OCT. 8, 2015 KNOXMERCURY.COM
TIME TO GET YOUR EARLY VOTING ON!
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voters’ GUIDE to the candidates for City Council
NEWS
Local Groups Plan for Climate Change in Knoxville
JACK NEELY
The Day the White House on Wheels Rolled into Town
MUSIC
Crobot Cultivates a New Generation of ’70s FM Rock
OUTDOORS
Kim Trevathan Finally Catches That Walleye
Learn About Our Fair City’s Potential Leaders
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
Oct. 8, 2015 Volume 01 / Issue 31 knoxmercury.com
CONTENTS
“To win the people, always cook them some savory that pleases them.” —Aristophanes, The Knights
COVER STORY
18 2015 City of Knoxville Election: A Voters’ Guide Early voting for this year’s city elections begins Wednesday, Oct. 14—and your job as a citizen is already half done. A dearth of candidates means that Mayor Madeline Rogero, City Council member George Wallace (At-Large Seat A), and Municipal Judge Joe R. Rosson Jr. have already swept their way to the halls of Knoxville power. (See our Oct. 1 issue for their stories.) That leaves three seats on City Council to be decided. So what do you know about the candidates? Clay Duda and S. Heather Duncan fill us in. NEWS
Join Our League of Supporters! It’s the right thing to do! Find out how you can help at knoxmercury.com/join.
16 Weather Alert Conversations in Knoxville among city officials, politicians, and faith leaders seem to have turned the corner from debating whether climate change exists to wrestling with how to handle it locally. S. Heather Duncan reports on their initial work.
DEPARTMENTS
OPINION
A&E
4 Letters 6 Howdy
8 The Scruffy Citizen
24 Program Notes: What’s this Stomp
Start Here: Roadside Sketches by Andrew Gresham, Believe It or Knox!, Public Affairs, Quote Factory PLUS: Words With … Ray Linginfelter
46 ’Bye
Finish There: Restless Native by Chris Wohlwend, Crooked Street Crossword by Ian Blackburn and Jack Neely, Spirit of the Staircase by Matthew Foltz-Gray
Jack Neely recounts a visit by President Gerald R. Ford.
10 Perspectives
Joe Sullivan dissects statements made by City Council candidate Paul Bonovich about the city’s pension plan.
12 Architecture Matters
George Dodds examines UTK’s building boom in part two of his series, “Modern Architecture and Politics.”
Top Knox Winners Announced 10/15! Look for the paper next week to see if your favorites won and join us for the party.
CALENDAR music festival in May all about?
25 Shelf Life: Chris Barrett reviews
new arrivals in the public library’s movie collection.
26 Music: Crobot cultivates a new
generation of ’70s-style FM rock.
27 Classical Music: Alan Sherrod
previews Knox Opera’s Mefistofele.
28 Movies: April Snellings believes in The Martian.
29 Theater: Alan Sherrod finds
Clarence Brown’s Of Mice and Men a little too familiar.
24 Spotlights: Merle Haggard,
Jim Mize, The Public Cinema: The Mend
OUTDOORS
40 Voice in the Wilderness
Kim Trevathan finally lands the walleye of his dreams. So what’s next?
FOOD & DRINK
42 Sips & Shots
Rose Kennedy checks out a gathering of Green Drinks.
44 Home Palate
Dennis Perkins catches up with Dave Gwin of VG’s Bakery. October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 3
LETTERS Delivering Fine Journalism Since 2015
LET’S SAVE THE NEWS SENTINEL ARCHIVES
Thanks to Jack Neely and the Mercury for highlighting the Knox County Public Library Foundation’s “From Papers to Pixels” project to digitize the Knoxville News Sentinel from 1922 to 1990. [“Documentation,” the Scruff y Citizen, Sept. 17, 2015] Jack, of all people, has experienced the time-consuming microfi lm searches that will become a thing of the past when we complete the $600,000 fundraiser, a cost that amounts to about 60 cents a page. The foundation has received not one but two $50,000 challenges if we can raise that amount in 50 days. So a gift of $100 becomes $300 in a blink of the eye. Anyone interested in learning more should visit knoxlib. org/pixels, where there is both an opportunity to learn how to access the two years already digitized, 1940 and 1982, and to make an online contribution. Or gifts can be sent to Knox County Public Library, 500 W. Church Ave., 37902, attention Casey Fox. Ginna Mashburn Foundation President Knoxville
SOMEWHAT HUMBLE
I may be weighing in a little late on this subject, but I spent a week in New
LET’S PARTY
Join us in celebrating the winners and runners-up in our inaugural Top Knox readers’ survey, sponsored by Visit Knoxville. We’ll be at Scruffy City Hall (32 Market Square) on Thursday, Oct. 15 at 8 p.m. Why, that’s the very same day of Top Knox 2015 issue comes out! Performing will be Bear Medicine and Sunshine Station. And it’s free!
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
York City and am just now catching up on my Mercury reading. During my visit to Gotham City I was able to observe, dare I say enjoy, two of architect Frank Gehry’s latest creations. Like many, I started out a critic of this sculptor who stuffed buildings inside his creations, but in this trip I found his buildings refreshing for their individuality. What really prompted me to write is Mr. Dodds’ comment about Mr. Gehry not being a “thoughtful or self aware person.” [“Hating Modern Architecture, and Loving It (Part 3),” Architecture Matters, Sept. 3, 2015] With all due respect to Mr. Dodds, I must agree with David Denton, who in his letter to the editor also took issue with that comment. Mr. Denton had the experience of working directly with Mr. Gehry, but for the rest of us we must watch Sydney Pollack’s documentary Sketches of Frank Gehry. This fi lm introduces you to a very self-aware and somewhat humble architect with an attachment both to his buildings and his clients. J. Perry Childress, Project Coordinator East Tennessee Community Design Center
SPICE WORLD
Perhaps someday a Knoxville newspaper will hire a restaurant and food critic with a serious knowledge of food. To whit: in the recent review of Knoxville Uncorked [“Primo Pasta,” Home Palate, Sept. 24, 2015], Dennis Perkins comments on the Bolognese sauce. Classic Bolognese sauce is made with a little milk and nutmeg. The sauce he describes may be delicious. It might contain mace or cinnamon. It is not a Bolognese. Sheila Hill Knoxville
DETAILS, DETAILS
I enjoyed the rumination on local Italian food in the UnCorked review. However, a few concrete details would have been nice in case readers did want UnCorked on their must-eat-
soon list. For instance, where is it located? When is it open? Is there a bar? If so, how’s the wine list? Since this place is apparently well known to the gourmand, perhaps details aren’t necessary. But to a new resident, or for one too lazy to consult the Internet, a few more bits of background would have rounded out the article. Greg Stroud Knoxville
HITS LIST
Loved the recent story on the buskers—thanks for telling their tales! [“The Buskers of Knoxville,” cover story, Sept. 10, 2015] Great insight into people I’ve wondered about. Also enjoyed the Boomsday kayak tale! [“Heart of Brightness,” Voice in the Wilderness by Kim Trevathan, same issue] Going back a bit, I also liked the story on the drive-in theater. [“The Last Drive-In,” cover story by S. Heather Duncan, May 28, 2015] Keep up the great work Mercury! Sean Hoban Knoxville
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR GUIDELINES
• Letter submissions should include a verifiable name, address, and phone number. We do not print anonymous letters. • We much prefer letters that address issues that pertain specifically to Knoxville or to stories we’ve published. • We don’t publish letters about personal disputes or how you didn’t like your waiter at that restaurant. • Letters are usually published in the order that we receive them. Send your letters to: Our Dear Editor Knoxville Mercury 706 Walnut St., Suite 404 Knoxville, TN 37920 Send an email to: editor@knoxmercury.com Or message us at: facebook.com/knoxmercury
EDITORIAL EDITOR Coury Turczyn coury@knoxmercury.com SENIOR EDITOR Matthew Everett matthew@knoxmercury.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jack Neely jack@knoxhistoryproject.org STAFF WRITERS S. Heather Duncan heather@knoxmercury.com Clay Duda clay@knoxmercury.com CONTRIBUTORS
Chris Barrett Ian Blackburn Bryan Charles Patrice Cole Eric Dawson George Dodds Lee Gardner Mike Gibson Carey Hodges Nick Huinker Donna Johnson
Rose Kennedy Dennis Perkins Stephanie Piper Ryan Reed Eleanor Scott Alan Sherrod April Snellings Joe Sullivan Kim Trevathan William Warren Chris Wohlwend
INTERNS
Jordan Achs Marina Waters
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 ILLUSTRATORS
Ben Adams Matthew Foltz-Gray
ADVERTISING PUBLISHER & DIRECTOR OF SALES Charlie Vogel charlie@knoxmercury.com SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Scott Hamstead scott@knoxmercury.com Stacey Pastor stacey@knoxmercury.com
BUSINESS BUSINESS MANAGER Scott Dickey scott.dickey@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
BOARD OF DIRECTORS Terry Hummel Joe Sullivan Jack Neely Coury Turczyn Charlie Vogel 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
The Origins of the Knoxville Zoo The Knoxville Zoo’s annual family event Boo at the Zoo starts this Thursday, Oct. 8, and continues every weekend through the end of the month. Accredited by the national Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the Knoxville Zoo has a few distinctions not shared by other zoos. It bred the first African elephant born in this hemisphere, and more red pandas than any other zoo in America. Knoxville’s first zoo began in an unlikely way, with a newspaper’s 1923 initiative to start a park for poor children, boosted by a Birthday Fund, collected by children, based on their ages. But progress was slow. In 1935, thanks to the city of Knoxville and the New Deal, including the Works Progress Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority, a four-acre plot was established on a little-used hillside in Chilhowee Park. The Birthday Park, as it was known, included a stone shelter, a small playground, and a wading pool. There was talk of starting a zoo at that time, but no funding for one. Neglected and vandalized, the park was closed in 1946.
In the late 1950s, 11-year-old Knoxvillian Jack Hanna volunteered to help at the Municipal Zoo. Later director of the Columbus Zoo and host of several television programs, Hanna became one of America’s best-known animal experts. He says his fascination with animals started at Knoxville’s zoo. In 1963, the Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus had a particularly troublesome African elephant named Louie, or Old Diamond, and donated the animal to the Municipal Zoo, which turned out to be unprepared for taking care of a seven-ton bull elephant. Old Diamond tore up his early enclosures.
Although the elephant raised interest in the zoo for a while, conditions deteriorated. In 1966, the Metropolitian Planning Commission announced plans for an expanded, modern Photo courtesy of The Knoxville Zoo zoo. However, funds were lacking, and by 1970, knoxville-zoo.org The News Sentinel launched a new effort in the old Municipal Zoo seemed to be coming 1948 for a Birthday Park Zoo, using a little monapart. Some of the animals were euthanized; others were sold. But nobody ey left over from the 1923 fund. The city helped, though funding a zoo with wanted to move the big bull elephant. The Knoxville Journal launched an effort taxes was controversial at the time. Its first attraction was an alligator named to “Save Old Diamond.” Al, the former pet of the Houk family of East Fifth Avenue, who had acquired A panda named Lincoln: The Knoxville Zoo is famous for its red pandas, who have flourished there since 1977.
the reptile on a Florida vacation when it was only six inches long. When Al came to the Knoxville zoo, he was six feet long. About 4,000 people came to see Al his first day. Other animals followed, most of them donated, including six peafowl, two pheasants, two buffalos, some porcupines, ducks, groundhogs, pigs, elk, foxes, black bears, skunks, monkeys, donkeys, a mule, a hyena named Herman, two lions named Romeo and Juliet, and a talking crow named Jim. Knoxville policemen were on the lookout for loose animals to bring to the zoo.
An estimated 150,000 visited the Birthday Park Zoo during its first year. The zoo had no full-time staff at first, and was administered by Chilhowee Park. The zoo became known for its trained-monkey show, and claimed to be the second-biggest zoo in the state. The News Sentinel parted with the zoo over a disagreement with city government, and in 1951 the Birthday Park Zoo became the Municipal Zoo. In 1952, the zoo hired a full-time staffer, who lived in an apartment above the small-animal cages.
Guy Lincoln Smith III (1922-1987), the son of the Knoxville Journal’s editor, was a successful television executive. As the old Municipal Zoo seemed to be dissolving, Smith and his wife, Patty, bought a lion cub named Joshua and took care of it until they could raise money to build a proper facility for the rapidly growing lion to live in. About the same time, Dr. Bill Patterson led the founding of the Appalachian Zoological Society, to oversee an educational zoo. The modern Knoxville Zoo was born in 1971. The zoo successfully mated their most famous resident, Old Diamond, the main attraction at the old Municipal Zoo, with Toto, a younger female. In 1978, their daughter, Little Diamond, became the first African elephant born in the Western Hemisphere. Because African elephants are endangered in their original habitat, it was hailed as an important achievement, not just for the Knoxville Zoo, but for the elephant world. Only two months after Little Diamond’s birth, Old Diamond became father of the second African elephant ever born in America, when Hillary was born to another elephant mother, Sapphire.
For more information, see Knoxville Zoo, by Sonya Haskins, A House for Joshua, by Guy L. Smith, the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection, and knoxville-zoo.org.
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 October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 5
Illustration by Ben Adams
HOWDY
Believe It or Knox! BY Z. HERACLITUS KNOX The Bijou Theatre is 106 years old, and is the oldest theater in Tennessee. (Nashville’s Ryman is older, as a structure, but it was built to be a sanctuary.) However, as old as the Bijou is, IT’S AN ADDITION TO A BUILDING THAT’S ALMOST TWICE AS OLD! Built in 1816, the Lamar House was one of Knoxville’s best-known hotels in the 19th century. Today, the 200-year-old building contains the Bijou’s lobby, box office, and upstairs reception areas, plus most of the restaurant known as the Bistro! Roadside Sketches by Andrew Gresham (agreshamphoto.com)
QUOTE FACTORY “ WE adopt this Resolution before God that He pass us by in His Coming Wrath and not destroy our County as He did Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring cities.” —From a “Resolution condemning judicial tyranny and petitioning God’s mercy” proposed by Blount County Commissioner Karen Miller in order to ensure the county is spared destruction once God gets around to settling the score on this whole gay marriage thing. It was on the agenda for Commission’s Oct. 6 meeting.
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
10/8 RACE RELATIONS TOWN HALL MEETING 10/9 TENNESSEE FALL HOMECOMING THURSDAY
6-8 p.m., Austin East Magnet High School (2800 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave.). Free. The FBI’s special agent for Knoxville, Edward Reinhold, is hosting this forum on race relations between local residents and law enforcement. Topics include: What to do if stopped by the police, what to do if you feel you have been treated unfairly, what is excessive force, and more. Members from all local law-enforcement agencies will be attending.
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
FRIDAY
5-9 p.m., Museum of Appalachia (2819 Andersonville Highway, Clinton). Free. The Museum of Appalachia’s annual festival has become a massive celebration of “authentic” music, with performers on five stages playing traditional mountain, folk, bluegrass, gospel, old-time, and Americana. Some of the names include Del McCoury, Doyle Lawson, Larry Sparks, and many others. All proceeds from the weekend-long event go toward the museum’s mission to preserve Appalachian culture and heritage. Info: museumofappalachia.org.
10/14 MEETING: NEIGHBORHOOD ADVISORY COUNCIL WEDNESDAY
4:30-6.m., Cansler YMCA (616 Jessamine St.). Free. So what is the NAC? It advises Mayor Rogero and her staff on neighborhoods stuff, like the Neighborhood Small Grants Program, for instance. At this meeting, Dawn Distler, director of Knoxville Area Transit, will give an overview of the bus system, along with KAT’s efforts to increase ridership by reaching out to different parts of the Knoxville community. You are free to attend, too!
The dish known as the Full House—a tamale dunked in a bowl of chili with beans—apparently exists by that name only in Knoxville! It was a popular dish here by the 1930s, and is still a regular offering at a few older establishments like the Original Freeze-O in Happy Holler. In the 1890s, the 500 block of Market Street was known as “Watermelon Row.” During harvest season, there was so much produce it overloaded Market Square, and the city used that block of Market Street for pedestrian traffic and produce sales. Today, the revived Market Square Farmers’ Market USES THE SAME BLOCK IN EXACTLY THE SAME WAY!
10/15 MEETING: H-1 ZONING IN PARKRIDGE THURSDAY
6 p.m., O’Connor Senior Center (611 Winona St.). Free. There’s a proposal to expand the H-1 overlay district in the Parkridge neighborhood, and former mayor and District 6 City Council member Daniel Brown will lead this informational meeting about the plan. Kaye Graybeal, the historic preservation officer for the Metropolitan Planning Commission, will speak and answer questions.
HOWDY IT’S HARD FOR SMALL BUSINESSES TO GET AHEAD.
WORDS WITH ...
Ray Linginfelter
Let’s Help!
BY ROSE KENNEDY Ray Linginfelter co-owns Zombie Hunters Paintball (9567 Highway 11E, Lenoir City) with his wife, Jessica. The business, in its second full season, allows you to fight back against the zombie apocalypse in a farm setting.
How is zombie paintball different from ordinary paintball?
Our customers do not get shot—you get to shoot the zombies but you do not have to worry about getting shot back and hurt. And with regular paintball, you can play 30 seconds and get shot and you’re out, but in this you get to go for the whole hayride with high-power paintball guns and state-of-the-art bullets filled with zombie killing serum to help your team keep the “undead” at bay.
When did you first play paintball?
I haven’t ever played a real paintball game in my life.
How did you end up owning a paintball place?
I ride through the farm to check on the zombies between trailers throughout the night and every once in awhile one of them is able to catch me off guard. It’s rare but it has happened.
My wife and I saw a paintball trailer at a haunt convention quite a few years back and joked about doing something like that. Our jokes turned into us getting more and more interested. We offered a hayride one year where you rode around the farm and looked at scenes we’d set up. The next year we changed and you got off the hayride and walked through a haunted house we created at the back of the farm. We took the next year off to research this paintball experience because we wanted to bring something different to our area. My brother, Jeff Linginfelter, owns Dead Man’s Farm and I was able to learn a lot about the haunt business helping him with his opening year. And of course my parents, V.W. and Ann Linginfelter, own the property and Deep Well Farm, and allow us to participate in this little adventure.
Do customers ever get really scared?
Do you ever have to cancel?
What ages is it suitable for?
It is not as scary as a haunted house—it is more family friendly but you still never know what’s lurking around the corner. The age limit is really up to the parents. We have had 3-year-olds ride through before sitting next to their parents.
Have you ever gotten scared at zombie paintball?
We’ve had the occasional person who tries to hide in the middle of the hay trailer we take out. But this haunted attraction gives you the ability to kill your childhood demons, so most customers stay strong so they can shoot straight.
What are some tips for people who want to be good at zombie paintball?
With this paintball experience your gun is mounted on the side of the trailer with limited swing from left to right, so make sure you look ahead for the zombies coming up on your side. Take a deep breath and aim for the head. Always make sure you double-tap the zombies any time you can, just to make sure you got them.
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We try our best not to, but I had to close the first two days we were open this year, Oct. 2-3. It takes a lot of rain to shut us down, but of course we got a lot of rain this past weekend.
What happens to the course after Halloween?
My father uses the farm after the zombie paintball season to grow hay and raise crops for his head of cattle and the animals at the farm. Zombie Hunters Paintball is open Oct. 9-10, Oct. 15-17, Oct. 22-24, and Oct. 28-31. For more information: zombiehunterspaintball.com
ProjectBrandAid.com | #ProjectBrandAid October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 7
SCRUFFY CITIZEN
Honest and Frank The day the White House on Wheels rolled into town BY JACK NEELY
I
f you went back there, you’d see the outline of a familiar city, with its parts rearranged in puzzling ways. It would be the sort of weird dream that would make you worry about yourself. That week bluegrass legend Lester Flatt was at the Civic Coliseum, but he was sharing a bill with hippie-rock band Barefoot Jerry and O.B. McClinton, the short-lived black country singer who called himself “the Chocolate Cowboy.” The relatively new local restaurant Ruby Tuesday was advertising “Continental Cuisine” at all three of its locations. The summer’s big sensation, Jaws, was still playing at Studio One, the Magnolia Avenue theater until recently known as the Park. At Bearden’s Capri—it wasn’t an upscale art gallery yet—was the post-apocalyptic Don Johnson movie A Boy and His Dog, set after World War IV: “The Year is 2024. A future you’ll probably live to see. An R-rated, rather kinky tale of survival.” At Clarence Brown Theatre, distinguished British actor-director Anthony Quayle was rehearsing for his own distinctive production of MacBeth, himself in the title role. The Marriott Hotel was there, the modernist wedge on the east side of downtown where it always is. But it was called the Hyatt Regency. The Republican president whose motorcade arrived there was a conservative who was for tax cuts and against gun control, but was trying to ways to curb fossil-fuel consumption and trying to force power companies to reduce air pollution. President Gerald Ford arrived in Knoxville 40 years ago this
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
week with some interesting context. For Knoxville, it may have been the most extensive presidential visit since the days of Teddy Roosevelt. Nothing like Nixon’s brief cameo at a Billy Graham crusade five years earlier, Ford was in downtown Knoxville for most of the day, meeting with governors and other political and special-interest leaders from a 13-state area. The press corps, including its most famous interrogator, Helen Thomas of UPI, was there. The visit by America’s one president never to be elected was regarded as one of his first appearances of his one presidential campaign. Democratic Gov. Ray Blanton, himself under fire for his own political machinations, greeted Ford but condemned the visit as a “political coup.” Blanton was of course outnumbered by Republicans, including Mayor Kyle Testerman and Senators Howard Baker and Bill Brock. Another member of the greeting delegation was 35-year-old Lamar Alexander, described as an “unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate.” It was one of Ford’s first appearances outside of Washington since a woman fired a pistol at him two weeks earlier in San Francisco. Which, in itself, was a couple of weeks after another woman brandished another loaded pistol at him in Sacramento. Security was an underlying theme of the Ford visit, the subject of questions about guns. The sound of a .38 slug flying in his direction didn’t soften Ford’s opposition to new firearm legislation. It was probably more dangerous to drive a car, the 62-year-old former Michigan con-
gressman said, than to be president. He wouldn’t curtail his travels. “A president has certain responsibilities to see people around the country.” However, Ford didn’t see all that many people here. It was the highest-security presidential visit in Knoxville history, and his schedule of events were all invitation-only. Previously, presidential visits to Knoxville had almost always included an appearance before the public. This one didn’t. They called it “the White House on Wheels.” In one newspaper photo, it appears that Ford’s chief of staff, Donald Rumsfeld, was along for the ride down Alcoa Highway to the Hyatt. Part of the context of Ford’s trip, of course, was energy policy. The Arab oil embargo, two years earlier, had proved how dependent America had become on foreign regimes it didn’t understand. Several members of Ford’s staff had been in town for a couple of days. The previous day’s Mid-Appalachian Symposium, at the University Center’s ballroom, was all about energy. Attending were several energy honchos, including Tennessee Valley Authority officials and Oak Ridge National Laboratory administrator Alvin Weinberg, who advocated “the Nuclear Option”—his choice of phrase might sound alarming, but he was discussing energy production—and a half-dozen prominent members of Ford’s Federal Energy Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. It wasn’t all niceties. Russell Train, the second-ever administrator of the EPA, publicly denounced TVA as a “major obstruction” to Ford’s clean-air policies for its refusal to invest in scrubbers. Frank Zarb, Ford’s “Energy Czar,” remarked, “if we can’t enforce federal law against another federal agency, you can’t enforce it against the
other private utilities.” Zarb was also outspoken about America’s wastefulness, comparing the nation’s energy consumption to a “Roman orgy” that undermined national interests. “We may be consuming ourselves to death,” he said. In the Hyatt’s Cumberland Ballroom, Ford was more circumspect than his energy czar, speaking vaguely about increasing America’s energy independence through a combination of thrift and exploration. Briefly, he mentioned prospects for a grain-for-oil deal with the Soviet Union. He defended recent vetoes of strip-mining restrictions and a free-lunch proposal for schoolchildren, and his ongoing negotiation concerning the Panama Canal. He touted his $28 million tax-cut proposal—and the prospect of U.S. energy independence. Although first announced as a forum for discussing the problems of Appalachia, press reports suggest the meeting quickly became national, and sometimes personal, with questions reflecting the real concerns of the American people: whether his wife, Betty, was too outspoken for a First Lady. And whether his son Jack should have admitted to smoking marijuana. Ford’s low-key response was more or less the same for both: “In our family everybody tries to be honest and frank.” Little comments like that made national headlines. Different papers emphasized different parts of Ford’s wide-ranging if not far-reaching remarks. For proud Knoxvillians, the trip’s value included the global advertisement of the fact there was a “Hyatt Regency Knoxville.” In a cabinet meeting the next morning, Ford remarked on his Knoxville trip. According to minutes later made public, “The feeling he got there is that too many people think the government is their foe.” ◆
It was one of Ford’s first appearances outside of Washington since a woman fired a pistol at him two weeks earlier in San Francisco.
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 9
PERSPECTIVES
By the Numbers Paul Bonovich’s many misstatements about the city’s pension plan BY JOE SULLIVAN
T
he Knoxville Mercury does not support or oppose candidates for elected office. However, when a candidate makes egregiously erroneous statements, there’s a need to set the record straight. Such is the case with the spurious assertions about the city of Knoxville’s pension plan made by City Council candidate Paul Bonovich in a recent appearance on the Tennessee This Week program on WATE-TV. According to Bonovich, “We have not addressed a solution for the pension plan. The liability of the pension fund has gone from $60 million to $180 million, and it is growing. We’ve raised property taxes to fund the recent increase, and we’re going to have to raise them again significantly. We need to fi nd alternatives to keep taxes lower.” Let’s start with his representations about the pension plan’s liability, which bear scant relation to reality. The plan’s total liabilities as of its most recent annual report on July 1, 2014 were $703 million. That represents the actuarial present value of all future benefits due to members of the plan. Its assets, representing the value of its investment portfolio as of that date, were $546 million. That leaves what’s known as an unfunded liability of $157 million (the adverse difference between the two), which must be amortized over time as an expense. But instead of going up, as Bonovich claims, the unfunded liability has been coming down—from
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
$218 million in 2012 and $203 million in 2013 to the 2014 level, and no increase is expected in 2015. It’s true there was a big spike in the wake of the stock market crash in 2008-09. But this was due primarily to a determination by the city’s Pension Board in 2011 to be more conservative in its assumption about future returns on its investment portfolio. A reduction from 8 percent to 7.375 percent brought the city’s assumed rate of return more closely into line with the respected Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System. It also had the effect of lowering the rate at which future pension benefits are discounted to present value, which raises actuarial liabilities. These rate reductions, much more than any investment losses (which are smoothed over 10 years in the city’s pension accounting), caused the unfunded liability to spike from $127 million in 2011 to $218 million in 2012. This spike, in turn, meant a big increase in the city’s expected contribution for amortization, as determined by its actuarial consulting fi rm, Nashville-based BPS&M. Then-new Mayor Madeline Rogero delayed the impact of this increase on the city’s budget for a year by making a $10 million contribution to the pension plan from the city’s general fund balance. When a contribution increase from $13.1 million to $23.4 million in 2014 hit the budget, though, this necessitated the property tax increase that Rogero recommended and City
Council approved. The fact that property taxes went up that year is the one kernel of truth in Bonovich’s otherwise fallacious string of misrepresentations. When he asserts that, “We’re going to have to raise them again,” he fl ies in the face of BPS&M projections that show annual contributions leveling at a little more than $25 million over the next four years and then gradually declining to less than $23 million by 2023 and to little more than $10 million when amortization of the unfunded liability is completed in 2036. (About the only thing that could alter this equation is a steep and protracted stock market decline.) When Bonovich says, “We haven’t addressed a solution to the pension plan” and implies that he can “fi nd alternatives to keep taxes lower,” he’s dead wrong on both accounts. In 2012, the Rogero administration and City Council went through an exhaustive process of examining alternatives. They ended up adopting what’s been termed a hybrid plan that moves halfway from a defi ned-benefit plan under which employees are entitled to a fi xed pension to a defi ned-contribution plan under which they are only entitled to the market value at retirement of contributions made, a la a 401(k) plan. New employees starting in 2013 are entitled to defi ned benefits on the fi rst $40,000 of their earnings (adjusted for inflation) but with a longer vesting period and lesser cost-of-living adjustment. The defi ned contribution component applies to earnings in excess of $40,000. The reason the hybrid plan is only applicable to new employees is that the State Supreme Court has long since ruled that a public-sector employee who is vested in a pension plan cannot be deprived of any of its benefits. In its landmark Blackwell decision, the court held that pension plans might be modified “provided that no then accrued or vested rights of members or beneficiaries are thereby impaired.” The TCRS adhered to this same directive when it adopted a hybrid plan for new state employees in 2013 that is quite similar to the city’s plan. Whether Bonovich’s many misstatements are a product of ignorance or guile, he is not someone who can be relied upon when it comes to pension-plan reform. ◆
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 11
ARCHITECTURE MATTERS
Modern Architecture and Politics (Part 2) UTK still has time to rethink where and how it builds BY GEORGE DODDS “You can draw any kind of picture you want on a clean slate and indulge your every whim in the wilderness in laying out a New Delhi, Canberra, or Brasilia, but when you operate in an overbuilt metropolis, you have to hack your way with a meat ax.” —Robert Moses
R
obert Moses (1888-1981) had more than one meat ax in his arsenal and knew when and how to use them. To my knowledge, neither the city of Knoxville nor Knox County has an official in a position of authority remotely resembling that of Mr. Moses, and probably never has, which is a good thing. This is not to say that Mr. Moses did not achieve great things during his career. It’s just that not all great things are good things, and urban surgery is best conducted with a scalpel rather than a meat ax. There are, indeed, many useful lessons to learn from the life and career of the man Robert Caro famously tagged in the title of his 1974 biography, The Power Broker. Never elected to public office,
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
Moses held several appointed positions between 1924 and 1968 in New York City, regional, and state governments— at one point, 12 simultaneously. The Triborough Bridge, Jones Beach State Park, Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, West Side Highway, the Long Island parkway system, and the 1964 World’s Fair were all products of his vision,
Robert Moses and his undoing, the 1964 World's Fair.
leadership, and unbridled chutzpah. During his 44 years of public service and political influence over New York City and its environs, his projects amounted to the equivalent of $75 billion of construction (adjusted for inflation). The New York Times noted in his obituary: “Before Mr. Moses, New York State had a modest amount of parkland; when he left his position as chief of the state park system, the state had 2,567,256 acres. He built 658 playgrounds in New York City, 416 miles of parkways and 13 bridges.” Moses’ seeming obsession with the borough of Queens was his undoing in the guise of the 1964 World’s Fair. Planning the fair in Queens, to fall only two years after the 1962 fair in Seattle, meant that the New York venue could not be sanctioned by the governing body of international expositions. Missing several major countries that chose to sit out the ’64 fair in lieu of the Montreal Expo planned for 1967, a 100 percent cost overrun, combined with a shortfall of 20 million paying visitors, the fair was a financial disaster. Investors lost heavily. The fair’s failure, coupled with Moses’ insistence on the demolition of the remarkable Pennsylvania Station (which ignited the start of the historic preservation movement in the United States), along with his long-established tone deafness to well-reasoned criticism or alternative viewpoints, signaled the beginning of the end of his “reign of error” in city and regional planning. Left in his wake were four decades of vision and leadership that established precedents for the destruction of not only great historic struc-
tures, but also long-established inner-city neighborhoods in favor of new high-speed, limited-access motorways. He promoted the devaluation of the dense urban core over a newly dispersed post-war city in the form of isolated suburbs scattered along stretches of newly constructed highways, requiring the building of new infrastructure, the production of more energy, and the consumption of more of everything. Robert Moses may not have invented suburban sprawl, but he demonstrated to the world how to build it efficiently and quickly. While Knox County and Knoxville city governments operate with the sort of 21st-century transparency that makes the existence of a Moses-like character virtually impossible, that does not mean there are no local parallels. The closest thing we have is at the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee System here in Knoxville. Unlike other SEC universities, the Office of the Chancellor (and not the president) is in control of not only the highly visible athletics programs, but also the buildings and grounds of the flagship campus (excluding Cherokee Farm and the UT System). Moses earned his undergraduate degree from Yale and a doctorate in political science from Columbia. On the UT Knoxville campus, (mostly) men, (some) with doctorates, appointed (not elected) to envision and manage its 560 acres are in charge of what currently amounts to $1 billion in construction. Coincidentally, the site of the 1964 World’s Fair was about the same size as the Knoxville campus with a final price tag of $1 billion. Yet, the construction on campus Continued on page 14.
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 13
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
UT construction at Cumberland Avenue and 16th Street, at the former site of the 83-year-old Sophronia Strong Hall.
Photo by Marina Waters
is far from flashy. Much is “catch-up” work owing to either deferred maintenance or falling far behind peer institutions over the past two decades in such things as essential laboratory space and other research-related facilities for the STEM disciplines. Moreover, campus buildings have the kind of oversight that would have rankled Moses. Before a project is approved for construction, a design review committee looks at projects and makes comments. The state Legislature, for its part, maintains a very close watch on taxpayer funds (or state-controlled funds), to the point of creating paranoia among some key decision-makers responsible for UTK’s built environment. The recently completed Natalie L. Haslam Music Center is a good example of how scrambled one’s thinking can get when appearance is privileged over reality to an absurd degree. Green metal panels the color of patinated copper are one of the most notable decorative features of the building’s facades. Like many of my colleagues, I presumed they were not real copper owing to “value engineering.” Yet, a former university staffer close to the project reports that the copper was replaced with painted metal, not to save money, but for fear that real copper would seem too luxurious for a classroom building. As difficult as it is to believe, the imitation copper panels cost nominally less than real copper panels, yet with a far shorter lifespan. This trade-off did little to deter the decision to replace them, however, as it was a purely political choice, having little to do with design or economics. Far more important than decisions about specific materials or even specific buildings, perhaps one of the most nettlesome questions for the university administration, the residents of Fort Sanders, and organizations such as Knox Heritage, concerns the boundaries of the university. There seems to be some disagreement as to where the university ought to end, physically. Those in Fort Sanders and the Knox Heritage folks seem to think that Cumberland Avenue would make a rather good edge, as it has in the past, more or less. From Knox Heritage’s point of view, it’s easy to imagine that the Office of the Chancellor seems to have its eyes set on something further north, closer to I-40. And while there seemed to have been
If the campus is to lose its 1970s office-park status and become the kind of fine quasi-urban land-grant campus it aspires to be, the university must stop spreading out like a gas filling its container.
in place a decade-old agreement that the university would refrain from its heretofore Manifest Destiny of northward expansion, there remains some disagreement about that agreement. Knox Heritage’s concern for Fort Sanders is largely motivated, not surprisingly, by a desire to maintain historic structures and the integrity of a historic residential neighborhood— both of which are in increasingly short supply of late in Knoxville. That said, there is an even more compelling reason, from the university’s point of view, to begin thinking of Cumberland Avenue less like a stream that it often fords and more like a great river, at the edge of which it ought to build the public face of the largest employer in the city. Over the next few decades the university has the opportunity to rethink its littoral edge on the southern boundary of campus, not with four-lane roadways, railway
lines, sewage treatment plants, and concrete filling stations, but something else entirely: a constructed border that recognizes that a great campus is meeting a great river. To the north, the university can create a wholly different face to the community along Cumberland Avenue, much as Penn State University has done along East College Avenue. East College separates University Park from the town of State College. The school and the students are to the north; to the south, there is the town that supports the university where most of the faculty reside. Knowing that it could not build across the street, the university understood that it must plan more densely on campus, construct parking garages below ground when possible, and work to eradicate on-grade parking in lieu of either paved or green open spaces in well-formed quadrangles or quasicourtyards. Penn State does not have a great
campus, but it is a very fine one, at a state-affiliated university—a top 25 university. Moreover, it demonstrates a path toward a great campus where students will choose to walk between classes rather than board a bus, because they enjoy the stroll. They choose to walk because they like the varied spaces of the campus, and the impromptu meetings that happen along the way—the sorts of things that are almost impossible as one sits on a bus staring into a smartphone. The perception of the current decision-makers in the Office of the Chancellor, and many in UTK’s Office of Facilities Services, which reports to the chancellor, is that the university is landlocked by Cumberland Avenue, Neyland Drive, and the east/west boundaries of the campus; they kvetch that there is no room in which to build on campus. They seem to long for a meat ax. Fortunately, there is still time for the university to find a scalpel in its tool kit and see the same thing that many who teach urban design see when we look around the Knoxville campus: potential building sites and plenty of dross space that, through a well-considered building campaign, can be transformed into identifiable places. If the campus is to lose its 1970s office-park status and become the kind of fine quasi-urban land-grant campus it aspires to be, the university must stop spreading out like a gas filling its container, and contract to better define its open spaces—thinking of buildings less as stand-alone objects and more as walls to exterior rooms. Not all of the great things Robert Moses achieved were good things: some were very bad for the city of New York, for the region, and for the country. Owing to his hubris, his inability to listen to the reasoned council of others, or to consider the unintended consequences of his monumental actions, Moses impaled himself on his own petard. Those among us with the authority to shape the future structure of our university and city can learn much from how the power broker succeeded, how he failed, and how his absolute power was rendered so resolutely powerless. Robert Moses’ Queens need not be our Fort Sanders. ◆
Marshall Stair Knoxville City Council, At-Large Seat B
please vote nov. 3rd or during early voting oct. 14 - oct. 29. Paid for by Marshall Stair for City Council, Whitney Stanley Treasurer.
“
PAID FOR BY CAMPEN FOR COUNCIL BRYAN FORD, TREASURER
T
hank you all for your support the past few years. Together we have reduced blight, encouraged redevelopment and invested in Knoxville’s visual arts and our growing identity as an outdoor recreation destination; let’s keep the momentum going.” – Mark www.markcampen.com October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 15
K
noxville’s climate is changing. So is the climate for talking about it. Conversations in Knoxville among city officials, politicians, and faith leaders seem to have turned the corner from debating whether climate change exists to wrestling with how to handle it locally. Here and abroad, 2015 has been a pivotal year. Pope Francis and President Barack Obama stepped up the moral and political pressure for a global agreement on climate change by year’s end, in some cases galvanizing Knoxville’s faithful as well. And the city has been making concrete changes to reduce local energy use and to plan ahead for predicted extreme weather like flash flooding and major winter storms. According to research by Climate Central, an organization of leading scientists and journalists who research and report climate change, predicted climate impacts in Tennessee include: An increase in days with a heat index above 105 degrees (from zero to 58 a year within a decade or two); summer temperatures equivalent to those of Southwest Texas by 2100; and a continued increase in the number of intense downpours. Climate Central studied 65 years of climate records to find that, already, Knoxville has had a 112 percent increase in heavy downpours between the 1950s and the last decade—the 14th-biggest increase among U.S. cities. Dr. Jack Fellows, director of the Climate Change Science Institute at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, says
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
Knoxville’s already seeing early signs of climate change— but a variety of local groups are preparing for it BY S. HEATHER DUNCAN
these numbers are in line with the other research his team has studied or completed. In addition, he says, warmer winter temperatures will mean more pests survive the winter, spreading faster and threatening trees and crops. Because a warmer atmosphere holds more water, global warming is expected to cause more winter precipitation and more intense cloudbursts, Fellows says. Knoxville’s steep hills lead to rapid runoff, “so we’ll expect more flash floods,” he says. The Climate Change Science Institute has just started working with the city to provide very specific local data for policymakers: Where will increased cloudbursts cause the worst flash-flooding, and how can the city steer developers to shoulder the cost of preventing it? Which specific patches of asphalt should the city target for salt and sand in winter to prevent icy hazards? City of Knoxville engineering director Jim Hagerman has said in a previous interview that he hopes this kind of analysis will help the city develop a stormwater mitigation program. As soon as early next year, a mitigation “swap” approach could give developers the option of offsetting
their stormwater impacts by reducing risks at “hot spots” where investment could save homes and lives during flash floods. This kind of modeling has been done in larger cities but is very unusual for a city the size of Knoxville—which is not being asked to pay for it, Fellows says. The Climate Change Science Institute plans to share the resulting “tool kit” with other small cities of similar elevations. “We’re kind of using the city as a lab to see how we can make our science more useful to society,” Fellows says. The Pope’s recent U.S. visit and address to Congress led to broader climate change discussion than Fellows has heard since beginning to study the problem in 1987. Two months ago, Fellows says, he met with 35 Southeastern mayors. Half told him they don’t believe in climate change. “But we still talked for two hours and they wanted to know how to plan for it,” he says. “That wouldn’t have happened five years ago.”
THE POOR PAY MORE
Locally and internationally, many aspects of climate change have recently been reframed from “an
environmental issue” to “a poverty and justice issue” because the poor, unable to move, suffer most from the impacts of changing climate. Through the Smarter Cities partnership, the city of Knoxville has focused since 2013 on energy efficiency as an issue linked to poverty. The partnership, which includes nonprofits, KUB and others, won a TVA Extreme Energy Makeover grant that was announced in April at $7 million but increased to $15 million by the time it rolled out in August. The grant will weatherize almost 1,300 Knoxville homes between now and Sept. 2017, says Erin Gill, Knoxville’s director of sustainability. Most beneficiaries will be low-income residents whose exorbitant electric bills put them on the verge of homelessness. “Data that comes out of that I think will be extremely compelling to help us make the case for additional funding in future years,” Gill says. “I think it sets us up for long-term success.” The Smarter Cities partnership began the effort that led to the grant, using technical assistance from IBM to grapple with the growing number of low-income residents, living in old houses, who were unable to pay their power bills. IBM made five key recommendations—including educating working-class residents about energy efficiency, paying for energy efficiency upgrades, and engaging landlords—for completion within 12 months. That timeline hasn’t been met, Gill acknowledges, while adding, “I’m
very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish with very little funding.” On the education front, the city developed a website (savingsinthehouse.com) with free or low-cost tips for reducing electric bills, as well as a new pamphlet, Gill says. “But something we heard very loudly and clearly from our community partners was: You’ve got to engage people directly,” she says. A combination of national and local nonprofit grant money enabled the local nonprofit SEEED (Socially Equal Energy Efficient Development) to start canvassing door to door in three pilot neighborhoods. SEEED workers share money-saving tips, give away an LED light bulb, and invite residents to a community workshop on how to save on electric bills. Seventy people turned out for the meeting in Morningside, the first neighborhood, Gill says. This week SEEED will start the same process in Mechanicsville, and the area around Austin-East Magnet High School will follow, Gill says. She says when the funding runs out, the city hopes to incorporate the effort into the Extreme Energy Makeover Program. Landlords pose a challenge because they aren’t usually responsible for the electricity bill, giving them little incentive to spend money on improvements. To motivate them and help some of the city’s poorest residents, Knoxville plans to focus some of the Extreme Energy Makeover funding on government-subsidized Section 8 housing rentals, Gill says. And in November the city is hosting a “landlord summit” to provide landlords with resources, not only for energy improvements but also other help for themselves and their tenants, she says.
A MATTER OF FAITH
Pope Francis’ first solo encyclical (a papal letter essentially setting policy for the church), issued this summer, focused on climate change as a moral issue. That and his recent visit to the U.S. has called more members of Knoxville’s faith community to action. Tennessee Interfaith Power and Light, a Knoxville-based chapter of the national organization, hosted a clergy panel on the encyclical and climate change last month that was attended by about 40 people, says its executive director, Louise Gorenflo. “A good 25 percent were Catholic, and that was completely attributable to the pope,” she says. “The pope is the
highest-profile person on the planet who is openly talking about what’s coming, and also offering a way forward.” Rev. Eric Murray, pastor at Messiah Lutheran Church in Knoxville, says he hopes to hold a study group to reflect on the encyclical at his church. “For people of faith, the difficulty is what to do?” he says. “How do we respond as an individual? I think the conversation does have to move into the political sphere.” He and two other ministers left a copy of the encyclical for U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander. “If we can just begin to have conversations, and those can filter to our local representatives and state legislators, support our mayor and local elected officials in making changes locally, maybe that can begin to help,” he says. Tennessee Interfaith Power and Light and Citizens Climate Coalition, a small group ministry of Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, are co-sponsoring a vigil and concert in Oak Ridge on Sunday, seeking to raise awareness in advance of the UN Climate Change Conference slated for Paris in November and December. Tennessee Interfaith Power and Light, a Smarter Cities partner whose members are individuals and church congregations, plans a similar one in Knoxville in December. The group is in its third incarnation; after a four-year hiatus, it revived leaner, with no paid staff. But it has moved beyond “greening” church buildings to become more politically active, Gorenflo says. The group helped convince Knoxville City Council to pass a resolution supporting EPA’s green power plan, which will cut carbon pollution from power plants and set new requirements for individual states. Although it has one of the least stringent state goals, Tennessee will be required to reduce its levels by almost half, according to the plan unveiled in August. Gorenflo says her group and others successfully lobbied EPA to require states to include low-income stakeholders in the planning process. Gorenflo says Knoxville is a climate change leader in Tennessee, “and it could be the leader.” At the end of last year, the Obama Administration named Knoxville one of 16 “Climate Action Champion” communities nationwide—and the only one in the Southeast—for its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Gorenflo and Fellows credit
By 2100, summers in Knoxville, TN will be like summers now in Pharr, TX.
KNOXVILLE, TN
86.22ºF
PHARR, TX
96.69ºF Source: Climate Central
WHAT
Climate Prayer Vigil and Concert
WHEN
Sunday, Oct. 11 at 3 p.m.
WHERE
Melton Lake Park Pavilion
INFO
Speakers and guests will include climate scientists, faith leaders, and environmental activists. Sparky and Rhonda Rucker of Maryville will perform a free concert of acoustic blues and their own climate songs at 4:15 p.m.
Mayor Madeline Rogero, who served as a member of Obama’s State, Local, and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience. But Gorenflo says she also wants to see Knoxville planning even more for climate change, especially “climate refugees.” “Turns out that Southern Appalachia is sort of in a Goldilocks position,” Gorenflo says. “Compared to what is south and east and west of us, we’re not going to have the temperature increases.” According to Climate Change Central’s analysis of data collected by the U.S. Global Change Research
TOP 50 CITIES WITH BIGGEST INCREASES IN HEAVY DOWNPOURS RANK 1 2 3 4 4 6 7 8 9 9 11 12 13 14 14 16 16 16 19 19
CITY INCREASE McAllen, TX 700% Portland, ME 400% Philadelphia, PA 360% New York City, NY 350% Louisville, KY 320% Visalia, CA 300% Harrisburg, PA 283% Houston, TX 167% Augusta, GA 140% Providence, RI 140% Cincinnati, OH 137% Durham, NC 129% Baton Rouge, LA 120% KNOXVILLE, TN 112% Lancaster, PA 112% Albuquerque, NM 100% Minneapois, MN 100% Phoenix, AZ 100% Charlotte,NC 86% Des Moines, IA 86%
Source: Climate Central
Program, “A planning implication …is that Knoxville will become a destination for people wanting to escape from extreme heat and precipitation events.” “We need to understand people are going to be coming here just for some very basic needs,” Gorenflo says. “People don’t need good shopping. People are going to need water, portable housing, and transportation, and we are far from ready for that.” ◆ October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 17
y of Knoxville Election t i c 5 1 20
A
voters’ GUIDE to the candidates for City Council
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
E
arly voting for this year’s city elections begins Wednesday, Oct. 14—and your job as a citizen is already half done. A dearth of candidates means that Mayor Madeline Rogero, City Council member George Wallace (AtLarge Seat A), and Municipal Judge Joe R. Rosson Jr. have already swept their way to the halls of Knoxville power. (See our Oct. 1 issue for their stories.)
That leaves three seats on City Council to be decided. So what do you know about the candidates? What do they think are the most important issues facing Knoxville? And how do they define their roles on Council in steering the city? If you’re curious (and you ought to be, dang it), we’ve compiled this guide to provide some answers. Early voting ends Thursday, Oct. 29 and Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Get cracking.
Cit y Cou nci l – Di strict 5 One-term incumbent Mark Campen faces a challenge from community volunteer Jennifer Mirtes
I
t’s rare in a local race for the most important difference between candidates to be, basically, a philosophical question. Not political philosophy—not conservative or liberal—but diverging opinions over the basic meaning of representative government. That’s the curious situation in City Council District 5 (Northwest Knoxville), where one-term incumbent Mark Campen faces a challenge from longtime community volunteer and organizer Jennifer Mirtes. (Remember, even though this is a district race, all Knoxville residents will get to vote on it in the general election.) Mirtes shared her position on a number of issues, but stipulated that those opinions won’t matter if she’s elected. At that point, she says, her vote will be determined by the desires of her constituents—even if she strongly disagrees with them. As a leader in the Inskip Community Association, Mirtes says, “I sat there and watched (Campen) vote for us or against us, and it’s just not right… You’re not there for yourself
anymore. Sorry. Don’t get me wrong, I like Mark. He’s not a bad guy, it’s just: It’s time for someone stronger.” Campen, of course, disputes that assessment. “I’ve got a strong record of supporting neighborhoods,” he says, pointing to his votes to block rezonings, a Fountain City crematory, and the high-density apartment complex plan for Northshore Town Center. “These are backbone issues that I have stood with the people,” he says. But Campen also has a different take on the role of an elected representative. “You have to do what’s best for the entire city, not just for the loudest voice,” he says. “I think (Mirtes) is really green. I don’t think she really realizes what all is involved.” He says a good example is the way he approached a showdown in his district over historic preservation vs. commercial development. Many of his constituents were upset over the likely destruction of the Howard House on North Broadway to make way for the parking lot of a planned Walmart Neighborhood Market. Campen says he
met with the developers, neighbors, and the Broadway Corridor Task Force to develop a position on the issue. Although it looks as though developers are now axing their own plans, Campen had been leaning toward opposing it, not only for historic preservation but for the store’s potential traffic and environmental impacts. Campen began his local public service as a member of the Fountain City Town Hall development watchdog group and the Greenways Coalition, the grassroots group that prompted the founding of the Greenways Commission. He was appointed to fill a seat on the Knox County Commission after the black Wednesday debacle, then ran unopposed for his City Council seat in 2011. That means this is Campen’s first real race. Mirtes says she thinks she’s ahead, running on her own track record of supporting schools and neighborhoods. She takes credit for working with the police and sheriff’s office to increase law enforcement
presence and drive down crime around Inskip Park. “Elderly people come out now and walk and they feel safe,” she says. “I got results. That was me, before I got involved with the homeowners’ association.” Mirtes says of Campen, “He’s all about compromise. I’ve lived over here for a long time, and when I first moved in, all I saw was drug deals going on in my park. Where do you compromise? You don’t. You get authorities involved, you put your foot down, and you take a stand.” As president of the Parent Teacher Student Organization at Central High School for four years, Mirtes says she pushed the right people to clear up a permitting roadblock so an elevator could be installed at that school and others in the district, enabling them to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Although City Council races are nonpartisan, Mirtes has made it known that she’s a Republican. Yet she says political affiliation doesn’t
“You have to do what’s best for the entire city, not just for the loudest voice.” — MARK CAMPEN
October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 19
matter when it comes to the politics of neighborhoods. She declared her intention to vote for Mayor Madeline Rogero, a Democrat, but adds that she won’t necessarily vote with Rogero. “I think once you run for office, you need to speak for the people,” Mirtes says. “If they want me to follow the mayor, I’ll do that. But if they don’t want me to, then it’s my responsibility not to.” Mirtes works part-time in public relations for a company that sells home security systems, although she spends much of her time caring for her elderly father. A former Air Force heavy equipment operator who was deployed during the first Gulf War, Mirtes moved to Knoxville about a decade ago. “The military taught me how to stand up for myself, be a leader, and make things go the right direction,” Mirtes says. A role model she met during her childhood in foster care inspired her to become an active volunteer and fundraiser. In 2013, while Mirtes was managing an Applebee’s, the Knox County Commission declared a “Jennifer Mirtes Day” to honor her top fundraising nationwide for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Earlier this year, on behalf of the Inskip Park and Pool Neighborhood Watch, Mirtes successfully argued against a new high-density apartment development that would have likely driven up the student population at the already-overcrowded Inskip Elementary School. (Campen opposed that project, too.) “In North Knoxville, what we’re trying to do is stabilize,” Mirtes says. “Stop with the apartments, stop with the rentals. We want less transitory (residents).” Campen says he wants to help continue Council’s good momentum on
redevelopment, pushing those efforts out from downtown to North and East Knoxville. In his district, Campen supported the down-zoning of 200 properties in the Inskip area to single-family residential, to prevent new apartment complexes from boosting the population density to unmanageable levels. He says that’s been beneficial, and he wants to do the same for Oakwood Lincoln Park. As a longtime environmental activist who is executive director of the Tennessee Izaak Walton League, Campen wants to push new litter- and pollution-reduction initiatives and continue promoting pedestrian- and bike-friendly street design (which he has championed in office). He’d like to enact Complete Streets plan for Fountain City that he says has been gathering dust for five years. He also wants to see the First Creek Greenway extended all the way to Fountain City Lake via the ridge line behind Lynnhurst Cemetery. (The Tennesseans for Bicycling Political Action Committee donated $250 to Campen’s campaign.) Mirtes admires the work the current City Council and Rogero have done to encourage redevelopment using tax incentives and similar tools, and she says she loves the recently-passed limits on sign heights. Mirtes says she is an advocate for more sidewalks, a major interest for local neighborhood associations (such as Inskip’s and Norwood’s) whose members she says asked her to run for Council. She also considers herself a supporter of public transportation. Her father rides the Knoxville Area Transit bus from her driveway to his water aerobics class and back. Mirtes says she’d like to start a community newsletter for her constituents to
“all I saw was drug deals going on in my park. Where do you compromise? You don’t. You get authorities involved, you put your foot down, and you take a stand.” —JENNIFER MIRTES 20
KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
Mark Campen, incumbent
Jennifer Mirtes
AGE: 40
AGE: 43
FAMILY: Married to Emily Campen, the co-owner of the Flower Pot; two kids, ages 2 and 7
FAMILY: Married to Chris Mirtes; two children, ages 24 and 17, and one granddaughter
NEIGHBORHOOD: West Adair on border between Inskip and Fountain City
NEIGHBORHOOD: Across from Inskip Park & Pool
POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Appointed to fill a term on Knox County Commission, one term representing Dist. 5 on City Council
POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: First bid for elected office
EDUCATION: Graduated from Bearden High; Associates of Science degree from Pellissippi State; Bachelor of Science from UT in wildlife and fisheries science. YEARS IN KNOXVILLE: All of them COMMUNITY/BOARDS: Fountain City Lions Club, past chair of Knox Greenways Coalition LAST BOOK READ: Campen says he doesn’t have much time to read, but he’s currently reading Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America by presidential candidate James Webb. (Campen is not Scots-Irish.) “It’s a little dry for my taste. I normally read a lot more biology stuff.” share more about issues before Council as well as information about city-provided services such as this one, which helps the elderly avoid becoming shut-ins. Mirtes raised more funds than Campen early in the campaign, but has not filed a financial disclosure report since July 15. During the preceding period she had raised about $2,200. The majority of it ($1,500) is listed as coming from her father, who lives with her and whom she says suffers from dementia, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s diseases. Her only other donation over $100 was from Terri Livezey with Knoxville Vapor (where Mirtes’ husband works). Mirtes indicated she had about $630 on hand
EDUCATION: Studied public relations at Middle Tennessee State University YEARS IN KNOXVILLE: 13 COMMUNITY/BOARDS: Inskip Community Association, Parent Teacher Student Organization at Central High School (past) LAST BOOK READ: The Bible (which she reads daily). Lately, Psalm 23.
when her July report was filed. Campen got off to a slow fundraising start, but by the time he filed his Sept. 25 disclosure, he had received about $8,000 since early July, with a balance of about $6,600 on hand. Among his donors this summer were fellow City Council member (and candidate) Finbarr Saunders, who chipped in $500, and city councilman/ vice mayor Nick Pavlis, who gave $150. Realtors seem to smile on Campen; donors who gave $250 or more included real estate developer Tim Graham, George Wallace of Wallace & Wallace Realty, and the Tennessee Realtors Political Action Committee (which gave $500). —S. Heather Duncan
Cit y Co
u nci l – At- L arge Seat C
Political newcomer Paul Bonovich succeeds in the most contested primary race to take on incumbent Finbarr Saunders
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f last week’s primary election results are any indication, political newcomer Paul Bonovich has a tough road ahead in his bid to unseat incumbent Finbarr Saunders from his spot in the City Council’s At-Large Seat C, one of three positions tasked with representing the city as a whole and not an individual neighborhood or district. Bonovich narrowly beat out two other challengers in what has been the most contested local race this season to face Saunders in the November general election, garnering 560 votes compared to David Williams’ 515 and Kelly Absher’s 478. Saunders pulled more support than all other candidates combined with 2,772 votes in his favor, according to results from the Knox County Election Commission. But Bonovich thinks his chances are good. He says he’s talked with business owners and folks out in the community who, overall, aren’t happy with the tack Saunders has taken over his last four-year term, and he believes his experience and approach makes him a better fit for the job. “There’s a stark contrast between myself and Finbarr Saunders in terms of what I stand for and the direction I think the city should be going,” Bonovich says. “I think one of the key things right now is to have a fresh perspective that can provide a different point of view, and that’s what I bring to the Council: a fresh small-business perspective, an analytical financial background, and an interest in protecting our neighborhoods and promoting business.” Saunders, a retired banker and life-long Knoxvillian, stands firm on the work he and fellow Council members have gotten done in recent years. He is one of three current Council members seeking reelection (plus George Wallace, At-Large Seat A, who has no opponent), and if they all hold their seats, the faces on Knoxville’s leadership board will not change for at least another two years.
He says the city’s active role in redevelopment efforts has helped spur economic growth in some areas, mostly through the use of tax increment financing, or TIF, a subsidy that defers some property taxes for a certain period of time for new businesses or developments. If he wins reelection, he says he’ll continue to advocate for smart neighborhood development, stronger schools, and business development. “Our neighborhoods are a vital part of our community, but they can’t exist without good jobs, and to have good jobs you have to have education,” he says. “There’s great overlap, and I try to encourage neighborhoods, developers, and businesses to come together and talk before things go to a development stage. Whatever is developed is going to be there for 40-plus years, so we need to make sure we get it right.” Saunders served four years on the Knox County Commission before winning a City Council seat in 2011. That experience, he says, gives him a greater understanding of how all the individual issues affecting the city and county tie together, and what areas still need some work. He’d like to see the city appoint an innovation officer like some other major cities, a position that would be charged with continually identifying ways to maintain high levels of services and improve performance within the city’s limited budget. “I’ve already talked with the mayor about an innovation officer, and we may not be able to get that done this year (because of budget constraints and other factors), but that’s okay. We need to try to find some middle ground,” Saunders says. Bonovich coins himself a neighborhood guy, but says it’ll take a healthy business environment for Knoxville to thrive. A self-made entrepreneur, Bonovich relocated his supply company—Consolidated Inventory Supply, Inc., a supplier of wholesale parts for agricultural and earth-moving equip-
ment to companies in more than 50 countries—from the Nashville area to Alcoa in 2003, though he’s had personal ties to the Knoxville area much longer. He says the move to Alcoa made sense because a major business partner is located there, and they now work out of the same industrial complex. He’s served long stints on industry and trade councils, including the Independent Distributors Associations and TN District Export Council, experiences that he says helped teach him what it takes to create the right climate for businesses, which involves taxes, regulations, and location. A sticking point for him are rising property taxes in Knoxville, which he says Saunders has supported, along with the city’s rising costs for pensions. “In order to keep Knoxville competitive, we have to keep our property taxes low, and we have a responsibility to find alternative sources of revenue (for the city),” Bonovich says, adding that he has
Finbarr Saunders, incumbent
heard the cost of doing business in the city is already “about 25 percent higher” than in other parts of Knox County, according to other busines owners. One option for other revenue sources would be to take a close look at the mayor’s discretionary spending and find areas to cut or shift, he says. With less than a month to go until Election Day, Saunders’ campaign is still sitting on a hefty war chest with more than $23,200 cash on hand, according to the most recent financial disclosure filed Sept. 25. The same day Bonovich reported just $8.06 in his coffers. Saunders has received nearly $13,300 in contributions since July, mostly less-than-$1,000 donations from individuals and some small businesses around town. During that same period Bonovich brought in about $12,700, including a $5,500 personal loan he made to his own campaign, records show. —Clay Duda
Paul Bonovich
AGE: 71
AGE: 52
FAMILY: Married, two children from a previous marriage, one granddaughter
FAMILY: Married, two children
NEIGHBORHOOD: Westwood EXPERIENCE: Knox County commissioner 2007-2011, Knoxville City Council member since 2011 EDUCATION: B.A. in history and political science, Transylvania University (1966) YEARS IN KNOXVILLE: 63 COMMUNITY/BOARDS: St. John’s Episcopal Church; East Tennessee Quality Growth; West Knoxville Sertoma Club LAST BOOK READ: “Dead Wake, about the Lusitania. 2015 was the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania, and it’s a fascinating book by this fellow Eric Larson. It’s obviously history, but it’s told on a more personal level.”
NEIGHBORHOOD: Sequoyah Hills EXPERIENCE: First bid for elected office EDUCATION: B.A. in Literature, University of the South (1985); Diploma in Politcal Science, Instituts d’études politiques (Institute of Political Studies - Paris, France) (1988) YEARS IN KNOXVILLE: 17 COMMUNITY/BOARDS: John XXIII University Parish Catholic Center; Independent Distributors Association LAST BOOK READ: “It’s on my iPad. The Flander’s Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte. It’s historical fiction. It’s pretty neat to see the world from somebody else’s perspective. I’m really interested in history and literature, and it combines both of those.”
October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 21
Cit y Co
u nci l – At- L arge Seat B
Veteran politician Pete Drew seeks to unseat incumbent Marshall Stair and rebuild city government on biblical principles
K
noxville natives Pete Drew and Marshall Stair see the city heading in different directions. Drew says the current administration is driving it downhill, and it’s out of line by publicly supporting gay marriage and spending tax dollars on things like walking paths and greenways instead of increasing bus service for people that need it. Stair thinks the city is on the upswing, and he’s hoping to keep building momentum around redevelopment and smart growth in part by incorporating more transportation options, such as greenways, bike lanes, and better bus service. Both men have divergent views on what it’ll take for this city to continue to grow and prosper, and both are vying for a chance to represent it for the next four years in At-Large Seat B on the Knoxville City Council. Stair, 37, is defending the post he earned in 2011 against enduring candidate Charles “Pete” Drew, 77, a veteran politician who has not held elected office in many years, but earned stripes as a county commissioner during the 1970s and a state representative in the 1980s. Drew says he puts his name on the ballot just about every election because, when his time finally comes, he wants to be able to testify to God that he stood for what he thought was right. “My real goal in life is to change America,” Drew says. “To do that, we have to reinstitutionalize biblical institutions in the decision-making process. We have to convince as many people as we can to put God first, and if they’ll do that it’ll take care of a lot of other issues.” To that end, Drew plans to rally support from what he calls the kingdom-minded Christian community—those who adhere strictly to the Bible and do not support things like gay marriage or abortion—to lead a change in Knoxville politics and, ultimately, across the nation. He
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
figures there are about 80 millions Christians in America, of which 40 million are registered to vote and only 20 million actually cast a ballot at election time. If he can mobilize the other 60 million, he says they’ll have the power to change the country for the better. Stair, a civil litigation lawyer, talks much more locally. Looking back over the previous four years, he says the City Council tackled some tough issues that will help Knoxville in the long run, such as passing a new sign ordinance and increasing funding for sidewalks and bike infrastructure, but still more needs to be done for the city to continue its forward momentum. “One of my focuses is going to be working to change zoning regulations to allow more residential developments along our commercial corridors, which will help with a lot of aspects. Places like Bearden, Central Avenue, and the South Waterfront already have mixed-use zoning, but in our commercial zones right now you can’t do residential,” Stair points out. “(Changing that) will put pressure on the city to make sure the corridors are amenable for pedestrians and potentially biking, it will get people closer to our public transportation system, and provide more people close to businesses and retail, which has been a challenge in recent history.” A retired chemical plant worker, Drew says if he’s elected he’ll push for the city to be more inclusive and to work with property owners before scooping up buildings for redevelopment. He says the existing owners should have a chance to rework a blighted property and possibly be offered tax breaks similar to ones given to new developers. He also plans to press state legislators for lottery money to support historically black colleges, although that likely does not fall under the purvey of his
role as a City Council member. Specifically, he says he’d ask for $5 million annually to reopen and run Knoxville College, arguing that poor, black communities spend the most money on the lottery, yet the state spends most of it “to send middle-class people to college.” Stair pulled 79 percent of the vote during last week’s primary election, although the count didn’t have any weight on this race since he faces only one challenger. Generally, the two candidates with the most votes in a primary go on to face off in the general election. Stair’s campaign had on hand more than $38,000 leading into the final month before Election Day,
according to the most recent campaign disclosures filed Sept. 25. His expenses neared $3,300 since August, including $1,250 spent on direct mailers and a $250 contribution to the Beck Cultural Exchange Center, a local African-American history museum. Contributions during the same period totalled $1,330, all but one of which came from individuals. He also received a $500 donation from the TN Realtors PAC (Political Action Committee), his largest single contributor during that period. Drew, on the other hand, has reported no contributions or expenses for the entirety of his campaign through Sept. 22, his most recent filing. —Clay Duda
Marshall Stair, incumbent
Pete Drew
AGE: 37
AGE: 77
FAMILY: Engaged
FAMILY: Married, four stepchildren
NEIGHBORHOOD: Old North Knoxville
NEIGHBORHOOD: East Knoxville
EXPERIENCE: City Council member since 2011
EXPERIENCE: three terms as county commissioner, three terms as state representative for District 15, one term as Knoxville-Knox County MPC commissioner
EDUCATION: B.A. in history, Tulane University (2000); Juris Doctor, University of Tennessee College of Law (2008) YEARS IN KNOXVILLE: 32 COMMUNITY/BOARDS: Knoxville Symphony Orchestra; East Tennessee Historical Society; Bijou Theatre; Knox County Public Library LAST BOOK READ: “It probably was What Then Must We Do? by Gar Alperovitz. It’s a book about income inequality, and obviously that’s a big issue nationally. It proposed some creative solutions to try and address it.”
EDUCATION: A. A. in Ministry, Ministry International Institute (1961) YEARS IN KNOXVILLE: 73 COMMUNITY/BOARDS: Honey Rock Victorious Church LAST BOOK: “I’m reading a book by James Kennedy. He’s the guy who put in place this method of how you influence the evangelical community and reach out to build a system that will help you eventually be in control of not only your life, but be back in control of America. I think America would be better off if it functioned under biblical principles.”
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October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 23
A&E
P rogram Notes
The Knoxville Stomp A new festival scheduled for 2016 celebrates Knoxville music from the 1920s and ’30s
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n 1929 and 1930, a series of recording sessions—more than 100 commercially released tracks of country, jazz, blues, and gospel music, plus many more that weren’t issued— were made at Knoxville’s long-gone St. James Hotel, on Union Avenue. Bear Family, a German record label renowned for its luxe archival reissues of old-time and country music, is set to release a box set of the existing recordings next spring, and a handful of local organizations involved in the project have announced plans for a suitably grand celebration of the set and the music it documents. The 2016 Knoxville Stomp Festival of Lost Music, set for May 5-8, is a collaboration among the Knoxville Public Library and its Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound, WDVX, the East Tennessee Historical Society, and Visit Knoxville. The weekend-long downtown event will include live music, speakers, panels, film screenings, a 78 record collectors’ show, and a corresponding exhibit at the East Tennessee History Museum that will run from April 11 to Oct. 16. The music headliner is Dom Flemons, a co-founder of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, a North Carolina string band that takes its name from the Tennessee Chocolate Drops, one of the acts that recorded at the St. James Hotel. WDVX will also stage a Saturday concert on Market Square, featuring local bands performing music from the St. James recordings. Amanda Petrusich, whose 2014 book, Do Not Sell at Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World’s Rarest 78 rpm Records, explored the world of old-time and blues music collectors, will also appear, as will Joe Bussard, a 78 collector from
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Shelf Life: Movies
KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
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Maryland whose efforts in the 1950s and ’60s preserved much of the music we now have from the 1920s and ’30s. “That means that a friend of mine will go up and get him and I’ll drive him back. He doesn’t fly,” says TAMIS co-director Bradley Reeves of Bussard’s appearance. “To me, it’s worth it to have this guy here. He’s the reason for all this. He started it all, at least on my end.” Reeves met Bussard in the 1990s, when he was working at the Smithsonian Institute. When Reeves drove from Washington, D.C., to Bussard’s house outside Baltimore, Bussard played a song by Ridgel’s Fountain Citians—one of the songs from the St. James recordings. It was the first inkling Reeves had of the sessions and the first time he realized that he might be able to make a career out of preserving Knoxville culture— so having Bussard here again to talk specifically about those Knoxville recordings is a big deal for him. Reeves and TAMIS archivist Eric Dawson (a regular contributor to the Knoxville Mercury) have been instrumental in the research for the Bear Family box set. The TAMIS collection provided much of the material—dates, photos, biographical information—for the hardcover book that will be part of the set. (They collaborated with Ted Olson of East Tennessee State University and Tony Russell, a noted country-music historian from England. They’re all expected to take part in panel discussions, along with Jack Neely and Bear Family head Richard Weize.) Reeves and Dawson have tracked down new info on Maynard Baird, the leader of a well-known Knoxville jazz combo in the ’20s and ’30s, and Odessa Cansler, a blues singer whose records were never released.
Music: Crobot
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“She fascinates me,” Reeves says. “The records that she recorded but were never released because of the Depression—oh, man, they sound like they could be something really special. We found a great niece who’s 98 years old. She had a picture of Aunt Dessie in her scrapbook.” The Knoxville sessions are noted for their diversity, especially compared to similar recording sessions in Johnson City and Bristol, which were largely old-time and country music.
Theater: Of Mice and Men
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The St. James recordings were more cosmopolitan, reflecting a vibrant urban culture that’s barely remembered. Reeves says this project can help restore some of that lost history. “It’s enriched the collections. It’s enriched our knowledge of Knoxville music history in a way that is just unbelievable,” he says. “It’s made me proud of Knoxville—I’m really proud of our heritage and our music diversity. People have a tendency to pigeonhole you as a bluegrass town, but man, it was always going on here, and these sessions capture that.” ◆ —Matthew Everett
Classical Music: Mefistofele
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Movies: The Martian
Shelf Life
A&E
Showtime New movies, and new editions of old ones, at the public library
Don’t Miss These Books!
BY CHRIS BARRETT
SPY
For what reasons should we appreciate Melissa McCarthy? Is her Don Rickles-in-a-girdle manner of comedy advancing the cause of feminism? Is the fact that she could afford to be surgically slimmed and has so far apparently declined gaining ground for plus-size persons? Can it be enough that she’s just funny—that her crude and whip-snap verbal timing complemented by choreographed eye rolls, dimples, and frugging ampleness allow her to surpass chubby male peers and predecessors? Spy is a silly distraction, not far removed from the Austin Powers franchise or the ’70s espionage flicks it sends up. McCarthy is delightfully belligerent, cast as an admin assistant who is called into the field, where she has no choice but to kick butt and save the human race. Equally enjoyable is typecast stud Jason Statham piping line after line mocking his day-job roles, which he seems to deliver with some relish.
DUEL
It’s been dismissed as a movie about a truck. It has been freighted with meaning by Marxists, who see it as emblematic of class warfare, and Freudians, who see it as part of the unending argument over whose is bigger. In 1971, before the terms
“stalking” and “road rage” entered the vernacular, Steven Spielberg’s made-for-television feature debut (later released to theaters) demonstrated precisely how terrorism works. No enemy is more fearsome than one who is unknown, close, anonymous, and legion. Also evident is the director’s early gift for generating suspense by orchestrating menacing machines in concert with his cameras and characters. The Blu-ray blogs give this new edition high marks for restoration and picture quality.
GONE GIRL
This David Fincher film—adapted by Gillian Flynn from her 2012 novel— plays out like the proverbial slow-motion train wreck from which you cannot look away. Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) disappears and her husband, Nick (Ben Affleck), becomes the primary suspect in presumed foul play. Amy’s parents had built a popular series of children’s books out of raising her, so public attention and scrutiny of the investigation ratchet up the
significance of a string of revelations related to this missing adult Amelia Bedelia. If there’s a moral to the story, it’s somewhere between mind your paper trail and remember that hardwood floors add more lasting value to a residential property than carpet.
MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW
Director Leo McCarey cut his chops writing gags for silent films. You could watch this 1937 melodrama (also new to Blu-ray) with the volume off and not miss much of the story, told as much by gesture, posture, and facial expression as by mannered script. Sad but helpful is the fact that the recent recession has made it a timely tale once again. Beulah Bondi and Victor Moore portray an aged couple who lose their home to foreclosure. None of their five grown children can accommodate the couple together, so the parents struggle with living separately for the first time since marriage, along with grave disappointment in their selfish offspring. Stop reading and call your mother already. ◆
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October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 25
A&E
Music
Dazed and Confused Crobot cultivates a new generation of ’70s-style FM rock BY MATTHEW EVERETT
C
hris Bishop has an insider’s perspective on one of the biggest music news stories of the last month—namely, speculation about the health of notoriously hard-living Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister, and whether decades of booze and hard drugs might have finally caught up with him. Bishop’s band, the Pennsylvania-based heavy stoner-rock outfit Crobot, was opening for Motörhead in Austin, Texas, in September when Lemmy abruptly walked off the stage after just three songs, reportedly muttering, “I can’t do it.” Online videos of the event prompted concern that Lemmy might actually be mortal after all. But Bishop says Kilmister was back in black-clad bass-flailing form a month later, when Crobot took part in Motörhead’s Motörboat metal cruise in the Bahamas, along with Slayer, Anthrax, Suicidal Tendencies, and more than a dozen other hard-rock and metal bands. “He looks old,” Bishop says. “But he’s almost 70 now, and he’s still rocking. He had that scare in Texas and we had to cancel some shows. But you could noticeably tell a difference before those shows and once he came back well rested and better. He just sounded and played a million times better, and he’s doing great.” The members of Crobot (Bishop, singer Brandon Yeagley, and the Figueroa brothers, bassist Jake and drummer Paul) are all less than half of Lemmy’s age—Paul Figueroa, the oldest guy in the band, recently turned
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
30. But they all take their main inspiration from music that was around a decade before they were born: early ’70s hard rock, metal pioneers like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, and groovy Southern rock, from Lynyrd Skynyrd to the Black Crowes and Pantera. It’s not a stretch to suggest that the band sounds like an incarnation of the Dazed and Confused soundtrack. “It’s just sort of how we learned to play our instruments,” Bishop says of the band’s predilection for ’70s FM-radio rock. “I learned to play
guitar by learning Led Zeppelin albums, so it was one of those things that was natural for us, and we just wanted to play music we liked.” On their debut album, Bishop and company take full flight into psychedelic fantasy—Something Supernatural, released in 2014, features songs about battling wizards, alien invaders, encounters with seductive she-demons, and, in “Le Mano de Lucifer,” an epic retelling of Paradise Lost. “Our singer, he’s a really good storyteller,” Bishop says. “He really likes to write in the sci-fi/fantasy genre. It comes easy for him. He’s said before that he’s never really worn his heart on his sleeve, so he has to make up these stories to tell, which I think is pretty cool—especially for a band like us. It fits really well.” Crobot’s upcoming show at the Concourse will be a homecoming of sorts for Bishop, who grew up in Kingsport. He dropped out of college to follow his rock dreams—a decision he says his mother fully supported, though she expected him to head west instead of landing in central Pennsylvania. “I ended up dropping out of ETSU and touring around,” he says. “My mom was super supportive. She
was always the one in the family telling me to move to California—that was the answer because she knew I played guitar and that’s what I’ve always loved the most. She was super supportive. The rest of my family wasn’t, but she’s always been so excited about the whole rock thing.” Bishop and the rest of the band took the unexpected time off after Lemmy’s health scare to demo new songs for the follow-up to Something Supernatural. They have two weeks off after their Knoxville show to write more new songs and will head into the studio after a November headlining tour in Europe. “I think there’s a lot more color, if that’s the word for it, and mood—a lot more mood changes and ups and downs,” Bishop says of the new songs. “It’s not just happy funk-rock stuff. It’s got a little more mood to it. There’s definitely some heavier stuff on there, darker stuff, but it’s all within the realm of Crobot. “It’s still got a heavy funk groove to it. I don’t think anyone will be disappointed and say it doesn’t sound like Crobot. I just think it’s definitely a different album. We’re not writing the same album again, you know.” ◆
WHO
Crobot with Skytown Riot and Luminoth
WHERE
The Concourse (940 Blackstock Ave.)
WHEN
Friday, Oct. 9, at 9 p.m.
HOW MUCH
$8/$12 at the door
INFO
internationalknox.com
Theater
Great Expectations Clarence Brown’s Of Mice and Men suffers from familiarity BY ALAN SHERROD
P
opularity in the theater can be either a blessing or a burden. Shakespeare rarely suffers for his ubiquity. Neither do Henrik Ibsen, August Wilson, or Tennessee Williams. However, thanks to high-school reading lists, college literature courses, Broadway productions, and movie adaptations, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is perhaps too familiar, and too easy a story to consume. As a result, the sociopolitical metaphors that flow through the work’s prose often are missed or remain unexplored. In Clarence Brown Theatre’s production of Steinbeck’s adapted novella, which opened last weekend in the Carousel Theatre, the burden may also be that some important expectations go unfulfilled. Director Paul Barnes has embraced the abstraction that the Carousel Theatre, by its design, forces on productions. While the play’s pace has moments of intense acceleration at points of crisis, lapses of energy were equally apparent, suggesting that the production had not quite settled into its
groove on opening night. On the bright side, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if these basics of timing improve with ensuing performances. The story, of course, revolves around George (Steve Sherman) and Lennie (Kyle Maxwell), two itinerant ranch hands in Depression-era California. George is restless and quick-witted; he has all the instincts needed for meager survival in Great Depression America. Lennie is quite the opposite—a large, lumbering, simple-minded man who depends on George and dreams of owning rabbits. As the play opens, in a creek bed, the pair is on the run from their previous job, where Lennie’s love for petting soft things—mice and women—had gotten them into trouble. Unfortunately, the essential give-and-take chemistry between George and Lennie never quite works, making the pair’s alliance even more of a question than Steinbeck intended. The pace of the dialogue seemed erratic, dramatic pauses lacked rhythm, and many of George’s lines came across as recited and stiff rather
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than developed and motivated. The remainder of the cast—the men in the bunkhouse, the ranch boss and his son, Curley, and Curley’s wife—reflect different facets of the loneliness that is one of Steinbeck’s major themes. In general, they fared substantially better than the leads in terms of character presentation. Andrew Drake was excellent as Crooks, the stable-tender left alone with his books. Knoxville theater regular Joseph Jaynes appeared as “The Boss,” with Joshua Peterson offering up a reasonably detestable Curley, the boss’s bully of a son. The fact that the one female character in the cast is deliberately unnamed is an interesting aspect of Steinbeck’s theme of dehumanizing loneliness. You don’t need a road map to guess that the woman referred to only as Curley’s wife, a woman yearning for attention and some human connections, will be the catalyst of trouble amid so many other people avoiding connections. Cynthia Anne Roser gave the role a gentle naiveté and wispy vulnerability that was entrancing. Steinbeck never mentions the real antagonist of his story—the market forces that have created the dog-eat-dog world that George and Lennie inhabit. This production’s real antagonist is timing. There is Steinbeckian poetry here, but in the end, we want a little more of it. ◆
WHAT
Clarence Brown Theatre: Of Mice and Men
WHERE
Carousel Theatre (1714 Andy Holt Ave.)
CLASSICAL TICKETS start at just $15
MARCELO LEHNINGER MEET
Music Director candidate
Brazilian-born Marcelo Lehninger is associate conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and in 2014 won the League of American Orchestras’ prestigious Helen M. Thompson Award for his work as music director of the New West Symphony in Los Angeles.
PINES OF ROME Thursday, Oct. 22 • 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23 • 7:30 p.m. TENNESSEE THEATRE Marcelo Lehninger, conductor Gabriel Lefkowitz, violin SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 1 RAVEL: Tzigane DEBUSSY: Two Preludes RESPIGHI: Pines of Rome Sponsored by Harper Auto Square & UT Federal Credit Union
WHEN
Through Oct. 18
HOW MUCH $26-$32
INFO
clarencebrowntheatre.com
CALL: (865) 291-3310 CLICK: knoxvillesymphony.com VISIT: Monday-Friday, 9-5 October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 27
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Classical
The Devil You Say! Knox Opera stages an epic production of Boito’s diabolical masterpiece, Mefistofele BY ALAN SHERROD
F
or most composers, if the premiere of a new opera—one lasting over five hours—was greeted by catcalls, whistles, boos, and an angry audience exodus, it would probably be a fatal discouragement. Not so for Arrigo Boito and his Mefistofele, an opera based on Goethe’s play about the familiar Faust legend, which suffered just such a catastrophic opening at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala in March 1868. Seven years and several reworkings later, a greatly shortened and revised Mefistofele delighted audiences in Bologna; the opera has since been established in the repertory of the major opera houses of the world. The opera has never been staged in Tennessee, but Knoxville Opera
changes that this weekend with two performances of Boito’s masterpiece at the Tennessee Theatre. Mefistofele, for which Boito wrote both music and libretto, was the composer’s only opera that was performed during his lifetime, with Nerone still incomplete at his death in 1918. Boito’s fame rests mostly with his work for other composers as a librettist, a role he took for Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello and Falstaff and for Ponchielli’s La Gioconda, among others. As a writer sensitive to the power of the word, Boito sought to remain relatively faithful to Goethe’s Faust. His theme, however, as evidenced by the title, centers on the devil and the conflict of good versus
evil, rather than on the character of Faust and the potential for man to reach a higher moral plane. “Giving Mefistofele a humanity, a humanness, is what makes it so interesting,” says Brian Deedrick, stage director for KO’s production. “For example, his cheekiness towards God, of course, is right there in the libretto. Putting it into a modern context, he likes to play around with the old fart, he likes to mess around with his head. We are giving a reality to Mefistofele that will probably irk some, particularly those waiting for horns to be sprouting out of his head or a glimpse of a long red tail. No, but he is a bit of a dude in some ways. “Boito’s character of Faust is much more traditionally written. I almost hate to say it—he’s something of a loser. We’re so much more aware of Gounod’s opera Faust and that character. In the Boito, sure, Faust is in the show, but it’s really all about the journey of Mefistofele.” Knoxville Opera audiences can expect musical forces on a staggering scale in the Tennessee Theatre. Deedrick and music director Brian Salesky are placing the orchestra behind a scrim onstage to enable the orchestra pit and apron to be used as part of the action. The chorus will have over 130 voices, including members of the Knoxville Opera
Chorus, the Knoxville Chamber Chorale, Pellissippi State Variations Ensemble, and the Knoxville Opera Youth Choir. Multiple brass choirs are to be positioned throughout the theater for key scenes. In fact, those brass choirs may hold the key to Salesky’s determination to stage the work in Knoxville. “In 1977, I joined the New York City Opera as an administrative/ musical assistant to general director Julius Rudel,” Salesky says. “One of my first assignments was to conduct brass instrumentalists in a hallway outside of the fifth ring of the New York State Theatre for Mefistofele. There were no televisions to watch the conductor and no rehearsals. Years later, after having conducted the various brass choirs throughout the theater and backstage, I graduated to being the cover conductor of the production. I thought it was City Opera’s finest production.” This production features a number of singers making their Knoxville Opera debuts: bass-baritone Donovan Singletary as Mefistofele; tenor Cody Austin as Faust; Ryan Ford as Wagner; and Allison Deady as Marta. Soprano Julia Lima, last seen with KO in the 2012 production of Die Fledermaus, will sing the role of Margherita. Salesky will conduct the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. ◆
WHAT
Knoxville Opera: Mefistofele
WHERE
Tennessee Theatre (602 S. Gay St.)
WHEN
Friday, Oct. 9, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 11, at 2:30 p.m.
HOW MUCH $21-$99
INFO
knoxvilleopera.com
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
Movies
Math Appeal The heroes of Ridley Scott’s The Martian are all nerds, in one way or another BY APRIL SNELLINGS
M
ath is magic in The Martian, Ridley Scott’s soaring, thrilling adaptation of Andy Weir’s 2011 debut novel of the same name. Rather than “Use the force,” the movie’s mantra is “Do the math,” a line spoken again and again as its NASA heroes devote extraordinary resources to rescuing an astronaut who has been marooned on Mars. It’s a story that extols the virtues of education and inventiveness over firepower and muscle mass; for my money, it’s the best superhero movie of the year. The Martian isn’t shy about asking us to view its scientists as something akin to real-world Avengers. In fact, it goes so far as to blatantly invoke the spirit of Iron Man during its climax. Matt Damon certainly looks like he could fill out a skintight costume, at least in the film’s early scenes. He plays Mark Watney, a buff and beefy genius who’s been sent to Mars via the Hermes spacecraft to be very handsome while collecting samples of the planet’s soil. Watney and his fellow astronauts, led by Jessica Chastain’s Commander Lewis, are caught in a freak dust storm, though,
and the crew is forced to abandon Watney when he’s knocked unconscious by flying debris and presumed dead. He gets better, of course, having merely been impaled by a radio antenna that leaves a gruesome wound in his abdomen. His first order of business is patching himself up; once that ordeal is over, his real problems begin. Watney must somehow figure out how to grow food, make water, communicate with Earth, travel thousands of kilometers to the next NASA mission landing site, and otherwise circumvent the myriad ways that Mars could kill him at any given moment. The Martian, beautifully photographed by Dariusz Wolski, is certainly a survival story, then, and it’s a lively heir to the king of castaways, Robinson Crusoe (both the Earth- and Mars-bound incarnations of Daniel Defoe’s classic hero). Watney’s tribulations are never less than riveting, in part because both the character and the actor playing him are singularly charming—how do you not like a guy who cracks jokes after he’s blown himself up?
The setup might sound like a one-man show, and there are certainly lengthy stretches where the film rests solely on Damon’s capable shoulders. But where the story really takes flight is when the action begins to vault from one location to another—besides Mars, the film plays out at Houston Space Center, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, the headquarters of China’s National Space Administration, and aboard the Hermes as it drifts through deep space. The film’s universe is in a constant state of expansion as more and more people—and nations—join the endeavor to save Watney. He might be stranded on an uninhabited planet, but he’s never really alone. Scott has always had a knack for savvy casting, and it’s never served him better than in The Martian. Besides Damon and Chastain, both of whom give pitch-perfect performances, there’s Chiwetel Ejiofor as the director of Mars missions; Kristen Wiig as NASA’s put-upon media director; Jeff Daniels as the agency’s head honcho; and Donald Glover as a hipster brainiac who solves one of the
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story’s biggest problems by—you guessed it—“doing the math.” The list goes on and on; there are so many characters that the film has no choice but to tick off their names and titles on screen as we meet them. And yet the movie never feels anything less than intensely personal and, above all, human. At one point, Watney devises an ingenious (and literally explosive) way to distill water from rocket fuel. There’s a similar sort of alchemy at work on a broader scale in The Martian: This is a story that distills and concentrates humanity to its purest, highest nature. There are plenty of disagreements among the characters, but everyone in the film is dedicated to saving Watney. There’s not a single atom of cynicism in The Martian—no weak link in the team, no bad guy, no heartless system, no one with ulterior motives. It’s a remarkably old-fashioned bit of storytelling, and couldn’t have come at a better time. It’s a surprising turnaround for Scott, whose 1979 classic, Alien, gave us one of the bleakest and most terrifying visions of outer space ever committed to film. Maybe Scott is going soft in his old age, or maybe I am. I once had a screenwriting teacher who was fond of pointing out that the best drama happens when everyone is right. The Martian is a stirring reminder that, every now and then, the best drama happens when everyone is good. ◆ October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 29
MUSIC
Thursday, Oct. 8 DAVID BENEDICT AND MICHAEL MOORE WITH GRASS2MOUTH • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE THE GRAND AFFAIR • Longbranch Saloon • 8PM HOLY GHOST TENT REVIVAL • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Holy Ghost Tent Revival’s exhilarating live show has uplifted audiences since the band formed in 2007. For the past eight years, they have been honing their unique sound, which NPR describes as that of a “soul-rock horn band that recalls 60s and 70s classic-rock influences such as The Band and The Flying Burrito Brothers, contemporary indie-rock acts like Dr. Dog, and New Orleans brass-band jazz.” LOUISE MOSRIE AND CLIFF EBERHARDT • Market Square • 7PM • Enjoy two innovative artists, Louise Mosrie and Cliff Eberhardt, who are quietly taking folk music by storm with their unique, soulful renditions of classic Americana music. • FREE SEEPEOPLES WITH THOSE MANIC SEAS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. SISTER SPARROW AND THE DIRTYBIRDS WITH KOA AND HOOTS AND HELLMOUTH • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM THE THIRST QUENCHERS • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM • The Ps and Qs house band. WENDEL WERNER • Red Piano Lounge • 6PM WILL YAGER TRIO • Red Piano Lounge • 8PM Friday, Oct. 9 THE AFRO-DISIACS • Knoxville Museum of Art • 6PM • Brand new and red hot, this 12-member band will be throwin’ down your favorite tunes by Earth, Wind & Fire, James Brown, Kool & The Gang, and more. • $10 THE BAREFOOT MOVEMENT WITH SEAN COSTANZA • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-aweek lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE BLACK JACKET SYMPHONY: BACK IN BLACK • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • The Black Jacket Symphony offers a unique concert experience through recreating classic albums in a live performance setting. A selected album is performed in its entirety by a group of handpicked musicians specifically selected for each album, with no sonic detail being overlooked--the musicians do whatever it takes to musically reproduce the album. The performance is separated into two sets. The first set features the album being recreated as a true symphonic piece. The second set, which features a selection of the album artist’s “greatest hits,” opens in full contrast to the first set with an incredible light display and the symphony being much more laid back. • $28 JOHNNY CAMPBELL AND THE BLUEGRASS DRIFTERS • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE CONSERVATION THEORY • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM CROBOT WITH SKYTOWN RIOT AND LUMINOTH • The Concourse • 9PM • There was a time when rock radio was dominated by great riffs. It was all about that unmistakable guitar sound that instantly identified a band or song. The four members of Crobot have united to bring that back. 18 and up. • $8 • See story on page 22. THE DEAD RINGERS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $5 JASON ELLIS • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 30
KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
8PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE GREEN RIVER ORDINANCE • The Square Room • 8PM • The title of Fifteen, Green River Ordinance’s first studio album in three years, has a dual meaning for the hard-working quintet. In addition to marking the fifteen years that have passed since the five bandmates first began making music together, fifteen was also the average age of the band members when the group formed. • $12-$15 GRIZ WITH BIG WILD AND LOUIE LASTIC • The International • 9PM • Today at age 24, GRiZ (Grant Kwiecinski) is already being hailed as visionary. On March 31st, he released Say It Loud via his All Good Records imprint, a follow-up to its more funk-step predecessors, Rebel Era and Mad Liberation. Presented by Midnight Voyage Productions and WUTK. 18 and up. • $15-$40 GUY MARSHALL • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Adam and Sarrenna McNulty have been a staple in Knoxville’s Americana scene for the past five years. Armed with an infectious stage presence and an earnest arsenal of songs that touch on themes of whiskey and wallowing, the pair, backed by a rotating cast of musicians, have played gigs that range from providing a soundtrack to beer-soaked attendees of Knoxville’s Brewer’s Jam to securing a spot on the main stage of this year’s Rhythm N’ Blooms festival. HUDSON K WITH BARK AND LITTLE WAR TWINS • Pilot Light • 10PM • 18 and up. • $5 K-TOWN MUSIC • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM JAMEL MITCHELL • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM ANNI PIPER • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM PROGTOBERFEST • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 7PM • A night of local and regional prog rock, with Maps Need Reading, Expeditions, Colors In Mind, Lines Taking Shape and White Stag. All ages. • $10 THE SAINT FRANCIS BAND • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE DAVE SLACK TRIO • Pero’s on the Hill • 7PM • Instrumental and vocal jazz standards. TUATHA DEA • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM Saturday, Oct. 10 THE BLUEGRASS DRIFTERS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM WILL BOYD • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM CUMBERLAND STATION • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM DELTA MOON • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE DIRTY SOUL REVIVAL • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6PM • $5 ANDREW ELLIS WITH THE SAINT FRANCIS BAND • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-aweek lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE FOREVER ABBEY ROAD: A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Forever Abbey Road is a group of five professional musicians in Nashville who perform the music of the Beatles with sincere gratitude, heart and accuracy. Forever Abbey Road’s fun and exciting live show features a wide variety of songs from the Beatles’ entire career. • $10 GREAT PEACOCK WITH ANNABELLE’S CURSE • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $5 KARINA AND THE TENNESSEE TONES • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM AMY LAVERE • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE PUJOL WITH LEFT AND RIGHT • Pilot Light • 10PM • Nashville garage rock. 18 and up. • $6 THE RERUNS • Pero’s on the Hill • 7PM • Knoxville’s
premier TV band plays your favorite television themes. THE SAINT FRANCIS BAND • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • The Saint Francis Band was officially founded in 2009 in Macon, Ga, but relocated to Athens, Ga in 2010. TSFB is a crossover Americana group with a wide range of influences. TSFB is centered around strong vocal performance, lyrical content, and well delivered music composition that creates the unmistakable sound that is The Saint Francis Band.
BEN SHUSTER • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE RICK SPRINGFIELD • Niswonger Performing Arts Center (Greeneville) • 7:30PM • Rick Springfield’s first love has always been music, a lifelong passion ignited after picking up his first guitar at the age of 12 in his native Australia. With 25 million records sold, a Grammy Award for his No. 1 smash-hit “Jessie’s Girl,” and whopping 17 Top-40 hits, Springfield has no intention of taking his foot off the accelerator. • $50-$60
Photo by Myriam Santos
CALENDAR
Thursday, Oct. 8 - Sunday, Oct. 18
MERLE HAGGARD Tennessee Theatre (602 S. Gay St.) • Wednesday, Oct. 14 • 8 p.m. • $49.50-$84.50 • tennesseetheatre.com
Merle Haggard is the original and emblematic country outlaw. His prison songs from the late 1960s—“I’m a Lonesome Fugitive,” “Branded Man,” “Sing Me Back Home,” and “Mama Tried”—captured some of the radical maverick populist mood of the times and made Haggard an icon to Nashville insiders, hippies, and America’s correctional population. That Haggard had spent time in San Quentin in the late ’50s bolstered the legend, but it wouldn’t have mattered if he hadn’t been one of the greatest country singers and songwriters of all time, backed by one of the best honky-tonk bands to ever take the stage in the Strangers. The West Coast Bakersfield sound that Haggard and Buck Owens helped establish and made popular—a combination of Bob Wills’ Western swing and the hardcore honky-tonk of Ernest Tubb and Lefty Frizzell—inspired a generations of followers, from Waylon Jennings to George Strait. And then, in the late ’70s and early ’80s, he made a string of classy and classic middle-aged country albums—the Nashville equivalent of Frank Sinatra’s In the Wee Small Hours or Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks. Even now, approaching 80, he’s making great music, even if it doesn’t match his best: 2011’s Working in Tennessee finds Haggard alternately wistful and annoyed, and on this year’s Django and Jimmie, he and Willie Nelson push each other to their best performances in years on a set dedicated to Django Reinhardt and Jimmie Rodgers. (In case that duo’s influence on Haggard and Nelson’s career isn’t obvious, they spell it out in the title track: “There might not have been a Merle or a Willie if not for Django and Jimmie.”) With Mo Pitney. (Matthew Everett)
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Spotlight: Jim Mize and Laurie Stirrat
38
Spotlight: The Public Cinema: The Mend
CALENDAR STARLIT WITH DJ PRYMETIME AND DJ A-WALL • The International • 9PM • Nashville independent rapper. 18 and up. THE JASON STINNET BAND • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM Sunday, Oct. 11 ALHHAL WITH YAIRMS AND STRYPLEPOP • Pilot Light • 9PM • $5 BUTCHER BABIES WITH NEKROGOBLIN, INVIOLATE, AND WARCLOWN • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 6PM • Hailing from the City Of Angels, the Butcher Babies offer redemption from the overplayed underground, exorcising demons with a visceral sound matched only in scope by their explosive stage show. Frontwomen Carla Harvey and Heidi Shepherd, guitarist Henry Flury, bassist Jason Klein and drummer Chris Warner juxtapose brutal, aggressive riffs with beautiful melodies that wail with anguish and hope for redemption. All ages. • $12 JOSEPH HITCHCOCK • The Longbranch •9PM THE DAVID MAYFIELD PARADE WITH HANNAH ALDRIDGE • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM PALE ROOT • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM • Pale Root has quietly settled into its own spot in Knoxville’s crowded Americana scene—intimate, confessional music grounded in tradition. At various times, the duo’s music recalls Neil Young, Jackson Browne, the Everly Brothers, and the Avett Brothers. ANNI PIPER • Preservation Pub • 10PM SAFE IN SOUND FESTIVAL • The International • 9PM • Featuring Datsik, Zomboy, Terravita and Ookay. 18 and up. SHIFFLETT AND HANNAH • The Bistro at the Bijou • 12PM • Live jazz. • FREE DAVE SLACK TRIO • Pero’s on the Hill • 1PM • Live jazz. SUNDAY JAZZ BRUNCH • Downtown Grill and Brewery • 12:45PM • Knoxville’s coolest jazz artists perform every Sunday. • FREE Monday, Oct. 12 AQUEOUS AND MCLOVINS WITH TREE TOPS • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM FLORAL PRINT WITH CHOIR BANG • Pilot Light • 9PM • 18 and up. • $5 KEITH KENNY • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $5 AMY LAVERE AND WILL SEXTON • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Amy LaVere 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. MIGHTY MUSICAL MONDAY • Tennessee Theatre • 12PM • Wurlitzer meister Bill Snyder is joined by a special guest on the first Monday of each month for a music showcase inside Knoxville’s historic Tennessee Theatre. • FREE RACHEL SOLOMON • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE Tuesday, Oct. 13 THE BUMPER JACKSONS • Sugarlands Distilling Co. • 7PM • 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 KNOXVILLE JAZZ ORCHESTRA: CRESCENT CITY CELEBRATION • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • Join trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis and drummer Herlin Riley as they lead the KJO through an exciting program of music celebrating the culture of the Big Easy, NOLA. Delfeayo is leader and chief arranger for the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, a New Orleans-based big band that
performs weekly at one of the city’s most famed jazz establishments: Snug Harbor. He also happens to be younger brother to Branford and Wynton. Herlin Riley is the most acclaimed drum master of his generation in the New Orleans idiom. A guaranteed good time! • $15-$33.30 THE LOWEST PAIR • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • The Lowest Pair features the duel banjo picking of Kendl Winter and Palmer T. Lee. Draped in Kendl’s high lonesome harmonies and Palmer’s Midwest croon IAN MCFERON WITH SARA RECHELE • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE JIM MIZE WITH LAURIE STIRRATT • Sweet P’s Barbecue and Soul House • 6:30PM • FREE • See Spotlight on page 33. Wednesday, Oct. 14 TENNESSEE SHINES: COUNT THIS PENNY • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7PM • Recently relocated back to their native East Tennessee, married singer-songwriter duo Count This Penny has appeared on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion and subsequently in iTunes’ singer-songwriter Top 10. • $10 DIRTY BOURBON RIVER SHOW • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Dirty Bourbon River Show winks at the old-time medicine show, with music to draw in crowds. But there’s no snake oil on offer, just sounds enough to fascinate, enthrall, and heal. Tubas tango with feral-voiced crooners, punkish numbers bump into the sweet plunking of a ballad. BEN GAINES AND CAMERON MOORE IMPROV NIGHT • Preservation Pub • 10PM • $3 MERLE HAGGARD WITH NOEL HAGGARD • Tennessee Theatre • 8PM • $49.50-$84.50 • See Spotlight on page TK. ALEX REYES • Red Piano Lounge • 8PM BEN STALETS WITH ROYAL HOUNDS • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE Thursday, Oct. 15 BEAR MEDICINE WITH SUNSHINE STATION • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM • This Lexington band offers tiny, minimalistic songs with subtle impressionistic details on its 2014 album, The Moon Has Been All My Life. JESSE GREGORY • Market Square • 7PM • Jesse Gregory was voted 2014 IBAA Momentum Vocalist of the Year. Bluegrass aficionados will welcome this vibrant artist on her way to becoming a big name in bluegrass. • FREE WES LUNSFORD AND LAUREL WRIGHT • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM MADDIE AND TAE • Cotton Eyed Joe • 10PM • Maddie Marlow and Taylor Dye never intended to hit a nerve when they sat down on St. Patricks Day and wrote “Girl In A Country Song.” Merely expressing their own reaction to the reductive tilt of today’s BroCountry, the pair and co-writer Aaron Schwerz shamelessly skewered its Xeroxed stereotypes. • $10 D.J. MORRISON • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM THE CHUCK MULLICAN JAZZ BONANZA • Red Piano Lounge • 8PM RANDALL CONRAD OLINGER WITH LOREN WALKER MADSEN • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE PIGEONS PLAYING PING PONG • The Concourse • 9PM • 18 and up. • $7-$10 GRACE POTTER • Tennessee Theatre • 8PM • Grace Potter’s
Live Music | Dancing | Spirits | Food & Fun! 865-525-6101 • KNOXART.ORG SELECTED FRIDAYS @ 6:00 - 8:30pm FALL SERIES
October 9th featuring The Afro-disiacs October 16th featuring Samantha Gray & The Soul Providers October 23rd featuring John Németh October 30th featuring “Costume Party!” Boys’ Night Out November 6th featuring Stacy Mitchhart Band November 13th featuring Kelle Jolly & Will Boyd Project with some very special guests December 11th featuring “Holiday Dance Party” with The Streamliners Swing Orchestra
October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 31
CALENDAR epic musical journey reaches a new milestone with the arrival of her solo debut, Midnight, an inspired work that is surprising, revelatory and wildly original. • $30-$49.50 RAMAJAY • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $3 THE THIRST QUENCHERS • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM • The Ps and Qs house band. Friday, Oct. 16 BEAR MEDICINE • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE THE BOTTLE ROCKETS WITH MARK OLSON • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • The Bottle Rockets’ brand of populist, Midwestern, brawny rock ‘n’ roll is a sound so effortless, it’s easy to take their craft for granted; a sound so universal, yet unmistakably the Bottle Rockets. Brian Clay • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM THE TEMPER EVANS BAND • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM FISH STYX • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 8PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE SAMANTHA GRAY AND THE SOUL PROVIDERS WITH BILLY CRAWFORD • Knoxville Museum of Art • 6PM • The cream of the Tri-Cities blues talent comes together for the first of two special shows in Knoxville. • $10 KELLE JOLLY AND THE WILL BOYD PROJECT • Laurel Theater • 8PM • Kelle Jolly is a visual and musical artist who currently lives in Knoxville with her saxophonist
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
Thursday, Oct. 8 - Sunday, Oct. 18
husband, Will Boyd. • $13-$14 KNOX COUNTY JUG STOMPERS • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE LEFT FOOT DOWN • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • With original music rooted in southern rock and a healthy pinch of improvisational jazz and blues, Left Foot Down took Knoxville by storm when they hit the stage in 1998 and quickly gained a large and loyal fan base. It’s been over 12 years since Left Foot Down have performed together. Though many friends and fans have campaigned for a reunion show, the stars simply haven’t aligned…until now. • $20 LERA LYNN • The Square Room • 8PM • $12-$15 MOUNTAIN SOUL • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE THE PEA PICKIN’ HEARTS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM PILOT ROUGE • Preservation Pub • 8PM • 21 and up. • FREE JEREMY PORTER AND THE TUCOS WITH JAKE AND THE COMET CONDUCTORS AND THE FLOORBOARDS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $5 RED AS BLOOD WITH HELLAPHANT AND TRACTORHEAD • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM DAVE SLACK TRIO • Pero’s on the Hill • 7PM • Instrumental and vocal jazz standards. TALL PAUL • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE WENDEL WERNER • Red Piano Lounge • 6PM Saturday, Oct. 17 SHAUN ABBOTT • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM DON ALDER • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series
featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE BOSLEY • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $5 CAROLINA CEILI • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE FLEETWOOD MAC TRIBUTE CONCERT • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6PM • $10 JEANINE FULLER • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM EMMYLOU HARRIS AND RODNEY CROWELL • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 8PM • The Traveling Kind Tour celebrates Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell’s second duet album—The Traveling Kind, produced by Joe Henry. The Traveling Kind follows the longtime friends’ first duet album, 2013’s Old Yellow Moon, which won Best Americana Album at the 56th annual Grammy Awards as well as two awards at the 2013 Americana Music Association Honors & Awards Show, for Album of the Year and Duo/Group of the Year. • $36.50-$250 AARON KIRBY AND THE TENNESSEE JAM BAND • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM THE LAST TYCOON • Preservation Pub • 8PM • 21 and up. • FREE TIM LEE 3 • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • The Tim Lee 3’s new album, 33 1/3, is, like its predecessors, full of inventive, melodic guitar rock with pop instincts and bar-band muscle. LEFT FOOT DAVE AND THE MAGIC HATS • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM MANDOLIN ORANGE • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • $17-$19 THE RERUNS • Pero’s on the Hill • 7PM • Knoxville’s premier TV band plays your favorite television themes. RYAN SHELEY WITH JUSTIN WELLS AND MATT WRIGHT •
Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM BEN SHUSTER • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE Sunday, Oct. 18 CAUTIOUS BEVERLY WITH HELLAPHANT, ASHES OF LAKESHORE, AND THERMOSTAT • Longbranch Saloon • 9PM MY BROTHER THE BEAR WITH BEN KNIGHT • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM THE ROMEO KINGS • Star of Knoxville Riverboat • 3PM • Part of the Smoky Mountain Blues Society’s annual season of summer blues cruises. • $16-$19 SHIFFLETT AND HANNAH • The Bistro at the Bijou • 12PM • Live jazz. • FREE DAVE SLACK TRIO • Pero’s on the Hill • 1PM • Live jazz. SUNDAY JAZZ BRUNCH • Downtown Grill and Brewery • 12:45PM • Knoxville’s coolest jazz artists perform every Sunday. • FREE
OPEN MIC AND SONGWRITER NIGHTS
Thursday, Oct. 8 SCOTTISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month. • FREE BREWHOUSE BLUES JAM • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM Friday, Oct. 9 TIME WARP TEA ROOM OPEN SONGWRITER NIGHT • Time
Thursday, Oct. 8 - Sunday, Oct. 18
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 Saturday, Oct. 10 MUMBILLY OLD TIME SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 4PM • Bring an instrument, but definitely watch out in case there’s some Mumbillies there. • FREE Sunday, Oct. 11 EPWORTH OLD HARP SHAPE NOTE SINGING • Laurel Theater • 6:30PM • A monthly old harp shape note singing gathering. • FREE Tuesday, Oct. 13 PRESERVATION PUB SINGER/SONGWRITER NIGHT • Preservation Pub • 7PM • A weekly open mic. OLD-TIME JAM SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Hosted by Sarah Pickle. • FREE Wednesday, Oct. 14 TIME WARP TEA ROOM OLD-TIME JAM • Time Warp Tea Room • 7PM • Regular speed old-time/fiddle jam every Wednesday from 7-9 p.m. at the Time Warp Tea Room. All instruments and skill levels welcome. BRACKINS BLUES JAM • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM • A weekly open session hosted by Tommie John. • FREE Thursday, Oct. 15 IRISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the first and third Thursdays of each month. • FREE
CALENDAR
RETRO DANCE NIGHT • Hanna’s Old City • 9PM • 80s and Top 40 hits with DJ Ray Funk. TEMPLE DANCE NIGHT • The Concourse • 9PM • Knoxville’s long-running alternative dance night. 18 and up. • $5 Sunday, Oct. 18 LAYOVER BRUNCH • The Concourse • 12PM • Brunch food By Localmotive. Music on the patio. Presented by Midnight Voyage Productions. All ages. • FREE
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Friday, Oct. 9 KNOXVILLE OPERA: ‘MEFISTOFELE’ • Tennessee Theatre • 8PM • The timeless story of Faust, who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for youth and love. • $21-$99 • See preview on page 24. Sunday, Oct. 11 KNOXVILLE OPERA: ‘MEFISTOFELE’ • Tennessee Theatre • 2:30PM • The timeless story of Faust, who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for youth and love. • $21-$99 READY FOR THE WORLD MUSIC SERIES: CUARTETO LATINOAMERICANO • University of Tennessee Natalie L. Haslam Music Center • 2PM • The Ready for the World Music Series—the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s celebration of classical music from around the world— kicks off its 2015-16 lineup with Latin American music.
Cuarteto Latinoamericano will be the guest artists for the day. To learn more about the Ready for the World Music Series, visit http://www.music.utk.edu/rftw. To learn more about the UT School of Music, its programs and its events, visit http://www.music.utk.edu. • FREE OAK RIDGE COMMUNITY BAND/WIND ENSEMBLE CHILDREN’S CONCERT • Oak Ridge High School • 3:30PM • Program ranges from highlights of the movie “Frozen,” “Tennessee Salute” including “Rocky Top,” “Peter and the Wolf,” and more to Pharrell Williams’s “Happy.” Info: visit www.orcb.org or call 865-482-3568. • $5 Wednesday, Oct. 14 KSO CONCERTMASTER SERIES • Knoxville Museum of Art • 7PM • Featuring Gabriel Lefkowitz, violin, and Kevin Class, piano, performing KREISLER: Variations on a Theme by Corelli; MENDELSSOHN: Piano Trio No. 1 in d minor; and BEETHOVEN: Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 9 in A Major, “Kreutzer.” • $15 Thursday, Oct. 15 KSO CONCERTMASTER SERIES • Knoxville Museum of Art • 7PM • Featuring Gabriel Lefkowitz, violin, and Kevin Class, piano, performing KREISLER: Variations on a Theme by Corelli; MENDELSSOHN: Piano Trio No. 1 in d minor; and BEETHOVEN: Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 9 in A Major, “Kreutzer.” • $15 Friday, Oct. 16
Sunday, Oct. 18 FAMILY FRIENDLY DRUM CIRCLE • Ijams Nature Center • 4PM • Bring a drum or share one of ours. All ages from toddlers to grandparents welcome. Free. Call Ijams at 865-577-4717 ex 110 to register. • FREE COMMUNITY DRUM CIRCLE • Tyson Park • 3PM • Join us for our last outdoor drum circle of the year. We’ve rented a giant picnic shelter at Tyson Park that will provide lots of seating and shade. No experience is necessary and all ages are welcome. Admission is free. Located at Tyson Park under the large shelter near the tennis courts and playground. Parking spaces and restrooms are nearby and there’s an adjacent grassy area for hooping and poi. • FREE
DJ AND DANCE NIGHTS
Friday, Oct. 9 RETRO DANCE NIGHT • Hanna’s Old City • 9PM • 80s and Top 40 hits with DJ Ray Funk. KILL THE NOISE OCCULT CLASSIC TOUR • NV Nightclub • 9PM • Presented by Disco Donnie and Ultimo Productions. Saturday, Oct. 10 RETRO DANCE NIGHT • Hanna’s Old City • 9PM • 80s and Top 40 hits with DJ Ray Funk. Sunday, Oct. 11 LAYOVER BRUNCH • The Concourse • 12PM • Brunch food by Localmotive. Music on the patio. Presented by Midnight Voyage Productions. All ages. • FREE Friday, Oct. 16 RETRO DANCE NIGHT • Hanna’s Old City • 9PM • 80s and Top 40 hits with DJ Ray Funk. HEADROOM IV • The Concourse • 9PM • Featuring C Powers, Mark B, Greg and Nikki Nair. 18 and up. • $5 Saturday, Oct. 17
JIM MIZE AND LAURIE STIRRATT Songwriters in the Soul House at Sweet P’s Barbeque and Soul House (3725 Maryville Pike) • Wednesday, Oct. 14 • 6:30 p.m. • Free • sweetpbbq.com
Consider Arkansas native Jim Mize another contender for one of those underappreciated middle-aged American songwriter awards. The 57-year-old Mize is a classic songwriter’s songwriter: Few people who aren’t musicians have ever heard of him, but everybody who has heard of him—like Blue Mountain’s Laurie Stirratt, who’s playing with Mize next week—ranks him as one of the South’s secret treasures. He makes modest, unassuming rock music—or so it seems at first. On repeat listening, his latest album, titled simply Jim Mize, from 2014, reveals depth and precision, not to mention some great guitar playing from Mize and former Knoxvillian John Paul Keith. Mize’s ragged three-chord rock is familiar, with echoes of Tom Waits, Peter Case, Leonard Cohen, and the Velvet Underground, but he’s got a voice and sound all his own, marked by an eye for novelistic detail and an ear for deceptively simple melodies. (Matthew Everett)
October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 33
CALENDAR CLASSICAL MUSIC • October 16 • UT Trombone Choir 50th Anniversary Event • University of Tennessee • Featuring workshops, lectures, master classes, and performances, headlined by the UT Trombone Studio Faculty and Student Recital at the Haslam Music Center on Friday, Oct. 16, at 6 p.m.; a guest artist recital by Moises Paiewonsky at the Haslam Music Center on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 6 p.m.; and the UT Trombone Choir and Alumni Combined Concert at the James R. Cox Auditorium at Alumni Memorial Building on Sunday, Oct. 18, at 6 p.m. • FREE Saturday, Oct. 17 UT TROMBONE CHOIR 50TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT • University of Tennessee • Featuring workshops, lectures, master classes, and performances, headlined by the UT Trombone Studio Faculty and Student Recital at the Haslam Music Center on Friday, Oct. 16, at 6 p.m.; a guest artist recital by Moises Paiewonsky at the Haslam Music Center on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 6 p.m.; and the UT Trombone Choir and Alumni Combined Concert at the James R. Cox Auditorium at Alumni Memorial Building on Sunday, Oct. 18, at 6 p.m. • FREE KNOXVILLE OPERA GOES TO CHURCH … A CELEBRATION OF TALENT • The Community Church at Tellico Village • 7PM • A mix of gospel and opera performed by local and guest artists, selections include: “We Fill the Sanctuary,” “In Bright Mansions Above,” “In His Care-O,” “God’s on Your Side,” “Give Me Jesus” and “Nothing is Impossible.” Also on the program are arias and duets from “Show Boat,” “Porgy and Bess,” “Tosca,” “Faust” and the opera “Mefistofele.” • FREE STILETTO BRASS QUINTET • First United Methodist Church
Thursday, Oct. 8 - Sunday, Oct. 18
of Oak Ridge • 7:30PM • The Stiletto Brass Quintet, formed in 2010, features five highly accomplished women with careers spanning the fields of orchestral, wind band, and brass chamber music. The concert will include beloved music by Giacomo Puccini and Jean-Phillippe Rameau, and will also include new music from Drew Bonner, commissioned by the Stiletto Brass Quintet. Subscription and individual tickets may be purchased online at www. ORCMA.org or by calling (865) 483-5569. • $25 Sunday, Oct. 18 UT TROMBONE CHOIR 50TH ANNIVERSARY EVENT • University of Tennessee • Featuring workshops, lectures, master classes, and performances, headlined by the UT Trombone Studio Faculty and Student Recital at the Haslam Music Center on Friday, Oct. 16, at 6 p.m.; a guest artist recital by Moises Paiewonsky at the Haslam Music Center on Saturday, Oct. 17, at 6 p.m.; and the UT Trombone Choir and Alumni Combined Concert at the James R. Cox Auditorium at Alumni Memorial Building on Sunday, Oct. 18, at 6 p.m. • FREE
THEATER AND DANCE
Thursday, Oct. 8 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘OF MICE AND MEN’ • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • This classic follows two migrant workers during the 1930s dustbowl depression who drift from job to job across the farms and fields of California, holding fast to their friendship and dream of one day having an acre of land they can call
their own. Sept. 30-Oct. 18. See review on page 23. Friday, Oct. 9 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘OF MICE AND MEN’ • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • Sept. 30-Oct. 18. Saturday, Oct. 10 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘OF MICE AND MEN’ • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • Sept. 30-Oct. 18. FOLLIES GIRLS PRODUCTIONS: HAUNTED VARIETÉ SHOWCASE • The Bowery • 9:30PM • Each year, we bring out the scary, spooky, sexy side of our productions in our annual Halloween-themed show. Only $10 for a night of entertainment that is just a bit outside of the norm, brought to you by Follies Girls Productions of Knoxville. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll tingle, you’ll feel it from the tips of your toes to the top of your head. For more information visit us at: www.folliesgirls.com. 18 and up. • $10 Sunday, Oct. 11 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘OF MICE AND MEN’ • Clarence Brown Theatre • 2PM • Sept. 30-Oct. 18. Tuesday, Oct. 13 FLASHDANCE • Niswonger Performing Arts Center (Greeneville) • 7:30PM • The pop culture phenomenon of Flashdance is now live on stage. With electrifying dance at its core, Flashdance The Musical tells the inspiring and unforgettable story of Alex Owens, a Pittsburgh steel mill welder by day and a bar dancer by night with dreams of one day becoming a professional performer. Flashdance The Musical features a score that includes the biggest hit
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
smart phone and iPad app.
songs from the movie, including the Academy Award-winning title song “Flashdance - What a Feeling,” “Maniac,” “Gloria,” “Manhunt,” and “I Love Rock & Roll.” Wednesday, Oct. 14 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘OF MICE AND MEN’ • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • Sept. 30-Oct. 18. Thursday, Oct. 15 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘OF MICE AND MEN’ • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • Sept. 30-Oct. 18. Friday, Oct. 16 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘OF MICE AND MEN’ • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • Sept. 30-Oct. 18. Saturday, Oct. 17 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘OF MICE AND MEN’ • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • Sept. 30-Oct. 18. GO! CONTEMPORARY DANCE WORKS: PUSH • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • GO! Contemporary Dance Works will begin its’ 13th season, under the direction of Lisa Hall McKee with PUSH, a diverse and electric performance that will enthrall audiences of all ages. Among the works to be presented in PUSH is “Frequency” by guest choreographer Marlayna Locklear, who is currently performing with Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. ”Frequency” is a powerful display of athletic choreography that is both detailed and explosive and depicts electrical currents within a sound speaker. McKee will premiere a large, unprecedented work entitled “The Manifest” which explores the suppression of artistic
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individuality and free thinking by a single minded communistic order. • $16 Sunday, Oct. 18 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘OF MICE AND MEN’ • Clarence Brown Theatre • 2PM • Sept. 30-Oct. 18. GO! CONTEMPORARY DANCE WORKS: PUSH • Clarence Brown Theatre • 3PM • $16
COMEDY AND SPOKEN WORD
Thursday, Oct. 8 KATHLEEN MADIGAN • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • In her 22 year career, Kathleen Madigan has never been hotter. With her new Showtime special, “Gone Madigan,” in constant rotation and the DVD-CD of the special topping the Amazon and iTunes charts, Madigan has the entire year booked with over 100 theater gigs across the country and numerous television appearances. • $30-$45 Sunday, Oct. 11 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic. Monday, Oct. 12 QED COMEDY LABORATORY • Pilot Light • 7:30PM • QED ComedyLaboratory is a weekly show with different theme every week that combines stand-up, improv, sketch, music and other types of performance and features some of the funniest people in Knoxville and parts unknown. It’s weird and experimental. There is no comedy experience in town that is anything like this and it’s also a ton of fun. Pay what you want. Free, but donations are accepted. • FREE Tuesday, Oct. 13 OPEN MIC STAND-UP COMEDY • Longbranch Saloon • 8PM • Come laugh until you cry at the Longbranch every Tuesday night. Doors open at 8, first comic at 8:30. No cover charge, all are welcome. Aspiring or experienced comics interested in joining in the fun email us at longbranch.info@gmail.com to learn more, or simply come to the show a few minutes early. • FREE EINSTEIN SIMPLIFIED • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM • Einstein Simplified Comedy performs live comedy improv at Scruffy City Hall. It’s just like Whose Line Is It Anyway, but you get to make the suggestions. Show starts at 8:15, get there early for the best seats. No cover. • FREE KNOXVILLE POETRY SLAM • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • We’ll be bringing you the poetic stylings of Moody Black all the way from Greenville, SC. As always we will have our open mic. Wednesday, Oct. 14 MOSTLY TRUE STORIES VOL. III • Pilot Light • 8PM • The third installment of Pilot Light’s storytelling show series. 18 and up. • $5 FULL DISCLOSURE COMEDY • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Yellow Rose Productions presents Full Disclosure Comedy for a night of free long form improvisational comedy. Grab a drink, have a few laughs, and make some friends! Featuring Rollin Prince, Malorie Cunningham, Mark Jennings, Kerri Koczen, Billy-Kyle Roach, Kristen Ballard and Travis Donahoo. Doors open at 8pm, show starts at 8:30pm. Friday, Oct. 16 THE FIFTH WOMAN POETRY SLAM • The Birdhouse •
CALENDAR
6:30PM • The 5th Woman Poetry slam is place where all poets can come and share their words of love, respect, passion, and expression. It is not dedicated solely women but is a place where women poets are celebrated and honored. Check out our facebook pages for the challenge of the month and focus for our poetry every month. Saturday, Oct. 17 COMEDY BOOZE CRUISE: JAMIE WARD AND KRISTINE KINSEY • Star of Knoxville Riverboat • 10:30PM • Scruffy City’s tradition of Comedy Booze Cruises continues on the Star Of Knoxville Riverboat with rising star from Atlanta Jamie Ward and a local favorite you may have seen at Side Splitters Kristine Kinsey. Also on the show is the host of Knoxville’s weekly Tuesday night open mic John Miller and Atlanta favorite Jennifer Lynch. Hosted by Jay Kendrick. The boat will depart at 10:30PM as we depart for a night of drinks, laughs, and fun. This show is for 21+ up only. • $10-$15 Sunday, Oct. 18 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic.
FESTIVALS
Thursday, Oct. 8 BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS CASH FOR KIDS’ SAKE • The Foundry • 5:30PM • This event will serve as a fundraiser event for Big Brothers Big Sisters with a reverse raffle and silent auction. The last ticket drawn will receive the grand prize of $15,000; the next to last ticket, $1,500. The $250 ticket admits two guests and includes two drink tickets and dinner. • $250 Friday, Oct. 9 TENNESSEE FALL HOMECOMING • Museum of Appalachia • Come and visit the most extensive and authentic gathering of old-time musicians and pioneer-type craftspeople in the country. The three-day Homecoming is one of the nation’s largest and most authentic music and folk festivals. Each day, musicians perform on five stages, filling the air with traditional mountain, folk, bluegrass, Gospel, and old-time country tunes. The weekend includes demonstrations of pioneer skills, a large craft fair with authentic Appalachian artisans, and traditional Southern foods. For more information, call 865-494-7680 or visit www.museumofappalachia.org. CLINCH RIVER ANTIQUE FESTIVAL • Historic Downtown Clinton • The Anderson County Chamber of Commerce will be sponsoring the Clinch River Antique Festival in Historic Downtown Clinton. The Festival will kick off with a “Kick-Off Party” on Friday, October 9th from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Market Street antique and specialty stores will be open and there will be entertainment and food. On Saturday, October 10th, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., more than 80 antique dealers and artisans will line Market and Cullom Streets. There is free admission and parking. For more information, call 865-457-2559 or visit www. clinchriverfallfestival.com. Saturday, Oct. 10 TENNESSEE FALL HOMECOMING • Museum of Appalachia • Come and visit the most extensive and authentic gathering of old-time musicians and pioneer-type craftspeople in the country. For more information, call 865-494-7680 or visit www.museumofappalachia.org. CLINCH RIVER ANTIQUE FESTIVAL • Historic Downtown Clinton • The Anderson County Chamber of Commerce will be sponsoring the Clinch River Antique Festival in
Historic Downtown Clinton. The Festival will kick off with a “Kick-Off Party” on Friday, October 9th from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Market Street antique and specialty stores will be open and there will be entertainment and food. On Saturday, October 10th, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., more than 80 antique dealers and artisans will line Market and Cullom Streets. There is free admission and parking. For more information, call 865-457-2559 or visit www. clinchriverfallfestival.com. MARKET IN THE MOUNTAINS FALL ARTS AND CRAFTS FESTIVAL • Smith Life Center • 10AM • Over 25 arts and crafts vendors. Donations will be accepted for the Angel Wings Memory Gowns Organization, which will be on hand selling goods to raise money to send their memory gowns to hospitals and families all over the United States. • FREE ARTISTS AND WRITERS CREATIVITY CENTER OPEN HOUSE • Artists and Writers Creativity Center • 3PM • The new Artists & Writers Creativity Center at 1400 N. 6th Avenue NE, Suite 2C, invites everyone to come to their wine and cheese OPEN HOUSE on Sat. Oct 10, from 3-6 p.m. Sign up for workshops and learn about our exciting mission to fire up creativity in Knoxville. FREE. • FREE VAPER’S NIGHT • The Concourse • 8PM • Featuring competitions, giveaways, food, drinks, and music. 18 and up. • $5 STEAMPUNK CARNIVALE • Paulk and Co. • 12PM • An all-day celebration of steampunk, a mashup of Victorian design and science-fiction, featuring vendors, costumes, gadgets, contests, demonstrations, panels, and live music. Saturday, Oct. 11 TENNESSEE FALL HOMECOMING • Museum of Appalachia • Come and visit the most extensive and authentic gathering of old-time musicians and pioneer-type craftspeople in the country. For more information, call 865-494-7680 or visit www.museumofappalachia.org. CAN YOU DIG IT? NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGY AND FOSSIL DAY • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 1:30PM • In celebration of International Archaeology Day and National Fossil Day, the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Tennessee, and the Archaeological Institute of America, East Tennessee Society, are hosting Can You Dig It?–an event for families and the public on Sunday, October 11 from 1:30-5:00 p.m. at the Museum. A number of activities for children, including games, demonstrations, and take home crafts related to archaeology and fossils, will be available. Visitors can also bring artifacts, rocks, and fossils for identification by experts. Archaeologists, paleontologists, and geologists will be on hand to talk with visitors about their work, and present displays about their research around the world. All activities are free and open to the public. • FREE TENNESSEE INTERFAITH POWER AND LIGHT CLIMATE PRAYER VIGIL • Melton Lake Park • 3PM • Oak Ridge’s first Tennessee Interfaith Power & Light (TIPL) Climate Prayer Vigil will include prayers by three faith leaders; music; candles; brief statements on the missions of TIPL and on the urgency of climate action; and individual commitments to climate action. Then, hosted by the Citizens Climate Coalition (CCC), climate organizations, scientists, and others will table and offer opportunities for effective action. Free snacks and drinks will be provided. Then Sparky and Rhonda Rucker of Maryville will perform traditional acoustic blues and their own climate songs. Attendees are encouraged to stay, connect, and plan actions afterward. Friday, Oct. 16 FANBOY EXPO • Knoxville Convention Center • 4PM • The semiannual comics/sci-fi convention brings the Monkees’ Peter Tork, Steve Guttenberg, Lex Luger, and more to the October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 35
CALENDAR Knoxville Convention Center for a weekend of autographs, collectibles, and art. Plus: a Skype Q&A session with Dick Van Dyke! Visit www.fanboyexpo.com. • $15-$50 Saturday, Oct. 17 ST. PAUL EPISCOPAL CHURCH FALL FESTIVAL • St. Paul Episcopal Church • 9AM • Crafts, bake sale, yard sale, live bluegrass music, hot dog lunch for sale. FANBOY EXPO • Knoxville Convention Center • 10AM • The semiannual comics/sci-fi convention brings the Monkees’ Peter Tork, Steve Guttenberg, Lex Luger, and more to the Knoxville Convention Center for a weekend of autographs, collectibles, and art. Plus: a Skype Q&A session with Dick Van Dyke! Visit www.fanboyexpo.com. • $15-$50 KNOX ASIAN FESTIVAL • Krutch Park • 10AM • Knox Asian Festival aims to promote diverse cultures and celebrate traditions and talents from the Asian continent. The Festival aims to bring together people from various cultural backgrounds, to promote peace, harmony and unity. Each participating country will showcase its unique music, dance, food, fashion, handicrafts and other products. Visit http://www.knoxasianfestival.com for more info. • FREE EAST TENNESSEE MUSIC COLLECTORS SHOW • Days Inn North • 10AM • This event is for music lovers and collectors, and features music dealers from all over the South selling rare vintage vinyl LPs and 45s plus CDs, DVDs and more. Bring your clean record collection in for appraisal and purchase and make good extra cash. • $2 KNOXVILLE ZOMBIE WALK • The Concourse • 6PM • The Knoxville Zombie Walk 2015 will start and end at The Concourse at The International. After the walk there will
Thursday, Oct. 8 - Sunday, Oct. 18
be a concert featuring La Basura Del Diablo, The Billy Widgets, and Burning Turley. All ages. • $5 Sunday, Oct. 18 FANBOY EXPO • Knoxville Convention Center • 11AM • The semiannual comics/sci-fi convention brings the Monkees’ Peter Tork, Steve Guttenberg, Lex Luger, and more to the Knoxville Convention Center for a weekend of autographs, collectibles, and art. Plus: a Skype Q&A session with Dick Van Dyke! Visit www.fanboyexpo.com. • $15-$50 MABRY-HAZEN HOUSE LINEAGE AND LEGACY • Mabry-Hazen House • 2PM • A special celebration of one of Knoxville’s first families, the event will center on remembering the family’s impact both past and present. Join us for a one-act play written by Doug McDaniel and performed by the Tennessee Stage Company as Evelyn Hazen reminisces on the history of her family from the 1850s through the 1960s. Additionally, the event will serve as the annual meeting of the membership. Guests will enjoy light refreshments, live music from Dixieghost, and tours of the historic home. Please join us as we recognize family descendants and our supporting members. The event is free and open to the public.Please RSVP by October 12th, 2015, by calling 865- 522-8661 or email mabryhazenhouse@gmail.com. For more information visit www.mabryhazen.com. • FREE
FILM SCREENINGS
Friday, Oct. 9 MOVIES ON MARKET SQUARE • Market Square • 7PM •
Bring a blanket or a lawn chair and join hundreds of others under the stars for a night of family fun in front of the silver screen. Every Friday night from September 11 through October 16, Market Square transforms into an outdoor movie theater where folks bring their chairs, blankets and picnic baskets. Screenings: 9/18 Rio (G, 2011), 9/25 Night at the Museum (PG, 2006), 10/2 NO MOVIE Black Lillies Concert, 10/9 Hotel Transylvania (PG, 2012), 10/16 A League of their Own (PG, 1992). • FREE Monday, Oct. 12 THE BIRDHOUSE WALK-IN THEATER • The Birdhouse • 8:15PM • A weekly free movie screening. • FREE Tuesday, Oct. 13 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, Oct. 14 FILM SCREENINGS • October 14 • The Public Cinema: The Mend • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM • FREE • See Spotlight on page 35. Friday, Oct. 16 MOVIES ON MARKET SQUARE • Market Square • 7PM • FREE
SPORTS AND
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
WUOT_Ad_5.5x4.25_WhyWUOT_KnoxMerc.indd 1
9/7/15 9:52 AM
RECREATION
Thursday, Oct. 8 WHOLE FOODS GAME NIGHT • Whole Foods • 6PM • Join us for everything from Candy Land to chess, and feel free to add a pint and a pizza. • FREE Friday, Oct. 9 KTC HANN JIVIN’ IN THE DARK TRAIL RACE • Urban Wilderness • 7PM • One of the main architects and benefactors of the Urban Wilderness is Brian Hann, who as President of the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club not only helped mastermind design of much of the corridor but generously allows easement to many miles of trail that ramble about his private land. Although the course will be unusually well marked, it will not be illuminated, so runners will be required to carry a flashlight or wear a headlamp. • $5 Sunday, Oct. 11 SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: APPALACHIAN TRAIL • 8AM • This joint hike with the Nantahala Hiking Club hike is an excellent opportunity to experience some fall colors. There also will be some opportunities for participating in light trail maintenance during the hike. Leaders: Tim Bigelow, bigelowt2@mindspring.com and Cindy Spangler, spangler@utk.edu • FREE SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: HICKORY TRAIL • Smoky Mountain Hiking Club • 1PM • The Hickory Trail is a looping trail through mature forest dominated by several species of oaks and hickories. Meet at Mead’s Quarry
Thursday, Oct. 8 - Sunday, Oct. 18
parking lot, 3518 Island Home Ave., Knoxville, at 1:00 PM. Leader: Mac Post, mpost3116@aol.com • FREE Tuesday, Oct. 13 WHOLE FOODS GAME NIGHT • Whole Foods • 6PM • Join us for everything from Candy Land to chess, and feel free to add a pint and a pizza. • FREE
ART
A1LabArts 23 Emory Place OCT. 2-16: Chakra Windows, the fall member exhibit, featuring artwork by Preston Farabow, Doris Ivie, Norman Magden, Seva, and more. An opening reception will be held on Friday, Oct. 2, from 6-10 p.m., with presentations and performances by the artists starting at 8 p.m. A closing reception will be held on Friday, Oct. 16, from 6-9 p.m. Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts 556 Parkway (Gatlinburg) AUG. 29-OCT. 31: MATERIALITIES: CONTEMPORARY TEXTILE ART; SEPT. 11-NOV. 7: TIME, A COLLABORATIVE EXHIBIT OF CERAMIC WORK BY BLAIR CLEMO AND JASON HACKETT. Art Market Gallery 422 S. Gay St. SEPT. 28-NOV. 1: Paintings by Marie Merritt and pottery by Millie Derrick. Broadway Studios and Gallery 1127 Broadway OCT. 2-28: Artwork by members of the Fountain City Art Center. Clayton Center for the Arts 502 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway (Maryville) OCT. 3-31: Townsend Artisan Guild: A Sense of Place. A closing reception will be held on Friday, Oct. 30, from 6-9 p.m. The District Gallery 5113 Kingston Pike OCT. 2-31: In My View, new oil paintings by Bill Suttles. Downtown Gallery 106 S. Gay St. OCT. 2-31: Artwork by sculptor and installation artist Lorrie Fredette and painter Larry Brown. East Tennessee History Center 601 S. Gay St. APRIL 27-OCT. 18: Memories of the Blue and Gray: The Civil War in East Tennessee at 150 Emporium Center for Arts and Culture 100 S. Gay St. OCT. 2-30: Tennessee Artists Association Fall Juried Show; Tennessee River: Gem of the South, photographs by Ron Lowery; sculpture by Anna Wszyndybyl; Letters From Vietnam Project; Vols: A 25-Year Retrospective, photographs by Patrick Murphy-Racey. Ewing Gallery 1715 Volunteer Blvd. OCT. 5-31: infra_eco_logi urbanism, an exhibition of speculative urban design. . Knoxville Museum of Art 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive
CALENDAR
AUG. 21-NOV. 8: The Paternal Suit, paintings, prints, and objects by conceptual artist F. Scott Hess. ONGOING: Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in Tennessee; Currents: Recent Art From East Tennessee and Beyond; and Facets of Modern and Contemporary Glass. Liz-Beth and Co. 7240 Kingston Pike SEPT. 28-OCT. 24: Knoxville: A Work of Art, featuring Knoxville’s urban landscapes in work by Jillie Eves, Sandy Brown, Jim Gray, Caitlin Painter, Rex Redd, and David Patterson. McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture 1327 Circle Park Drive SEPT. 11-JAN. 3: Embodying Enlightenment: Buddhist Art of the Himalayas. Ongoing: The Flora and Fauna of Catesby, Mason, and Audubon and Life on the Roman Frontier. Zach Searcy Projects 317 N. Gay St. OCT. 2-31 : Phantom Buoy, new paintings by Thomas Wharton. Striped Light 107 Bearden Place OCT. 9: Knoxville Book Arts Guild Gallery Show (5PM) Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church 2931 Kingston Pike SEPT. 11-DEC. 3: An exhibit of artwork by TVUUC members.
LECTURES, READINGS, AND BOOK SIGNINGS
Thursday, Oct. 8 SUSAN TALLMAN • University of Tennessee Art and Architecture Building • 7:30PM • The UT Print Club is hosting renowned art critic Susan Tallman for a lecture. • FREE TAYLOR KITCHINGS: YARD WAR • Union Ave Books • 6PM • Author Taylor Kitchings reads from & signs his new Young Adult novel, Yard War. • FREE Friday, Oct. 9 UT SCIENCE FORUM • Thompson-Boling Arena • 12PM • The Science Forum is a weekly brown-bag lunch series that allows professors and area scientists to discuss their research with the general public in a conversational presentation. For more information about the UT Science Forum, visit http://scienceforum.utk.edu. • FREE Sunday, Oct. 11 ROBERT BEATTY: “SERAFINA AND THE BLACK CLOAK” • Barnes & Noble • 2PM • Asheville author Robert Beatty will sign copies of his bestselling novel, Serafina and the Black Cloak, during this special event that will also include Q&A time with the author, and free food and drink. “Serafina and the Black Cloak” is a spooky mystery-thriller from Disney Hyperion that tells the story of a brave and unusual 12-year-old girl who lives secretly in the basement of the Biltmore Estate during the 1890s. One night, she encounters a menacing stranger in a black cloak and finds herself in the middle of a mystery that only she can solve. • FREE Monday, Oct. 12 AN EVENING WITH BILL LANDRY • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 6PM • Join us for a very special
evening with Bill Landry telling stories about Little River and our smoky mountains. Tickets are on sale now. • $20 ROBERT B. CHURCH III MEMORIAL ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN LECTURE SERIES • University of Tennessee Art and Architecture Building • 5:30PM • Internationally recognized architects and designers will visit the University of Tennessee this year to talk about the latest ideas in the field during the Robert B. Church III Memorial Lecture Series. Oct. 12: Wendell Burnette will present “Dialogues in Space.” Founder of Wendell Burnette Architects, he is a professor of practice at the Design School at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts.• FREE GLOBAL SECURITY LECTURE: ‘SEARCHING FOR THE NUCLEAR SILK ROAD’ • Howard H. Baker Center for Public Policy • 5:30PM • Steve Sin is a senior researcher at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland. • FREE Tuesday, Oct. 13 KATE BROWN: “EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE SPECTACULAR WORLD OF THE ATOM” • East Tennessee History Center • 6PM •Brown, professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will explore the creation of the first two cities in the world to produce plutonium: Richland, Washington, and Ozersk, Russia. • FREE W.Y. ADAMS: “NUBIA IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE” • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 7:30PM • The East Tennessee Society of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and the McClung Museum present W.Y. Adams of University of Kentucky lecturing on “Nubia in Global Perspective.” • FREE Thursday, Oct. 15 THEODORE BROWN JR.: “ESTES KEFAUVER’S PERSONAL APPROACH TO POLITICS” • East Tennessee History Center • 12PM • Theodore Brown, Jr. will explore the sources of Kefauver’s approach to politics, the motivations behind his congressional investigations, and the methods he used in taking progressive positions on controversial public-policy issues. For more information on the lecture, exhibitions, or museum hours, call 865-215-8824 or visit the website at www.EastTNHistory.org. • FREE SAM VENABLE • University of Tennessee • 5:30PM • The Library Society of the University of Tennessee invites the public to spend an evening with Knoxville’s best-known jokester. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is requested at http://s.lib.utk.edu/ samvenable. • FREE Friday, Oct. 16 KENTUCKY POET LAUREATE GEORGE ELLA LYON • Carson-Newman University • 4PM • Part of the Carson-Newman University Appalachian Cultural Center’s 2015 lineup. • FREE
FAMILY AND KIDS’ EVENTS
Thursday, Oct. 8 BABY BOOKWORMS • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM • For infants to age 2, must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. • FREE CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 1PM • Middle and high school students (or any age) are invited to play chess. Tom Jobe coaches most Saturdays in the Teen Central area of the library. On one Saturday of every month, there will be a rated tournament at the
Open Chord®
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THURSDAY Oct. 08 • 8pm / FREE Brewhouse Blues Jam ( BLUES )
FRIDAY Oct. 09 7pm / $10
PROGTOBERFEST Maps Need Reading, Expeditions, Colors In Mind, Lines Taking Shape ( PROG-ROCK )
SATURDAY Oct. 10 • 8pm / $10
Forever Abbey Road: A Tribute to the Beatles BEATLES, BEATLES, BEATLES!!! ( ROCK )
SUNDAY Oct. 11 • 6pm / $12 | $15 Butcher Babies + More ( METAL )
8502 KINGSTON PIKE (865) 281-5874 openchordmusic.com
October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 37
CALENDAR Blount County Public Library. • FREE Friday, Oct. 9 SMART TOYS AND BOOKS ART CLASS • Smart Toys and Books • 10AM • Mommy, Daddy & Me Art Classes are every Friday at 10:00am & 11:00am. Reservations and payment are required in advance. Class fees are non-refundable. Ages 2+. • $10 Saturday, Oct. 10 CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 10AM • Middle and high school students (or any age) are invited to play chess. Tom Jobe coaches most Saturdays in the Teen Central area of the library. On one Saturday of every month, there will be a rated tournament at the Blount County Public Library. • FREE SATURDAY STORIES AND SONGS • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM • A weekly music and storytelling session for kids. • FREE GENTLE BARN TOUR • The Gentle Barn • 11AM • Come visit the second Gentle Barn, home to Dudley, Worthy, Indie and Chris. You will get to watch Gentle Barn rescue videos and shop at our gift store. KIDS IN ACTION! • Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge • 12:30PM • Exercise guru Leah Chance will lead games and learning activities about nutrition and health choices. There will also be a scavenger hunt. These classes are free with paid admission or museum membership. For more information visit http://childrensmuseumofoakridge. org/imagination-station-intersession-camps/ or call 482-1074. ANTI-BULLYING SEMINAR • Gracie Barra Jiujitsu • 9AM • Our coach, Samuel Braga, will be showing techniques that will help kids not only be able to defend themselves, but also build their self-confidence. • FREE KIDS IN ACTION! • Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge •
Thursday, Oct. 8 - Sunday, Oct. 18
10:30AM • Exercise guru Leah Chance will lead games and learning activities about nutrition and health choices. There will also be a scavenger hunt. These classes are free with paid admission or museum membership. For more information visit http://childrensmuseumofoakridge. org/imagination-station-intersession-camps/ or call 482-1074. CHILDREN’S STORY TIME • Union Ave Books • 11AM • FREE Sunday, Oct. 11 KMA ART ACTIVITY DAY • Knoxville Museum of Art • 1PM • Every second Sunday of each month, the KMA will host free drop-in art activities for families. A local artist will be on-site to lead hands-on art activities between 1pm and 4pm on the second Sunday of each month. • FREE Monday, Oct. 12 MUSICAL MORNINGS • Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge • 10AM • This activity is designed for toddlers and their caregivers. Children can explore tone, melody, and rhythm in an age-appropriate environment. Singing and dancing are encouraged. Musical Mornings also are free with paid admission or museum membership. http:// childrensmuseumofoakridge.org/musical-mornings/ SMART TOYS AND BOOKS STORYTIME • Smart Toys and Books • 11AM • Storytime with Miss Helen is every Monday at 11:00am. No charge. No reservations required. • FREE Tuesday, Oct. 13 TODDLERS’ PLAYTIME • Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge • 10AM • Toddlers’ Playtime is designed for children aged 4 and younger, accompanied by their parents, grandparents, or caregivers. Little ones have an opportunity to play with blocks, toy trains, and puppets; they can “cook” in the pretend kitchen, dig for dinosaurs, and look at books. The adults can socialize while the children play. Free with paid admission or museum membership. http://
THE PUBLIC CINEMA: THE MEND Scruffy City Hall (32 Market Square) • Wednesday, Oct. 14 • 8 p.m. • Free • publiccinema.org
The trailer for John Magary’s debut feature, The Mend, is guaranteed to provoke cringes—you’ll either sympathize with the charming deadbeat Mat (Josh Lucas), who crashes into the settled NYC life of his strait-laced brother, Alan (Stephen Plunkett), or the other way around. Either way, one of them’s going to drive you up the wall. But the sitcom setup promises more than uncomfortable gags; there are hints of real emotional violence and uneasy redemption in addition to its dry wit and comedy of anxiety. This screening is part of the Public Cinema’s ambitious series of recent films from around the world that would otherwise be difficult—or even impossible—to see in Knoxville, even in the streaming era. (Matthew Everett)
38
KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
childrensmuseumofoakridge.org/toddlers-playtime/ PRE-K READ AND PLAY • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM • Pre-K Read and Play is a pilot program specifically designed to prepare children to enter kindergarten. While the format of the program will still feel like a traditional storytime with books, music, and other educational activities, each weekly session will focus on a different standard from the Tennessee Department of Education’s Early Childhood/Early Learning Developmental Standards. • FREE CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY KID-TO-KID • Cancer Support Community • 3:30PM • Your children will gain coping skills and have opportunities to talk about a loved one’s cancer diagnosis while also having fun. Please call before your first visit and RSVP. 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer. EVENING STORYTIME • Lawson McGee Public Library • 6:30PM • An evening storytime at Lawson McGhee Children’s Room to include stories, music, and crafts. For toddlers and up. • FREE Wednesday, Oct. 14 BABY BOOKWORMS • Lawson McGee Public Library • 10:20AM • For infants to age 2, must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. • FREE PRESCHOOL STORYTIME • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM • For ages 3 to 5, must be accompanied by an adult. • FREE
CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS
Thursday, Oct. 8 AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • Church Street United Methodist Church • 9AM • Call (865) 382-5822. AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • Karns Senior Center • 11:30AM • Call (865) 382-5822. GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. PORTRAIT AND LIFE DRAWING PRACTICE SESSIONS • Historic Candoro Marble Company • 2PM • Life drawing practice session. Call Brad Selph for more information 865-573-0709. • $10 BACKPACKING BASICS II: WHAT’S IN YOUR PACK? • REI • 7PM • So you have your backpack loaded with all the necessary items for your next backpacking trip. Still think you might be carrying too much? Join REI for this small group session on how to cut weight and tailor your gear to best suit your needs. Registration required at www.rei. com/knoxville. • FREE BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance. com. • $12 Friday, Oct. 9 AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • Church Street United Methodist Church • 9AM • Call (865) 382-5822. AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • Karns Senior Center • 11:30AM • Call (865) 382-5822. YOGA AND QI-GONG BASICS • Shanti Yoga Haven • 6PM Saturday, Oct. 10 IMPROV COMEDY CLASS • The Birdhouse • 10AM • A weekly improv comedy class. • FREE BOOKBINDING DEMONSTRATIONS • Striped Light • 10AM • Knoxville Book Arts Guild will join the Gilded Leaf Bindery
to offer bookbinding demonstrations. • FREE UT ARBORETUM SOCIETY FALL WILDFLOWER WALK • University of Tennessee Arboretum (Oak Ridge) • 9:30AM • Kris Light, an expert naturalist, educator and photographer will lead this fun, educational and easy walk. To learn more about this event or the UT Arboretum Society, go to www.utarboretumsociety.org. For more information on the walk, call 483-3571. • FREE Sunday, Oct. 11 SERENITY YOGA • Illuminations Alternative and Holistic Health • 3:30PM • Call 985-788-5496 or email sandylarson@yahoo.com. • $15 MINDFULNESS TOO SERIES: CULTIVATING WELL-BEING • Cancer Support Community • 5PM • This mindfulness series will focus on the empirically validated findings from positive psychology, neuroscience and evolutionary biology that suggest that 40% of our felt sense of wellbeing can be enhanced by learning and engaging in simple habits and behavioral practices. It will explore exercises from both mindfulness and positive psychology which, if regularly practiced, increase our experience of happiness and other positive emotions. RSVP. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer. Monday, Oct. 12 AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • Blount County Courthouse • 9AM • Call (865) 382-5822. GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 5:30PM • Call 865-5772021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. TRACING YOUR ANCESTOR IN THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND • East Tennessee History Center • 6:30PM • Scottish Highland historian and genealogist Graeme Mackenzie will lead a two-hour workshop highlighting records and research tips to trace your Highland Scots ancestor. Mackenzie is the author of Genealogy in the Gaidhealtachd: Clan and Family History in the Highlands of Scotland and chair of the Association of Highland Clans and Societies. For more information on the program, exhibitions, or museum hours, call 865-215-8824 or visit the website at www.EastTNHistory. org. • FREE BIKE MAINTENANCE BASICS LEVEL 1 • REI • 7PM • Routine bike maintenance keeps you riding smoothly and prolongs the life of your bike. Join us for this introductory class to help you take care of your bike. Registration required at www.rei.com/knoxville. • FREE Tuesday, Oct. 13 AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • Blount County Courthouse • 9AM • Call (865) 382-5822. GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY NUTRITION AMMUNITION • Cancer Support Community • 12PM • Call 865- 546-4661 for more info. YOGA WITH SUBAGHJI • The Birdhouse • 5:15PM Wednesday, Oct. 14 FLOW AND GO YOGA • Illuminations Alternative and Holistic Health • 12:15PM • Call 985-788-5496 or email sandylarson@yahoo.com. • $10 RAYS OF HOPE: RADIATION THERAPY • Cancer Support Community • 6PM • Has radiation therapy been part of your treatment plan? Might it be in the future? If so, plan to attend this highly informative and hopeful program by Dr. Tamara Vern-Gross of Provision Proton Therapy Center.
Thursday, Oct. 8 - Sunday, Oct. 18
Dr. Vern-Gross is board certified in both radiation oncology and palliative medicine. She will provide a broad overview of radiation treatments, discuss ways to minimize side effects and late effects, as well as address quality of life through treatment and beyond. A light dinner will be provided. RSVP. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer. HOW TO USE TREKKING POLES • REI • 7PM • Thinking about purchasing a set of trekking poles for your next hike? Perhaps you already have a set but aren’t quite sure how to use them. Let the experts at the REI Outdoor School show you everything you’ll need to know to get in the swing of using poles for all your future adventures. Registration required at www.rei.com/knoxville. • FREE BELLY DANCING CLASS • Illuminations Alternative and Holistic Health • 7PM • Call 985-788-5496 or email sandylarson@yahoo.com. • $15
MEETINGS
Thursday, Oct. 8 OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS • Recovery at Cokesbury • 5:30PM • This is an OA Literature Meeting. After a short reading from a book, members may share their experience, strength and hope. • FREE ATHEISTS SOCIETY OF KNOXVILLE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 5:30PM • Weekly atheists meetup and happy hour. Come join us for food, drink and great conversation. Everyone welcome. • FREE CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY LEUKEMIA, LYMPHOMA, AND MYELOMA NETWORKER • Cancer Support Community • 6PM • This drop-in group is open for those with leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and myeloproliferative disorders and their support persons. Participants will be able to exchange information, discuss concerns and share experiences. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer. AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION AIR SAFETY MEETING • TAC-AIR • 7PM • The topic will be “Cross Country Challenge.” Friday, Oct. 9 PUBTALKS: FAITH AND SCIENCE • Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church • 7PM • Young adults in their 20’s and 30’s are invited to join others for an engaging, casual conversation on faith and science. Robin Zimmer, Ph.D., and a panel of experts, will unpack this topic and address common questions that often stump us. “How did we get here?” “When did we get here?” and “Why are we here?” How does the Bible answer those questions? How do science textbooks answer them? • FREE Saturday, Oct. 10 AL-ANON • Faith Lutheran Church • 11AM • Al-Anon’s purpose is to help families and friends of alcoholics recover from the effects of living with the problem drinking of a relative or friend. Visit our local website at farragutalanon.org or email us at FindHope@ Farragutalanon.org. • FREE CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY PROSTATE CANCER NETWORKER • Cancer Support Community • 10AM • This drop-in group is an opportunity for men to network with other men about their experiences with prostate cancer. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer. CAVETT STATION CHAPTER OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE
CALENDAR
AMERICAN REVOLUTION • Blount Mansion • 10:30AM • Knoxville historian Jack Neely will present a program on the Knoxville History Project. Women interested in proving lineal descent to a Patriot of the American Revolution are invited to visit. For more information, please contact cavettstation@tndar.org. • FREE Sunday, Oct. 11 SILENT MEDITATION SUNDAYS • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 11AM • For more information contact Mitzi Wood-Von Mizener at 865-497-3603 or community@narrowridge.org. • FREE Monday, Oct. 12 ASPERGER’S SUPPORT GROUP • Remedy Coffee • 6PM • Are you an adult with asperger’s and looking for others who have the same strengths and challenges in life? Come join us for a casual meetup every other Monday. Contact Saskia at (865) 247-0065 ext. 23. • FREE GAY MEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 7:30PM • We hold facilitated discussions on topics and issues relevant to local gay men in a safe and open environment. Visit gaygroupknoxville.org. Tuesday, Oct. 13 SCIENCE CAFE • Ijams Nature Center • 5:30PM • October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and in recognition the STFK Science Cafe will be meeting to discuss the disease and potential treatments. Our guest presenter for the adult discussion is Dr. Allen Meek from the Provision Proton Therapy Center in Knoxville. RSVP by calling Ijams Nature Center at (865) 577-4717 extension 110, or by sending an e-mail message to rsvp@knoxsciencecafe. org. • FREE HARVEY BROOME GROUP OF THE SIERRA CLUB • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 7PM • Kim Trevathan likes to use his kayak and canoe as tools for meditation and writing. When he wants to add a little more excitement to his adventures, he takes along his 90-pound German shepherd, Norm, who hates swimming but likes to sit in the bow of a canoe. His books are “Paddling the Tennessee River: A Voyage on Easy Water” (2001), “Coldhearted River: A Canoe Odyssey down the Cumberland (2006), and “Liminal Zones: Where Lakes End and Rivers Begin” (2013). • FREE KNOXVILLE CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE • Bearden Banquet Hall • 8PM • Terry Winschel , one of the foremost authorities on Vicksburg, author of a number of books and over 75 articles on the Civil War and after a 35 year career at the National Park Service will lecture on Vicksburg: Crucial to the Outcome of the Civil War. RSVP BY NOON Monday Oct.12 ,865-671-9001. • $5-$17 Wednesday, Oct. 14 COMITE POPULAR DE KNOXVILLE • The Birdhouse • 7PM • A weekly meeting of the local immigrant advocacy organization.
ETC.
Thursday, Oct. 8 NEW HARVEST PARK FARMERS MARKET • New Harvest Park • 3PM • The New Harvest Park Farmers Market will be open every Thursday through November from 3 to 6 p.m. The market features locally-grown produce, meats, artisan food products, plants, herbs, flowers, crafts and much more. • FREE THE DAILY TIMES COOKING SHOW AND EXPO • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 6PM • The Daily Times
brings back Chef Jon Ashton. • $14 KNOXVILLE SQUARE DANCE • Laurel Theater • 8PM • Jubilee Community Arts presents Knoxville Square Dance with live old-time music by The Helgramites and calling by Stan Sharp, Ruth Simmons and Leo Collins. No experience or partner is necessary and the atmosphere is casual. (No taps, please.) • $7 Friday, Oct. 9 LAKESHORE PARK FARMERS’ MARKET • Lakeshore Park • 3PM • FARM vendors will offer a wide variety of spring bedding plants, fresh produce, grass-fed and pasture-raised meats, artisan bread and cheese, local honey and fresh eggs. As the season goes on, they offer the freshest produce possible, including just-picked strawberries, peaches, sweet corn and heirloom tomatoes. • FREE UNION COUNTY FARMERS MARKET • Maynardville • 4PM • Fridays through October at 1009 Main St. Downtown Maynardville 4 to 7 pm. More info call Union Co. Extension Office at 865-992-8038. • FREE Saturday, Oct. 10 OAK RIDGE FARMERS’ MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 8AM • FARM vendors will offer a wide variety of spring bedding plants, fresh produce, grass-fed and pasture-raised meats, artisan bread and cheese, local honey and fresh eggs. As the season goes on, they offer the freshest produce possible, including just-picked strawberries, peaches, sweet corn and heirloom tomatoes. SEYMOUR FARMERS MARKET • Seymour First Baptist Church • 8AM • Home grown and home made produce, honey, baked goods, crafts and more. MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 9AM • The MSFM is a producer only market; everything is either made or grown by the vendor in our East Tennessee region. Products vary by the season and include ornamental plants, produce, dairy, eggs, honey, herbs, meat, baked goods, jams/jellies, coffee, & artisan crafts. • FREE Tuesday, Oct. 13 EBENEZER ROAD FARMERS’ MARKET • Ebenezer United Methodist Church • 3PM • FARM vendors will offer a wide variety of spring bedding plants, fresh produce, grass-fed and pasture-raised meats, artisan bread and cheese, local honey and fresh eggs. As the season goes on, they offer the freshest produce possible, including just-picked strawberries, peaches, sweet corn and heirloom tomatoes. • FREE
THE UT DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY PRESENTS
Everyday Life in the
Spectacular World of the
Atom SPEAKER:
KATE BROWN
Professor of History University of Maryland-Baltimore County
TUESDAY
Oct. 13, 2015, 6 p.m. EAST TENNESSEE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 601 S. Gay Street Knoxville, TN 37902 history.utk.edu
Patronize our advertisers!!! And tell them you saw their ad here in
Wednesday, Oct. 14 PAINTING WITH A TWIST HUMANE SOCIETY FUNDRAISER • Painting With a Twist • 7PM • Sip. Paint. Relax. Arrive 15-20 minutes early to get uncorked, smocked & in your seat. Call 865-253-7710. 18 and up. MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 9AM • The MSFM is a producer only market; everything is either made or grown by the vendor in our East Tennessee region. Products vary by the season and include ornamental plants, produce, dairy, eggs, honey, herbs, meat, baked goods, jams/jellies, coffee, & artisan crafts. • FREE
Send your events to calendar@knoxmercury.com
October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 39
OUTDOORS
Voice in the Wilder ness
Reeled In A walleye is finally caught, and a personal quest ends BY KIM TREVATHAN
F
or almost a year now, I’ve been paddling my kayak in pursuit of the East Tennessee walleye. I’ve heard people claim they’ve caught walleye—a pikeperch native of the upper Midwest—and I’d been given ample advice on when, where, and how to catch them. But after fishing through the winter, spring, and summer in places like Norris and Tellico lakes and the Douglas Dam tailwaters, I had not had so much as a glimpse of my Moby Dick—a smaller version with tiny, sharp teeth and delectable flesh. This summer I was on the verge of driving to Minnesota’s Rainy River, where my sister-in-law, Betsy, a native Minnesotan, guaranteed I’d catch one. But what was the challenge in that? Here in the South the walleye is exotic, primordial, and elusive. I wanted to see one and I wanted to possess it, if even for a short time. I began to focus on Fort Loudoun State Historic Area, on Tellico Lake. I’d caught other fish there—smallmouth, bream, catfish—and because
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I’d caught these other fish, I began to believe, without any hard evidence, that walleye had to be there as well. One Thursday evening I escaped from an overworked week in hopes of relaxing in the boat. I didn’t care if I caught a fish; I just needed to drift until sunset or beyond, away from the land and its troubles. In my exhaustion, I’d forgotten about my walleye obsession. I cast the spoon, a Little Cleo, over and over, soothed by repetition. Then something broke my line. I tied on my other spoon and thought I got hung. No, I had hooked something animate, something that wanted to stay at the bottom, in about 15 feet of water. He’d taken the hook as if he’d gulped it, a different approach than a bream or a bass, who strike with more precision and alacrity. His fight was intermittent. He would pause a few seconds and then dive. What I pulled from the water had tiny teeth and a fan-like dorsal fin. He was long and muscular, and as he lay on the floor of my boat between my
legs, he broke off the knot that held my lure. There was a drop or two of blood on the boat, mine and the walleye’s. After a couple of minutes, I extracted the treble hook and held him in the water to revive. He was off. I showed the photos on my phone to the park ranger. He did not know this fish. I sent the photos to Drew Crain, a biologist at Maryville College. His response was “Eat him!” then a follow-up text with a link to a Tennessee Wildlife Resources fish identification page: I had caught a walleye. I was thrilled, but I felt cheated because I had to be told what it was, and people kept asking me why I’d thrown back the best-tasting fish in the world. This drove me onward in my quest. I returned one blustery evening in search of Walleye II. I had my camera this time and my stringer. I didn’t know if I’d keep what I caught, but I was ready in case I decided to. There were severe thunderstorm warnings a couple of counties over, and the wind in Monroe County was
gusting to 20-25 miles an hour. Fort Loudoun, sitting on a knoll, provided shelter for me in the lee of the west wind. It raged through the tree tops but left the water calm. After 10 minutes of fishing, I snagged a sycamore and lost my first lure, which hung like an ornament from a twig 20 feet above me. This incident not only underscored my skill level as a fisherman, but it also made me skeptical of receiving the kind of blind luck that my fishing success depends upon. I decided to give it a half hour and then go home. Five minutes later, I snagged what felt like a tree limb on the bottom, 15 feet from shore. After a few turns of the reel, I could see this oblong pale form emerging from the depths, twice as long as Walleye I. The fight was far from over. He’d lie in the water still like a log, and as soon as I turned the reel, he’d dive for the bottom. He went under the boat. He pulled me toward shore for a bit. At the edge of the boat when I reached down for him (no net!), he thrashed and soaked me from the chest down. In the boat, on the floor between my legs, a foot and half of fury banged against the plastic. As I unhooked the lure, he opened and closed his tooth-filled mouth. It was humbling to find out later that the world-record walleye was 25 pounds, caught in Tennessee at Old Hickory Reservoir, and my Walleye II was around five pounds, I’m guessing. TWRA also points out that 60,000 of
OUTDOORS
Cleaning Walleye II also connected me to my father, who taught me everything I know about fishing. It brought back to me the things that he did so well.
them were stocked in Tellico as recently as 2013, and “walleye in the 10-pound range are not uncommon.” At the time, though, I was shaky with excitement and exertion, and I put him on the stringer and towed him to the shore, deliberating briefly on whether I would let him go. I hadn’t cleaned a fish in years. I heard Drew’s voice: “Eat him!” What to do with Walleye II? Catching a fish is a way to feel the wilderness pulsing in your hand, and to get bitten or fi nned or to hook yourself creates healthy empathy. Harvesting and cleaning a fish extends that connection. You see the insides and maybe you get fi nned some more. You remove the flesh as cleanly as you can and you wash off the blood to ready it for the skillet, a much different sensation than plucking the “wild-caught” package of frozen salmon from the grocery store freezer and tossing it into a shopping cart, a process I have perfected. Cleaning Walleye II also connect-
ed me to my father, who taught me everything I know about fishing. He would have been proud that I completed the entire cycle that he showed me and coached me through over and over. It brought back to me the things that he did so well. And as the smell on my hands lingered after repeated washings, as it had on his, I was glad to be reminded of where I’d come from. Walleye II was as tasty as advertised, and I had thanked him repeatedly, on the stringer and in the plate, for giving me closure in my quest. Still, the glassy black eye followed me into an uneasy sleep, my reflection in this eye an accusation, a witnessing of sorts. I remembered the fish alive and then not. At 4 a.m. I took an antacid and considered the next quest: mushrooms, ginseng, wild ginger, something without a face. ◆ Meet Kim Trevathan in the flesh! He’ll be speaking about “Transformative Places” at a meeting of the Harvey Broome Group of the Sierra Club, Oct. 13 at 7 p.m., at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church (2931 Kingston Pike). October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 41
FOOD
Home Palate
Photos by Shawn Poynter
Sweet Story An appreciation for that booth with all the cookies at the farmers’ market, VG’s Bakery BY DENNIS PERKINS
I
t’s early on a Wednesday morning at the Market Square Farmers’ Market—there are a few vendors managing warm cups of coffee while setting up booths for the day’s business. But at the center of the Square there’s a trickle of customers visiting one stall that’s already up and running. The neatly stacked white boxes are the tell-tale sign that it’s VG’s Bakery that’s attracting all the early attention; and that’s how most Wednesday mornings on Market Square commence during market season. Dave Gwin, who co-founded VG’s with his wife Vanessa, arrives early to set up his pair of tents; his son-in-law, Mason, arrives shortly thereafter with the boxes full of tender and freshly baked goodies that draw early visitors. There are a handful of excellent breakfast restaurants around downtown, but for many, the best way to wake up is by grabbing a cinnamon roll, a blueberry scone, or even a
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whole loaf of sweetly glazed and cinnamon laced pull-apart bread at VG’s. If you add a cup of coffee, you may very well feel like you’ve dined in the fashion of Madison Avenue’s corporate warriors. But I can promise you that, generally speaking, they
won’t find much better quality than what awaits you in any one of VG’s white boxes. And the good news is that access to this breakfast of champions isn’t limited to downtown; you’ll find VG’s at various farmers’ markets all around the city as well as at their bakery in the Kohl’s shopping center in Farragut. Of course, VG’s makes a variety of baked goods, from cookies to cornbread. And they’re made by the work of human hands. Gwin laughs a bit when asked about words like hand-crafted and artisan when it comes to mass-produced products: “When you’re pumping it out of a machine and it never touches human hands, I lose a little of [the sense] of artisan. I saw a commercial for Firestone the other day where they used the word handcrafted … handcrafted tire service?” Gwin recalls that at the beginning, he and Vanessa were “amazed at the bakeries that were around when we started our bakery—they didn’t bake anything from scratch.” Early on, VG’s was offered the opportunity to sell typical grocery store birthday cakes that arrived frozen and complete with frosting: “A vendor that we bought flour from asked why we didn’t sell decorated cakes. We told him we didn’t have time to do that. He said, ‘I’m gonna ship you a case,’ but they weren’t ours. So we just had a party with the shopping center…. But my point being that I wouldn’t have known that they [the grocery stores
I can promise you that, generally speaking, they won’t find much better quality than what awaits you in any one of VG’s white boxes.
selling similar cakes] weren’t making all their stuff.” Despite the fact that VG’s business has grown tremendously during the ensuing years, the product remains as handmade, good, and decadent as ever. Although sweets, particularly cookies, are their most popular offerings, VG’s sells a limited selection of breads, including an English Muffin bread. It’s a spongy loaf with an open-textured crumb that’s quite nice for toasting—like an English Muffin, it drinks up butter and jam with glorious indulgence. My personal favorites from the sweet selections include a wild-blueberry hand pie that bursts with blueberries and is topped with a powdered sugar glaze that clings perfectly to the pastry. While I’m generally nonchalant about cookies, VG’s Nutter Butter sandwich cookie is an exception; two peanut butter oatmeal cookies surround a luscious peanut butter crème that surpasses its namesake by leaps and bounds and size—it’s a big bite. That’s also true of the very rich chocolate raspberry oat bar. I’m pretty sure it has more chocolate ganache than anyone should eat in a single serving. VG’s doesn’t skimp on indulgence, that’s for certain. But I suspect that any one of the regulars who practically race to grab their morning favorites will tell you that gratification of this nature isn’t really an indulgence at breakfast. It’s just an efficient way to get a sweet start on the day. ◆
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DRINK
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Drinking for Sustainability Scenes from a Green Drinks Knoxville event BY ROSE KENNEDY
Y
ou can get in a really good conversation about beer, Pond Gap elementary school’s community garden, the Bugfest at University of Tennessee, dog breeds, and nuclear energy at the Tennessee Valley Authority. Or, you can just sit in an Adirondack chair outside River Sports Outfitters on Sutherland Avenue and sip a draft from a cool energy-company swag cup that turns from green to blue when the cool suds hit it. I did all of the above at the September monthly meeting of Green Drinks Knoxville, a social gathering of people interested in environmental issues of any kind that happens usually on the second or third Tuesday of a month, promptly at 5:30 p.m. It was a couple of hours of enjoyable nattering, and I’m a little embarrassed to admit that it’s been going on like this entirely without my
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support or knowledge for a couple of years now. The organizers parlay with a spot to contain the meeting, and hopefully offer a bit of a discount on beverages to Green Drinkers. Then at the appointed time, fresh-faced greenies of many ages and almost every description descend. This meeting had lots of Americorps volunteers, a dignified beer hound named Blue, an academic from UT’s Environmental Science department, a TVA exec, a social worker originally from New York, and a lady who once lived at a Girl Scout camp. But it could have been anyone interested in the environment and sustainability, says one of the lead organizers, Robin Russell, who works for a small company that delivers turnkey, clean, and renewable energy solutions. “Not everybody drinks when they
come—we’re not really a drinking organization,” she says. “We’re more of a environmental, social, and professional network that meets at Happy Hour. A lot of the folks who come have professions where environmental work is connected to what they do for a living, but many just share our interest in sustainability.” For me, it was an awesome hodgepodge of friendly—but not extroverted—people to chat and exchange cards with. I guess this is called networking? Before I left I had discussed the wonders of one of the beers on tap—Fanatic Brewing Company’s Tennessee Blonde—with the River Sports employee helping dispense beer. We agreed that it was smooth and yet robust, a worthy effort from one of my favorite brewmasters, Marty Velas, now starting his own company after a successful career with Smoky Mountain Brewery. I also learned more about the rooftop gardening on Market Square, and what some community farms are up to, and got a card so I could follow up on the big-game dinner that UT is somehow involved in come February. There were no hard sells, just lots of good conversation. Russell, who has been part of Green Drinks in other cities for about 15 years, notes that the Knoxville chapter does invite special guests for most meetings, and they might say a few organized words. Next meeting, for example, will host Patience Melnick, the new executive director of Keep Knoxville Beautiful. There are also a couple of meetings a year, like the one I attended, that don’t have a set topic.
One of the most popular, Russell says, was April’s gig at Armada Craft Cocktail Bar in the Old city, when its creative director Zachary Calfee taught the group how to make green cocktails using fresh, locally-sourced ingredients, on a budget. “The drinks were even visually green,” Russell says, “because I’m corny like that. We all sat around the bar and he walked us through the process, doing his own infusions, using mint from local farms. Everyone raved about that concept and I’m sure we’ll do it again.” This evening I went to, though, the most formal we got was going around introducing ourselves and sharing the most unusual food we’d ever eaten. Honestly, I’m not much good at remembering names from verbal introductions, and this was no exception. But I remember these foods: dog (sorry, Blue), spoonbread, baked crickets, suet, nettles, potted meat. Plus tripe, bison, ostrich. And, um, Spam and pineapple loaf. Some of the younger participants had never heard of it. I filled them in, feeling like I was finally earning my keep as a “networker.” If Patience Melnik is going to try to top that entertainment, she has her work cut out for her. ◆ The next Green Drinks social networking event is Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 5:30 p.m. at Alliance Brewing Company (1130 Sevier Ave.) with special guest Patience Melnik, the new executive director of Keep Knoxville Beautiful. Sign up for more information about Green Drinks Knoxville’s coming events, including a special Oct. 27 event, and receive notifications: eepurl.com/zbQ8z
For me, it was an awesome hodgepodge of friendly—but not extroverted— people to chat and exchange cards with. I guess this is called networking?
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 45
’BYE
Spir it of the Staircase
BY MATTHEW FOLTZ-GRAY
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KNOXVILLE MERCURY October 8, 2015
R estless Nat ive
Lessons on the Trail Scaling new heights with Troop 15 BY CHRIS WOHLWEND
T
roop 15, Boy Scouts of America, met on Thursday nights at Kirkwood Presbyterian Church, on McCalla Avenue in Burlington. The church building was small, but there was an adequate meeting room in the basement, and more importantly, a grassy back area perfect for games of “Pitch Up and Smear.” I can’t remember the objective of the game but it involved a football that was thrown into the air, with everyone scrambling to catch it. The lucky Scout was then susceptible to a “smearing” by the others unless he could get the ball to someone else. There must have been some kind of scoring system. Understandably, not everyone present wanted to participate. Most of us were veterans of such neighborhood “games.” But one of the kids, who was not a Burlington resident, expressed an intellectual skepticism to the game’s “point.” His name was Richard and his dad would drop him off for the meetings. He lived in Park City, the next neighborhood to the west. Afterward, we gathered in the church’s meeting room, with the scoutmaster, Jimmy Coppock, presiding. The church might have been modest, but thanks to Mr. Coppock, the troop enjoyed a certain prestige in the Great Smoky Mountain Council of the Scouts. Mr. Coppock, a postman by day, was a longtime fixture with the organization and holder of a Silver Beaver Award, one of Scouting’s top honors. Though the meeting place was Presbyterian, the troop membership reflected the community, drawing from McCalla Avenue Baptist, across the street, from Burlington Methodist,
a couple of blocks away, and from other churches in the area. The troop shared ownership with another troop of a cabin on Chilhowee Mountain in the Smokies. The cabin—one long room with a porch that ran its entire length—was equipped with rustic bunk beds, a fireplace, and a wood-burning cook stove. A spring just above it on the mountain provided water. During warm weather we would spend three or four weekends there. At that time, the late 1950s, that part of the mountain was serviced by a barely usable dirt road. At one point in the 1920s, we were told, on the Knoxville side of the peak, there had been a resort hotel called Dupont Springs. Sometimes we would hike up there and scout around its remains. Our cabin was on the side facing Sevierville, about two-thirds of the way to the top. It was well off the dirt road, barely visible in the winter when the trees were bare. There was only one other usable cabin in the area, owned by the couple who had donated the land for the Scout facility. The road, most of the time, was passable by car or truck, but we always hiked up, complaining most of the way, badgering Mr. Coppock with distance questions. No matter how many miles remained, his stock answer became a running joke. When asked how much farther, he always said: “Mile, mile and a half, 2 miles.” Sometimes, those of us who were more experienced, who had his trust, would be allowed to hike up a creek, scrambling through the woods in an attempt to get to the cabin ahead of those using the road. Once, on a dare, Ray Merritt and I toted a watermelon,
along with our usual gear, the entire 3 and 1/2 miles up the road. Mr. Coppock saw to it that we shared the melon with the others even though we pointed out that none of them had volunteered to help carry it. Later, I figured out that I could lighten my load by simplifying my diet. The only food I carried was a package or two of wieners, a loaf of bread, and a jar of mustard. No cooking pans, no eating utensils. All I needed was a sharpened stick and a fire to make my hot dogs, which I ate for every meal. Mr. Coppock told me that though my thought process was admirable, I was a bad example for the younger boys. But Mr. Coppock’s greatest lesson to us came about when the question of religion arose on one of the trips. I don’t remember how it began, but someone started talking about the difference between being a Baptist and
’BYE
being a Methodist or Presbyterian. Obviously, being dipped under the water was scarier than being sprinkled, so Baptist was a tougher religion. Or something like that. Richard wasn’t participating in the argument, and someone finally asked him what religion he was. He simply said he wasn’t any of those. One of the kids pressed him, and Mr. Coppock then stepped in, explaining that Richard was Jewish and what that meant. As I remember, there were a couple of shrugs and that was the end of it. We all took pride in the fact that Troop 15 had its own cabin in the mountains—something that most other troops did not have. But now, at least for a few of us, we had something else that set us apart, that made us even cooler: We had a Jewish member. ◆
BY IAN BLACKBURN AND JACK NEELY
October 8, 2015
KNOXVILLE MERCURY 47
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