relatively harmless, like rearranging my apartment on a daily basis. Some are potentially deadly, such as smoking cigarettes. And some seem innocent, but are, underneath, disastrous—such as my compulsive shopping. A few years ago, I went to a lecture by a well-known psychiatrist in Knoxville who noted that a bipolar person can wipe out their whole life savings during an episode of mania.

I have bipolar disorder, and it usually takes me three or four hours to spend my monthly check, which is around $2,000 or so. Granted, some of this money is spent paying back the charges I owe from the month before, but the rest is spent on one large spree.

I do it every month, and every month I vow never to do it again. For years, I have said the same prayer every addict worth his salt has recited time and time again: “God, if you get me out this one, I’ll never do it again.”

Alcoholics, drug addicts, gamblers—the principle is the same. You are compelled to do something you know is bad for you, but you continue this behavior because of the short-term pleasure it brings. Finally, the pattern is imprinted in your brain and you are hooked.

It’s difficult when you get paid only once a month, unless you are very good at managing your money, which clearly I am not. There is a long, dark period of abject poverty at the end of each month, when I go groveling and begging around the neighborhood to get enough

money to keep myself and my dog, Mallory, afloat.

Picture, if you will, Mallory and me eating mayonnaise and crackers on the last day of the month. I have already called the bank several times and walked back and forth to the TVA Credit Union from Fourth and Gill two or three times. I am like a racehorse chomping at the bit for the gates to open and the race to begin, at which time I will zoom out into the world to spend and spend and spend.

And what do I buy? Everything I see, basically. Clothing, flowers, lamps, dangling, shiny earrings. Since I mostly hang out in Market Square, I usually buy clothes: silk skirts that swirl around your ankles and leggings of hot pink and bright orange. Top the skirt and tank-top off with a wraparound watch (or several wraparound watches) and a pair of red translucent earrings, and I feel unstoppable.

Next it’s time for dinner, the one time a month that I can take myself out.

I go directly to the bar of Cocoa Moon, my favorite restaurant, and order a tom kha soup, with calamari to follow. Each time I enjoy it more. For one day, I can have anything I want, within reason— or unreason. I feel rich. I feel successful. I feel pretty and competent. All is well in my world. Almost.

After a couple of margaritas, a wonderful meal, coffee, cigarettes, and a chat with the bartender, I ask for the check. Around $58. No problem. I can handle it. When I look in my wallet for the money, I can only find two or three

dollars. Could it be I am already out of money? I look in all the pockets of my purse. No money. I am beginning to be very anxious, not to mention humiliated. I hand the bartender my debit card as if there is no problem. Mercifully, I still have money and the bill is approved. I leave a 40 percent tip and walk the door, happy as a lark again.

Going into the liquor store, I stop for a bottle of good red wine. Oh, well, maybe a bottle of vodka, some orange juice, and a couple of packs of cigarettes. Again, I wait with some trepidation for the card to go through. “Denied!” clangs in my ear. I have heard it before. I will hear it again.

“Take off the bottle of vodka and one pack of cigarettes,” I tell the man.

He does this and the card slides through. But I am broke. Finished. No money for the rent or KUB, not to mention food or cigarettes. I break into

’BYE a cold sweat. I have done it again. After I swore I wouldn’t. I will be evicted, not for the first time. I will have to go to the mission. But what will become of my dog, Mallory?

When my parents were alive, they would have bailed me out. There is no one now. I sell a few of my paintings to Architectural Antics on Broadway and they help me pay the rent, even though they do not want or need the paintings.

They have helped me more times than I can remember.

I slink home and take my medicine, which clearly is not working. I remember what a former friend of mine once said: “I keep hoping they will find a medicine that will work for me.” Yeah, me, too. For the rest of the month I live on bread and hummus, crackers and mayonnaise, some American cheese. I will never do it again, I swear to myself, knowing I will.

BY IAN BLACKBURN AND JACK NEELY

April 23, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 47