Issue 36 - November 12, 2015

NOV. 12, 2015 KNOXMERCURY.COM

KNOXVILLE’S WEEKLY BIG DIG

1 / N.36

V.

moving mountains How Knox’s controversial guidelines for ridgetop development are being put to use—and when they’re not.

NEWS

How the City’s $9 Million Deal With Regal Came Together

JACK NEELY

Tracking the Evolution of Our Streets, Avenues, and Drives

COMEDY

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY CLAY DUDA

Chris Trew’s Weird Wit Highlights the Scruffy City Comedy Festival

FOOD

A Tour of Babalu Tacos & Tapas’ Build-Out at the J.C. Penney Building

William Hastie, 1904-1976 The William Hastie Natural Area, part of the Knoxville Urban Wilderness, is named for a federal judge who pioneered civil rights and was arguably America’s first black governor. He was born in Knoxville 111 years ago on Nov. 17. high post was controversial and drew public criticism, and not just in the segregated South.

When Hastie was born, his family was living in the Mechanicsville neighborhood. Both of his parents were college-educated. His father, William Hastie, was a clerk for the U.S. Pension Agency, which was located in Custom House, the building now known as the East Tennessee History Center. His mother, Roberta Hastie, was a schoolteacher who sometimes worked for Knoxville College.

Hastie later served as dean of the law school at Howard University in Washington, and during World War II as an aide to Secretary of War Henry Stimson. He resigned when he was dissatisfied with the pace of desegregation of the armed forces.

His effective outspokenness for fairness became the subject of books including one called He, Too, Spoke for Democracy (1988) by University of North Carolina Professor Phillip McGuire.

When the son was still a baby, they moved just out of town, to Woodlawn Pike in South Knoxville. It was a green, rural place, considered so remote that it was sometimes known as “South America.”

In 1904, Knoxville had a relatively good reputation for relations between the races.

Blacks were on City Council and in county government, and served as firemen and policemen. Some blacks owned businesses, and even became wealthy. And there were a few black attorneys, including William Yardley (1844-1924) who had served as alderman and justice of the peace. Yardley was active and well-known as a defense attorney during Hastie’s childhood.

In 1946, President Harry Truman appointed the Knoxville native governor of U.S. Virgin Islands. Those Caribbean islands had been a U.S. territory since the Wilson administration purchased them from Denmark, for defensive purposes, during World War I. Judge William Hastie, during World War II. He’s wearing a U.S. Army identification badge, because at the time he was working as an aide to U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stimson.

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org/wiki/William_H._Hastie

No black had ever been governor of a U.S. territory before. In fact, except for P.B.S. Pinchback, a mixed-race politician who was governor of Louisiana for about two weeks during Reconstruction, Hastie was the first black governor of a U.S. state or territory.

Hastie attended public schools in Knoxville, and was reportedly a smart and hard-working student. During his youth, blacks participated in three major expositions at Chilhowee Park, and established their own “Negro Pavilion” there to demonstrate black achievements in the region.

He was familiar with the Virgin Islands and its government from his time as a federal judge there. He served as governor for three years.

However, as a result of statewide Jim Crow laws, the races were becoming more segregated. During Hastie’s boyhood, black representation in both city and county government gradually declined.

He left that post when Harry Truman appointed him to the U.S. Court of Appeals. His appointment was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 1950. No black judge had ever been appointed to such a high office. Hastie held the office for 21 years, and during that time was sometimes mentioned as a nominee for the Supreme Court.

The Hasties lived in South Knoxville until about 1917, when 12-year-old William’s father was transferred to the Pension Agency in Washington, D.C., and the family moved with him.

Young William continued to excel in school and graduated from Washington’s Dunbar High at age 16. He attended Amherst University in Massachusetts. He later earned two degress from Harvard Law School, and began working as an attorney for the U.S. Department of the Interior.

In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt appointed him federal district judge for the Virgin Islands. The appointment of a black attorney to such a

He died in Philadelphia in 1976, at age 71.

Mayor Victor Ashe honored the late judge with Hastie Park, established by that name in 2002, not far from where Hastie had spent most of his childhood. It was a remote place, rarely visited until it became part of the Urban Wilderness, and mountain-biking and hiking trail known as the South Loop. Today the William Hastie Natural Area features four miles of walking and bicycling trails. It’s accessible by foot from Ijams Nature Center or by car from Margaret Road, off Sevierville Pike.

Source: The Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection.

The Knoxville History Project, a new nonprofit organization devoted to the promotion of and education about the history of Knoxville, presents this page each week to raise awareness of the themes, personalities, and stories of our unique city.

Learn more on www.facebook.com/knoxvillehistoryproject • email jack@knoxhistoryproject.org 2

KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

Nov. 12, 2015 Volume 01 / Issue 36 knoxmercury.com

CONTENTS

“ The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.” —Norman Vincent Peale

16 Moving Mountains

COVER STORY

Four years ago—after much struggle and controversy—the Hillside and Ridgetop Protection Plan was adopted by Knoxville City Council and Knox County Commission. Its guidelines for developers are intended to protect not only the area’s scenic beauty but also avoid soil erosion and runoff. So how has it been implemented since then? Intermittently, as Clay Duda has found. There are big difference between how the city and county view—and follow—the plan.

NEWS

12 The Price of Fame

14 Ball Camp Walmart Project Dead

One of Knoxville’s biggest companies—Regal Entertainment Group—was recently offered a sweetheart deal by the city, county, and state totaling $12 million to move its headquarters to South Knoxville’s waterfront. How did the deal come about? Clay Duda examines email exchanges between the city and Regal executives.

Knox County has withdrawn its controversial request to rezone a portion of Nicholas Ball Park to make way for a grocery store, widely discussed as a Walmart Neighborhood Market, S. Heather Duncan reports.

DEPARTMENTS

OPINION

A&E

4 Letters 6 Howdy

8 The Scruffy Citizen

22 Program Notes: Get ready for

Start Here: Roadside Sketches

by Andrew Gresham, Believe It or Knox!, Public Affairs, Quote Factory

46 ’Bye

Finish There: At This Point by Stephanie Piper, Crooked Street Crossword by Ian Blackburn and Jack Neely, Spirit of the Staircase by Matthew Foltz-Gray

Jack Neely gets some help in tracking down Nina Simone’s game day performance at UT.

10 Guest Ed.

Guest columnist Catherine Landis views William Faulkner’s The Unvanquished as a cautionary tale.

CALENDAR Rhinos! and the Third Man Rolling Record Store.

23 Shelf Life: Chris Barrett shares

interesting new acquisitions at the public library.

24 Comedy: Mike Gibson appreciates Chris Trew’s weird humor at the Scruffy City Comedy Festival.

25 Classical Music: Alan Sherrod

28 Spotlights: Pinkney Herbert’s

Distilled: The Narrative Transformed, Kill, the David Wax Museum

FOOD & DRINK

42 Restaurant News

Dennis Perkins gets a tour of Babalu Tacos & Tapas’ build-out at the J.C. Penney Building downtown.

previews UT Opera’s The Consul and a new string quartet.

26 Art: Rose Kennedy talks with Will Johnson’s show of Knox County Warriors.

27 Movies: April Snellings finds herself attracted to the Bond porn of Spectre.

November 12, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 3

LETTERS Delivering Fine Journalism Since 2015

LEASER, NOT OWNER

Your Oct. 29 Architecture Matters column misstated First Tennessee Bank’s responsibility for the former Hamilton National Bank building, accusing the bank of “silently” disposing of an important piece of architecture by selling it to an “out-of-town” developer. Here are the facts: First Tennessee did not own the Hamilton building. We leased the space. Our landlord sold the property to a developer who wanted to redevelop the property. We do plan to lease space in the new center, but we had no control over the redevelopment plans. We are a tenant in the center with a lease that is expiring.

The article rightly notes the support First Tennessee has given to the Knoxville community, but says that our “divestiture” of the building is like cutting funding for the arts. This is unfair and untrue. First Tennessee and the First Tennessee Foundation have long supported this community, both financially and through our employee volunteer efforts.

Pam Fansler East Region President First Tennessee

CORRECTION

In our Oct. 29, 2015, print edition of Architecture Matters by George Dodds, First Tennessee Bank was identified as the owner of the former Hamilton National Bank building. However, FTB had been leasing the building when the company vacated it. The online version of the column has been corrected.

VANISHED ELEGANCE

I am grateful that George Dodds has warned me of the demise of the First Tennessee (originally Hamilton National) Bank building at Western Plaza. For years my eye has been drawn to that building as I travel past it. Its sheer understated immaculate grace was unequaled by any other building in the Knoxville area, as far as I know. I very much regret never having seen the interior.

What a shame it is to lose this 4

KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

serene little treasure! Finding its place empty next time I am in the neighborhood will be sad, albeit less of a shock.

Nick Wyman Knoxville

MYSTIFYINGLY EGREGIOUS

I’m horrified that a local reporter didn’t already know enough about [the] mayor to understand from [the] start [the] absurdity of [an] unsubstantiated, anonymous allegation. [“Hacker Accuses Knoxville Mayor Rogero of KKK Ties,” online story by Clay Duda, Nov. 2, 2015] Either way, you had responsibility to spend the five minutes or less it would have taken to establish that it couldn’t be true. Instead, you circulated [a] lie along with [the] less compelling portion of her denial.

It is possible that Klan [members] could have [a] family relationship to persons of color—not under their control, could be generally known, so even the telling of it might not exclude possibility. But activism on behalf of young men of color, LGBT rights, and farmworkers (alongside Cesar Chavez!) is quite conclusive (and was easily verifiable, if you didn’t understand that KKK members would never make those particular things up).

Yet you included, as others have noted, [the] anonymous liar’s ungrammatical claims re due diligence (which quickly scanned—all you’ll usually get in A.D.D. era—may tend to bolster libelous allegation) and pointed explanation re KKK secrecy.

Why would you print anonymous unverifiable lies but not the verifiable facts that discredit the lies? I would understand (but NOT EXCUSE) it had your mayor been a Republican of the variety that’s become all too common, with a history of racist statements and anti-civil-rights policies. That would also be sloppy, wrong, and damaging to your credibility. But one could at least understand how it happened.

This is mystifyingly egregious.

Fritzi Ross via Facebook Carrboro, N.C.

ED. NOTE

For the record, I do not believe Mayor Rogero has ties to the KKK, or any other such organization. The news brief was written in a straightforward manner simply because we do not editorialize in such articles. The allegations were certainly vague, rendering them difficult to “fact-check,” per se—but the mayor did an able job of pointing out their absurdity in her response. Meanwhile, we did update the story to include more of Rogero’s background, which should help to clarify the unlikeliness of her membership in such a group. Should we have not covered such silliness in the first place? It made headlines in most national media, which (to me) made the “controversy” worth noting locally, if not exactly deserving a full-fledged investigation.

—Coury Turczyn, ed.

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 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 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

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

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

John Hardy and Naga Collection are Registered Trademarks.

Did you get your copy ?

You can still pick up a print copy of our Top Knox Readers’ Poll at any Knox County Public Library branch, while supplies last!

And you can always find out who are Knoxville’s favorites at: knoxmercury.com/ topknox2015

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10/28/15 MERCURY 12:12 PM5 November 12, 2015 KNOXVILLE

Illustration by Ben Adams

HOWDY

Believe It or Knox!

BY Z. HERACLITUS KNOX

Roadside Sketches by Andrew Gresham (agreshamphoto.com)

QUOTE FACTORY “ To be frank, sheriff, that’s not the motion I’m looking for right now.”

Secretary of War Henry Knox resigned from public life at age 45, just four years after the city of Knoxville was named for him. He moved to Maine, where he had a reputation as a sometimes unscrupulous real-estate speculator.

He never visited Tennessee!

Karate legend Bruce Lee visited Knoxville in 1969 to choreograph fight scenes between mountain men in the Ingrid Bergman/Anthony Quinn movie A Walk in the Spring Rain!

Knoxville Mayor Samuel Bell, who served two non-consecutive terms in the 1840s, is better known among antiques dealers across the nation as a metal craftsman! His Bowie knives and silver implements are much prized by collectors today.

—Knox County E-911 Board of Directors Chairwoman Linda Murawski, responding in a Monday meeting to Knox County Sheriff Jimmy “J.J.” Jones’ motion for the board to vote to ignore their radio consultant’s recommendation for a new 911 system. Ultimately, the board could not agree on a choice between the recommended Harris Corp. or Jones’ preferred option of joining the Tennessee Valley Regional Communications System. So, we’re still stuck with 30-year-old system.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS

11/12 MEETING: NORTH CENTRAL STREETSCAPES THURSDAY

5:30 p.m., All Occasion Catering (922 N. Central St.).

Free.

The resurgent North Central Street is due for a $3.3 million infrastructure upgrade between Magnolia and Woodland avenues. Work starts this spring and continues through 2017. What’s the new “linear park” all about, and what else is in store? Find out at this public meeting with city officials.

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

11/13 GOETHE FESTIVAL FRIDAY

9:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m., various locations on UT campus. Free.

Yes, you can bet your ass Knoxville has a festival devoted to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe! UT’s Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures is hosting this two-day extravaganza celebrating the German literary figure (1749-1832). It kicks off with a screening of Fack ju Göhte on Thursday night and continues Saturday with panel discussions and a keynote address, “Goethe and the Anthropocene.” Info: mfll.utk.edu/goethe.

11/14 KPG PERMABLITZ

SATURDAY

10 a.m., Hope Central (1944 Woodbine Ave.). Free.

Let’s permablitz! What’s that, you ask? It a call to action by the Knoxville Permaculture Guild to learn some practical permaculture skills while beautifying a deserving area. You can pitch in by digging swales, planting fruit trees and bushes, and spreading mulch.

Info: knoxvillepermaculture.net.

11/19 LANDLORD SUMMIT THURSDAY

8 a.m.-noon, O’Connor Senior Center (611 Winona St.). Free.

Become a more informed, energy efficient landlord at this city-sponsored informational meeting. You can learn about everything from weatherization and lead testing to Section 8 rental assistance and affordable housing for veterans. Info: Michael Dunthorn at mdunthorn@knoxvilletn.gov.

Thank you Knoxville for voting McGaha Electric Co. Top Knox Electrician.

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Contact us and find out why Knoxville voted us Top Knox!

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 7

SCRUFFY CITIZEN

The Etymology of Pavement Our streets, avenues, pikes, and drives, and a plea for truth in advertising

BY JACK NEELY

P

eople who grew up knowing Central Avenue are just now getting used to calling it Central Street, as their great-grandparents did. It makes sense, by the pattern we’ve set up.

But we’ve complicated things, and, as is often the case, I got curious about the etymology of pavement.

In the early days, everything paved or rutted was either a street or a road, and the difference was pretty simple. Streets were short and in town, usually in a tight grid. Roads were long, usually more than a mile, anyway, and in the country. Parts of England are still more or less like that. But America got bored with the monotony of streets and roads, and started throwing in lots of other terms, some from other languages, some reflecting new technology.

Eventually, avenues were differentiated as streets that ran in a certain direction. In central Knoxville, avenues mostly go east to west. The French word Avenue is pretty interesting, in that it wasn’t often used in America before the Civil War. It originally indicated a long or broad street, like a boulevard, but eventually just became standard as a street that was perpendicular to other streets that are called “Streets.” In downtown Knoxville, some “Avenues,” notably Clinch and Cumberland, are indeed

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

longer than any “Streets”—that is, with the exception of Central Street, which has often been called Central Avenue, and has a pretty confusing history all around.

That Street vs. Avenue distinction wasn’t obvious in Knoxville until the late 1800s. It was inspired, as many things were in those days, in imitation of New York’s pattern. It seemed to start almost as soon as New York became easily accessible by train.

After 1858, and the completion of the East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad, many affluent Knoxvillians, including a goodly portion of those who made command decisions for the growing city, were familiar with Manhattan. A few prominent locals, like Max Arnstein, were former New Yorkers.

Many more, from Charles McClung McGhee to Lloyd Branson, spent so much time in Manhattan it was practically a second home.

Some roads were called “Pikes.”

As newcomers from other parts of the country sometimes remark, Knoxville has lots of pikes, perhaps more than most cities of the English-speaking world. It’s almost as if God just spilled a whole box of them right here. Many, perhaps most of them, were once toll roads, governed by a turnpike, or turnstile that let wagons through as they paid a toll. It makes sense, to me, to pay as you go. The word “Pike”

enjoyed its greatest vogue in the late 19th century, when we had even more pikes than we do now.

We still call about a dozen of them pikes, even in this era, when even conservatives accept the fact that our roads are paid for by taxpayers.

Lots of streets we drive on are called “Drives.” Maybe the word was chosen to indicate a pleasant road for driving on, paved and with few stops.

It first became popular in street naming in the 1920s and ’30s, and perhaps peaked in the 1950s, when Neyland Drive came through. But the word was introduced as a proper noun here early, as automobiles were just becoming popular among the middle class. In 1913, when the city joined two old east-side streets, Coleman and East Front, they called the result Riverside Drive.

Boulevards came in right after. I think Knoxville’s first “Boulevard” was North Knoxville’s Emoriland, in 1924, with Cherokee hot on its heels.

They both seem like boulevards, by the international understanding of the term: broad, landscaped avenues with a median. Knoxville got so nutty about boulevards for a while that by the late ‘20s, even some ordinary short streets, like Forest Hills, later Forest Park, were called “Boulevards,” too. No law against it. Even if there should be.

The term “Parkway” was coined to suggest a vista of some sort. In some parts of the country, a parkway is by definition a scenic boulevard that excludes commercial vehicles like trucks. Pellissippi Parkway was first developed in the 1970s, as a very practical connection between Oak Ridge, I-40, and Alcoa Highway. It accommodates lots and lots of trucks. But you can’t deny the charm of alliteration.

Of course, we like to use the word “park.” What park is Parkside Drive

on the side of? There are thousands of visible places to park. Maybe that’s it.

Garrison Keillor once remarked that we name our developments for what we destroyed to build them. That practice should get the same respect as any other kind of false advertising.

Maybe we should pass an ordinance calling for honesty in street naming. Big Plastic Signage Avenue.

Obsessive Texters’ Highway. Diminished Sex Drive.

Much better, I think, would be to first offer communities a chance to redeem our street names by installing the appealing-sounding features they’ve always advertised. Put a park along the side of Parkside Drive, and along Pellissippi Parkway. Put some walnuts on Walnut Street, some locusts on Locust. If you have a “Glen” or a “Meadow” or a “Brook” in your street name, be sure you’ve got one.

Put a forest on Forest Park Boulevard. And a park, and, if feasible, a boulevard.

There’s a suburban cul-de-sac off Westland Drive called Poet’s Corner Way. How many poets live there?

Beats me, I’m just asking. But if we’re going to call it that, we need a reason.

Of course, in London, Poet’s Corner is a place where poets are buried. That would work, too. But if there are no poets at all, living or dead, in Poet’s Corner, you have to wonder what’s going on there.

I’m not sure whether retrofitting to justify a name is a new idea.

Magnolia Avenue was named for a long-lived widow named Magnolia Branner, who lived there more than a century ago. They weren’t even thinking about the tree. But names sometimes carry the power of suggestion, even without legislation encouraging it. Today it has more magnolia trees per mile than most city streets. ◆

If you have a “Glen” or a “Meadow” or a “Brook” in your street name, be sure you’ve got one.

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November 12, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 9

GUEST ED.

A Cautionary Tale Reading William Faulkner’s The Unvanquished in 2015

BY CATHERINE LANDIS

T

hirty years ago I heard someone argue that what makes the South different from the rest of the country is that it lost the Civil War, and I remember thinking: That’s insane. I was a Southerner, and if any war influenced my life it was Vietnam.

For my parents and grandparents it was World War II. My great-grandmother’s father was a captain in the Confederate Army, so being on the losing side surely was a big deal for her generation but for mine, the catastrophe of Vietnam permeated the air we breathed, sorted us into opposing camps, and changed the way we thought about the world. It was seared into our brains as a tale of caution and horror and outrage and determination: We would not make that mistake again. The American Civil War? It had no more bearing on my life than the Trojan War. I was wrong, of course, and looking back I’m amazed by how dismissive I was given that the civil rights movement was every bit as influential in shaping my developing consciousness as Vietnam. What was it about civil rights that I did not connect to the Civil War? No doubt I was embarrassed enough by the behavior of my fellow Southerners during the fight for civil rights. How could I bear to add obsession with the Civil War to the brush we were already being painted with? But more than anything I sincerely believed that we had solved the problem of racism. Heeding the

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

words of Martin Luther King Jr., “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice,” I paid no attention to the long part. To my mind, it was already bending. We were on the other side of bent. For proof I could point to my own family, where my grandfather freely and regularly used what we now call the “n” word, but my parents most certainly did not.

My teachers did not. My friends did not. From what I could tell from television, movies, and the music of the time, nobody under the age of 30 ever would again. It was clear that when my grandfather’s generation died off, that would be the end of it.

How on Earth could we go backward?

And how could anybody still believe that same old, tired argument that the South, my South, my home, was different because we lost the war?

Who would say such a thing?

Possibly Shelby Foote. But just as easily it could have been James Dickey, Clyde Edgerton, or a handful of other Southern writers. I actually don’t remember exactly who uttered the words, only where I was when I heard them: in Chattanooga at the Conference for Southern Literature.

That conference featured panels of writers discussing particular topics, and one topic that used to pop up as regularly as flies to a fruit bowl was the nature, and implied specialness, of Southern writing. That alone drove me crazy. The way I saw it, Southern writing was Southern because it was set in the South, but it was no more

special than fiction set in New York or Russia or England or Wyoming. You will find no Woody Allen in Birmingham, no Flannery O’Conner in France. This seemed obvious to me and yet the panelists deliberated for hours, year after year. That was the context in which I was hearing the argument that while we were down here sitting on our porches, eating our grits, drinking our sweet tea, and writing our hearts out, we were still smarting from The War. I rolled my eyes and shook my head and wondered what was wrong with these people. I was 29.

Last summer, at the age of 59, I read William Faulkner’s The Unvanquished, not for the first time—but this time, unexpectedly, it brought back the memory of sitting in that auditorium in Chattanooga and scoffing at the argument about the South and the Civil War. Now in the wake of the unhinged outrage unleashed by the sight of a black man in the White House, the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, and nine people in a Charleston church, and the fact that there is even a speck of controversy whatsoever over whether the Confederate Flag ought to be flying anywhere, reading The Unvanquished felt like sitting down with Mr. Faulkner and hearing him say: This is what it’s going to be like, mark my words.

Or in the words of his character Ringo, “This war ain’t over. Hit just started good.”

The Unvanquished is the story of Ringo, a black boy, and his companion Bayard, a white boy, who are otherwise and in every way equal except for

the fact that Ringo happens to be the property of another human being. Did Faulkner place them so resolutely side by side to reveal the absurdity of such a social order? It’s tricky imposing a 21st century sensibility onto a book written nearly 80 years ago in the middle of Jim Crow-era Mississippi, but it’s hard to read it any other way, particularly when Faulkner makes a point of telling us that Bayard’s own father considers Ringo the smarter of the two. Smarter doesn’t count for much. Smarter doesn’t mean freer. Is this what Faulkner was trying to say?

A more nuanced reading might reveal that Faulkner was simply writing what was true, that black and white children played together all the time despite the fact that only some of them risked being lynched for the crime of skin color, but I don’t care.

Whatever Faulkner did or didn’t mean, the book cries out for equality as the least we can do. Basic humanity 101. The war was supposed to fix this. Faulkner, writing more than 60 years after it ended, would have noticed that it certainly did not.

The Unvanquished is the story of the Sartoris family led by Bayard’s father John Sartoris, as mythical a Southern Gentleman as you will find anywhere, witnessing the end of a way of life, the upending of everything they know to be true, a world turned upside down. Honestly, it’s impossible to read the book and not sympathize with people who are expected to emerge from chaos, their homes burned, their fortunes destroyed, and follow a new social order they do not understand.

But then they don’t, do they? They

We should not be surprised to discover people walking around feeling aggrieved, victimized, angry, scared, confused, stubborn, tribal, revved up and righteous because they aren’t “free” to live in a country where they get to force everybody else to live by their rules.

do not intend to follow any such thing.

The Unvanquished is the story of extraordinary resistance to change.

“Suppose they don’t never get done fighting?” Ringo says.

After the war, John Sartoris murders two men who have come to town registering black voters and even daring to place a black candidate on the ballot. After shooting them in the public square in front of everyone, he turns to the crowd and says, “Does any man here want a word with me about this?” They do not. He then proceeds to move the election to his house where he can make sure the votes add up the way he wants.

When I read this book in college, it seemed like a tale of those silly people back in Civil War times behaving in ways that we, in our more enlightened age, had outgrown. Last summer, reading even just this one scene, I could almost hear the applause from people clenching their Confederate flags, politicians passing their voter ID laws, righteous fans of Kim Davis screaming you aren’t the boss of me, puffed-up packers of heat who evidently imagine justice carried out by good guys with guns, the disgruntled who want to take their country back. To when? John Sartoris’s time?

While John Sartoris is shooting carpetbaggers and rigging votes, Faulkner observes that the women in town do not believe anything “can be right or wrong or even be very important that can be decided by a lot of little scraps of scribbled paper dropped into a box.” Some things go deeper than a political system, even one that calls itself a democracy. You can’t end racism by voting. You can’t even end it with a war.

When Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, my not so original observation was, rather than signaling a new era of tolerance, it blew the cover off racism, and not just in the South. Before then, you could be racist but you had to be quiet about it.

After, there was no time for polite restraint: Where in heaven’s name was the John Sartoris who should be making sure this sort of thing never happened? I saw it in the crowds clamoring for Sarah Palin, not just for conservative fiscal and foreign policy, but for the idea of America: white,

Christian, straight, proud but not too big for its britches! Now the swoons are for politicians who promise (threaten) to “take America back.”

Where is “back” but a time when whites still run everything and women stay in their place and blacks stay in their place and brown people stay in their place, which evidently doesn’t include this side of the border, and gay people stay in the closet, and the Bible lady still comes to the schools and our military can whoop ass and you can settle things with a gun. Maybe it’s the Wild West except with no Indians.

Racism is not new and will never end but it can be inflamed by a climate of hate and fear, fueled by politicians seeking easy votes and a media bent on terrifying people that ISIS is coming to get them and Mexicans want to rape them and elites seek to humiliate them and religious white people in America are an endangered species. We should not be surprised to discover people walking around feeling aggrieved, victimized, angry, scared, confused, stubborn, tribal, revved up and righteous because they aren’t “free” to live in a country where they get to force everybody else to live by their rules.

Faulkner was writing at a time when actual Civil War veterans were still walking around Mississippi, telling their stories. When Bayard sees a man in a Confederate uniform at the end of the war, Faulkner reflects on how these uniforms will become “walking symbols of defeated men’s pride and indomitable unregret.” I am not suggesting that he wrote The Unvanquished with the intention of predicting the future, but there lies in the telling of a story set in 1865 the implication that the Civil War won’t be “over” by 1935 and maybe even beyond that. Nor am I suggesting that the racial climate today is as bad as it was in 1865 or 1935. But I suspect that Mr. Faulkner would not be shocked to learn that within our society there remain factions who aren’t happy about how that war ended.

Therein lies the mistake I made as a young woman inflating the legacy of Vietnam. Vietnam changed our country in many, well-documented ways. Vietnam broke my heart. But when it was over, it was over. No masses still screech for the cause of South Vietnam. No flags demand

equal time. The Civil War was fought on our soil and between our own people but its legacy is entrenched because the ideas fueling it were not defeated when the Confederacy surrendered. Perhaps this is the way of all civil wars. The principles of white supremacy and states rights did not need a soldier’s uniform to live to fight another day. When I was younger, I did not grasp the power of that legacy nor accept that the struggle must be renewed with every generation. I did not understand that wounds don’t heal if allowed to fester.

I’ve now come to believe that we as a country will never be free from a racial divide that destroys lives and opportunities until we acknowledge completely the crimes that have been done to our black people.

In The Unvanquished, the Yankees burn down the Sartoris house and take all the buried silver, which the slave, Loosh, has pointed them to. When Bayard’s grandmother, Miss Rosa, tries to stop him from leaving, Loosh says, “I going. I done been freed … I don’t belong to John Sartoris now; I belongs to me and God.” “But the silver belongs to John Sartoris,” Granny said. “Who are you to give it away?”

“You ax me that?” Loosh said.

“Where John Sartoris? Whyn’t he come and ax me that? Let God ax John Sartoris who the man name that give me to him. Let the man that buried me in the black dark ax that of the man what dug me free.”

How curious: The same people waving their Confederate flags, insisting that it’s just “Southern heritage,” and demanding that we respect them for it, dare turn around to our African American neighbors and insist that slavery, Jim Crow, lynching, systemic discrimination in every American institution: all that was a long, long time ago. Why can’t they just get over it?

Indomitable unregret. ◆

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Catherine Landis lives in Knoxville and is the author of two novels: Some Days There’s Pie (St. Martin’s Press), and Harvest, (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press).

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 11

Photo by Clay Duda

The Price of Fame City’s “Project Hollywood” sweetens deal for Regal’s move to South Knoxville

BY CLAY DUDA

I

t’s impossible to decipher some motivations from a trove of Knoxville city officials’ emails detailing months of negotiations with Regal Entertainment Group to move its corporate headquarters to the South Waterfront, but one thing is clear: Both Regal and property owner Southeastern Development Associates earned a much sweeter deal after tax dollars became involved.

The negotiations, code-named “Project Hollywood,” kicked off in earnest this past February after city officials, including Mayor Madeline Rogero, pitched the basis for an incentives package to Regal executives—this just a few months after separate negotiations stalled between Regal and property owner SEDA, then called Blanchard & Calhoun Commercial. The city’s proposal—ironed out

12

KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

over nine months of back-and-forth between city staff, the Knoxville Chamber, and top SEDA and Regal officials—includes several millions more in incentives for Regal to stay in Knoxville, according to more than 400 pages of emails released Monday in response to a public records request from the Mercury.

While still pending approval, the city of Knoxville has agreed to pay $9 million to buy the 178,000-square-foot former medical building and make renovations. It will then lease it to Regal rent-free for an initial 10-year term. (Regal will pay property taxes equal to the improved value of the building during that time.) Knox County and the state of Tennessee have backed the plan with $1.5 million each, and SEDA will put $500,000 toward exterior improve-

ments to the building. The Tennessee Valley Authority will contribute $80,000. Regal would be responsible for covering any remaining costs, estimated at $4-$5 million.

SEDA and Regal had been working on a similar deal, records show. A draft letter of intent in December 2014 outlined a potential sale price as low as $4 million for the building, with SEDA contributing $2 million towards renovations, but the companies never reached an agreement. The city later agreed to purchase the building for $6 million, a figure hammered out during negotiations and not based on an appraised value, says Bill Lyons, Knoxville’s chief policy officer. SEDA had purchased the entire 23-acre former Baptist Hospital property in 2013 for $6.25 million.

“Unfortunately, there wasn’t an official appraisal of which I am aware, but there was some logic behind that $6 million figure,” Lyons says, noting those terms were worked out by former city redevelopment director Bob Whetsel, who has since retired.

“Given everything, that seemed to be a reasonable price for the city to pay.”

According to the official narrative, the robust $12.5 million incentives package was necessary to keep Regal from relocating its 325-person workforce to another city in another state. The company will have room to potentially add up to 75 more positions once in its new digs. Announcing the deal in October, Mayor Rogero said Regal was “being courted” by some other municipalities, and a draft announcement attached to one of the many emails made public this week says Regal was considering four specific offers to move elsewhere. But those words were removed at the request of Regal executives, and other Regal emails mention possible plans to make improvements to their offices in Halls, raising the question of whether Regal ever intended to leave Knox County, where the company was founded in 1989.

But Lyons stresses that Regal is a valuable company to have around, and as its ownership stake shifts away from local Knoxvillians it may not have the same long-term commitment to the area.

“There was a clear realization that they were not going to stay in their current location in the long term, or even the medium term,” Lyons says

“They’re sought after, and we know that. We want Regal to stay here, and having them downtown is an optimal outcome.”

Internal documents peg Regal’s annual payroll at $38 million, which could increase to $47 million yearly if 75 new employees are added. That’s an average employee salary of about $79,000, not including bonuses, stocks, or dividends—money that’s staying local under the deal.

Renovation work on the building could have an economic impact of more than $27 million, according to an analysis cited by the Knoxville Chamber. Remodeling each floor of the nine-story building will cost between $480,000 and $685,000, with the top-floor executive suite coming in at just over $900,000.

According to emails, some state officials worried about delivering grant money directly to a for-profit company, but those concerns were abated by funneling the money through the Industrial Development Board, a local agency that will retain ownership of the building and act as landlord on behalf of the city of Knoxville.

Negotiations between Knoxville officials and Regal representatives became contentious at times, with months of back-and-forth continuing into late October, just days before the Oct. 28 public announcement.

Knoxville Chief Operating Officer Christi Branscom expressed her frustration in an email on Oct. 12 after a new round of proposed revisions from Regal.

“It seems really late in the game to be renegotiating some of these terms in the LOI (letter of intent),” Branscom writes. “Several items that Regal proposes to change are the terms we used in convincing the Mayor, the state and county to participate. By ‘we’ I mean both me and Rhonda Rice at the Chamber.”

Knox County Commission has voted in support of its $1.5 million piece of the puzzle, but the plan must still earn the approval of the Knoxville City Council and State Funding Board. Calls to Regal and SEDA were not immediately returned Tuesday afternoon. ◆

@KNOXMERCURY.COM

Read all the emails we obtained regarding the city’s negotiations with Regal Entertainment Group on our website.

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY 13

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Ball Camp Walmart Project Dead Knox County abandons controversial land-swap deal with developer

BY S. HEATHER DUNCAN

K

nox County has withdrawn its controversial request to rezone a portion of Nicholas Ball Park to make way for a grocery store, widely discussed as a Walmart Neighborhood Market. The county had proposed to allow a developer to have 7.5 acres of the park in exchange for a 103-acre parcel in Hardin Valley that could be used for a new, larger park.

“Getting public land back on the tax rolls is something we need to go forward with long term,” says Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett. “But I don’t like to cram stuff down people’s throat. Clearly the people don’t want it, and that’s who we work for.”

For developer Gusto LLC to proceed with the grocery store, the park land and three houses would have to be rezoned from agricultural to general business, and the area’s sector plan would have to be amended from low-density residential and green space use to commercial use.

Both Gusto and the county requested those changes in October,

14

KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

and then later asked the Metropolitan Planning Commission to delay considering them until December so a public meeting could be held first.

Two weeks ago, the county asked the MPC to further delay the petition until next year, so the county could push the public meeting to January.

Then Friday, Knox County withdrew the petition altogether, says MPC planner Michael Brusseau.

“We have zero plans or intentions on pursuing it further,” says Michael Grider, communications director for Knox County. “It’s not tabled, not postponed, but withdrawn completely.”

Brusseau says a Gusto representative told him Monday that the company is not withdrawing its own request, but has asked MPC to table it indefinitely.

“They’re trying to figure out what they want to do,” Brusseau says.

“Without the county’s property, I don’t think there’s much they can do,” since most of the project was planned for the land that is now the park at the intersection of Ball Camp and Middle

Brook pikes.

Neighbors of Nicholas Ball Park have been up in arms about both the potential loss of the park and the impact a new grocery store might have at an already busy intersection across from Ball Camp Elementary School. A “Save Nicholas Ballpark from Walmart” Facebook group (with almost 1,600 “likes”) has been guiding local neighborhood associations to circulate petitions opposing the project.

Beth Souders, who lives in the Trail’s End subdivision near the park, says she and her neighbors taught their children to ride their bikes at the park and felt strongly about preserving all of it, since it is so small. Many walked the neighborhood on Halloween gathering signatures on petitions opposing the project.

“We are so appreciative that the mayor and County Commission heard us and acted on that,” says Souders, whose daughter attends Ball Camp Elementary. “We want to make sure

our park doesn’t come up for any future negotiations—and make sure the county knows that we (the Ball Camp community) are small, but mighty.”

Grider says Burchett was open to the idea because he has always made it clear “any time there’s an opportunity to get public property back into private hands, that’s something he supports doing.” But in this case, “It was pretty clear there wasn’t an appetite for it….

There wasn’t anyone necessarily clamoring for a 100-acre park out in Hardin Valley. Really, the only people we heard from were citizens in the Ball Camp area, and they were pretty clear that they were not interested in losing that piece of parkland.”

As proposed, the grocery store would have eliminated one of the park’s two soccer fields and a small parking area at the park and affect the walking track. The adjacent playground, softball fields, and AYSO soccer fields would have remained intact. The park land swap was envisioned as a way to serve a fast-growing section of the county with little park space, providing a couple of soccer fields plus walking and biking trails in Hardin Valley. The trade would have required state approval because federal funds (filtered through the state) originally purchased the Nicholas Ball Park land in 1978.

Gusto has the same address as Chattanooga-based Hutton Co., which custom-builds stores for national chains like Family Dollar and AutoZone. Gusto is one of several LLCs with almost identical names seeking to build grocery stores in Tennessee.

Other LLCs also affiliated with Hutton, most of them with names including the word “Polestar,” are building dozens of grocery stores across the South; those that have been identified are all Walmart Neighborhood Markets, a smaller model that Walmart is promoting heavily as sales slide at its superstores.

Another Hutton-affiliated company recently abandoned plans to develop another Walmart Neighborhood Market in the face of community opposition. That North Broadway location called for the demolition of a century-old Craftsman home, the Howard House. Another neighborhood market is apparently in the works for the intersection of McKamey Road and Western Avenue. ◆

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November 12, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 15

moving mountains How Knox’s controversial guidelines for ridgetop development are being put to use—and when they’re not.

16

KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY CLAY DUDA

t

Photos by Clay Duda

he views from Chapman Ridge in South Knoxville are breathtaking, at least looking out from the top.

From the elevated western crest, the majestic allure of East Tennessee’s rolling hills spreads out like ripples in the ocean. The vibrant reds, yellows, and golden hues of fall waiver toward the pale cascade of the Great Smoky Mountains in the distance.

To the northwest, glimpses of the University of Tennessee campus and Fort Sanders peek through a valley of trees over the Tennessee River.

Directly to the east lies the rooftops of dozens of apartments and a beacon of a sky-blue water tower perched further down the same ridge.

Soon, this expanse will be open to more UT and other students, provided they rent a room from one of the dozens of communal townhomes being carved into the hillside below.

Dust has been swirling along this cavernous stretch of Cherokee Trail since April when excavation work started on Knox Ridge, an ambitious cluster of high-end student dwellings being tiered into existence on the steep terrain.

Plans for the property call for a

short trail around the homes leading up to the ridgeline’s knobby high spot, soon to include a fire pit and possibly some barbecues where youngins can kick back and enjoy the high-life. A portion of the crest has been completely clear-cut of trees and reseeded to create a grassy knoll for doggies and other animals. It’s just the sort of prominent section of the crown that could have potentially been protected under development guidelines that took effect in 2012. But it wasn’t.

In part, it was the area’s natural beauty and the property’s unique layout that led Chicago-based Strategic Holdings, LLC to develop the lot, yet it seems many of the local guide-

lines designed to protect steep hillsides and help preserve such attractive views were not factored in when development plans were reviewed by local officials, a check of records reveals.

As construction kicked up over the summer on these townhouses, South Knoxville resident and former UT professor Mike Kaplan quickly took notice. He says he was surprised to see work on a steep slope like Chapman Ridge given the guidelines set out by the Hillside and Ridgetop Protection Plan, or HRPP, a controversial document developed over several years that he figured would redirect such development, or at least

Construction started in April on the future Knox Ridge townhomes, a student housing complex being tiered into existence along the northern face of Chapman Ridge in South Knoxville.

While no homes are going in on top of the ridge, a portion has been cleared of trees to make a grassy area for pets.

help preserve the natural features that have given the area so much charm.

“Before any of that stuff was built along Cherokee Trail, the whole road looked like the Smoky Mountains National Park. It was all old-growth woods, and it was just stunningly beautiful,” he recalls. “It’s astonishing to this day and age that people are still doing stuff like this, and I guess the question is, if this could take over South Knox, could it happen in other neighborhoods?”

While Strategic Holdings has adhered to regulations laid out by building officials, this mountainous lot just east of Alcoa Highway is exactly the type of property the HRPP was November 12, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 17

Renderings courtesy Strategic Holdings, LLC.

Photo by Clay Duda

A series of retaining walls being back-filled at the future site of Knox Ridge will offer leveled teirs for the construction of townhomes. Plans call for the construction of 86 townhouses with four to five bedrooms each, renderings, top-right, along with a giant T-shaped hot tub and man-made lazy river. Units will be rented by the room to area students once development wraps in fall 2016.

designed to protect and regulate; a steep-sloping hillside with prominent features prone to issues of runoff and erosion. But even after local governments spent nearly $400,000 and thousands of hours in staff time to develop those guidelines, in many parts of the county they are routinely overruled, discarded, or not cited at all. In unincorporated Knox County, it’s not a requirement that they are put to use despite the HRPP being adopted as part of the county’s general plan, and Knox Ridge just makes it into the county line.

Ironically, these new townhomes are being constructed on the same ridgeline as the water tower that triggered the plan in the first place. In 2008, after the Knoxville Utilities 18

KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

Board constructed that sky-blue, 180-foot water tower just down the road (you know, the one that’s still visible today from many parts of town), public outcry was so fierce that the Knoxville City Council and Knox County Commission called for the formation of a task force to hone hillside development standards, research best practices, and come up with a plan to guide these high-reaching construction projects.

Three years and 90-some-odd meetings later, the roughly 30-person task force finalized the Hillside and Ridgetop Protection Plan, a thick booklet of guidelines that took heat from folks on all sides of the issues it was geared to address, mostly related to stormwater runoff and erosion, development standards, and the preservation of the county’s natural beauty. It was eventually adopted separately by the City Council in late 2011 and County Commission (with one big caveat) in January 2012, but has never been fully implemented.

Now, four years out, it’s worth looking back at the principles laid out in the HRPP to see how it has been put to work so far, the impact it is having on development, and if there is

a need to do more to protect the natural environs that Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero says are critical for the region to develop into a destination for outdoor enthusiasts. But there’s more than just outdoor sports and tourism at stake. There’s the intrinsic value of unspoiled land and our quality of life, issues of pollution from runoff and erosion, deforestation and the potential implications of climate change, the delicate balance between property rights and government regulations, the influence of the local business community on politics, and fundamental differences between Rogero’s activist vision of government and Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett’s anti-government philosophy— all conflicts and values wrapped up in this thick-bound book of standards and how they’re applied.

EARTH MOVERS

When building on the side of a mountain, geography dictates a lot of decisions, developer Brian Gianone explains.

“Normally it would take us 10 months to do a project this size, but we gave ourselves 16-18 months because of all the earth works

involved,” says Gianone, a partner in the firm developing Knox Ridge.

“We’re basically carving into the side of the mountain and building tiers.”

Moving all of that earth takes time. Excavation work started in April and isn’t expected to wrap until mid-December, then utilities start going in. When the ribbon is finally cut in August 2016 (provided things stay on schedule), the facility will boast some living attractions not available at other student housings in Knoxville, he says, including a 450-foot-long man-made lazy river, a giant T-shaped hot tub that can hold up to 40 people, and a massive pool deck with a 700-800 person capacity. In all, it’s about a $22 million investment.

Gianone’s firm, Strategic Holdings, LLC, a division of Oculus Development out of Chicago, already has similar housing complexes in Athens, Ga. and Gainesville, Fla., other college towns where it rents out units by the room to students. The townhouses in Knoxville, 86 in all, will have a total 371 bedrooms, four or five in each 2,700-square-foot unit, with rents starting at $579 a month for a fully furnished room. A leasing office is already open in the University

gained approval from the MPC for a similar-style housing development through a use on review hearing, a necessary step to approve initial development plans. Not long after, Hines sold the lot to Strategic Holdings for $1.03 million. Gianone says they chose to stick with the same general layout to help “fast-track” construction, earning the okay from MPC on its updated plans during a June 12, 2014 use on review hearing.

Because the allowed density for the property was set when it was rezoned in 2006, MPC planner Tom Brechko says the application of the HRPP was limited in this case, and it stops short of clearly outlining what should or shouldn’t be protected.

“A plan is not a regulation. There aren’t standards or regulations within the zoning or subdivision regulations that state, ‘if there is this, then you can’t touch it,’ or anything like that,” Brechko says. “There are recommendations we can make to encourage developers to lay out their design to reduce impacts, and those things are taken into consideration.”

No one spoke against Strategic Holdings’ plans for the property, which passed the Planning Commission unanimously, but several people did write letters or speak out in 2013 when the Hines first proposed student housing there. Most of those concerns centered on traffic and unsafe conditions along the winding twists and turns of Cherokee Trail, and the current developer agreed to put money toward several improvements to be carried out by the city of Knoxville as part of the deal. (The roads fall inside the city limits, the Knox Ridge property does not.) One person expressed disdain for how the constructor of the Woodlands, a neighboring student apartment complex, clear-cut a section of the ridgeline, but never mentioned the

Photo by Clay Duda

A water tower installed in 2008 to service new student housing developments along the crest of Chapman Ridge is still visible today from many parts of Knoxville. Public outcry over the prominent 180-foot-tall structure was so fierce it led to the City Council and County Commission to call for the formation of a task force, which over several years developed the Hillside and Ridgetop Protection Plan that adopted as part of the city’s and the county’s general plan.

Photo by Clay Duda

Commons shopping center.

The company has built its business on this style of townhome, a design that comes in handy when building on such steep, challenging terrain.

“Because we’re doing townhomes, what we need for footings is much smaller [than it would be for apartments], and we can use our homes to follow the natural undulation of the land,” he says. “It helps preserve some of the natural beauty of the site and of Knoxville, which is always our intent on any project.”

No townhouses are going on the crown of the ridge, but a portion of it has been cleared for a common area, most likely to be set aside for dog walks or other pets, Gianone says.

The houses themselves will be constructed on a series of tiers held back by retaining walls along the slope’s steep northern face.

To be clear, according to public records, Strategic Holdings has complied with all regulations and requirements set out by the Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission, which reviewed development plans, and Knox County building officials, who have jurisdiction over the project after construction starts. Although some guidelines already on the books, included in the HRPP, could have potentially shaped the development and conserved a portion of forested land along the ridgeline, they were not applied or cited, records show. While situated close to downtown Knoxville, the Knox Ridge property lies in unincorporated Knox County, not within Knoxville city limits.

The land was last rezoned in 2006, years before work started on the HRPP. In 2013, former owners Gary and Janice Hines, of Knoxville,

Even today, a hillside in northwest Knoxville cited by MPC for its high potential for erosion and land-slides sits mostly barren, dotted with sprouts of trees and other small vegetation. The HRPP was designed, in part, to address such issues of erosion and runoff.

“There are so many things [in the HRPP] that are just general guidelines, you never know if it’s going to apply to this specific case or not.”

— GARY NORVELL, Engineer

HRPP. In both cases, the hillside plan was not discussed or cited on staff reports or during Planning Commission meetings.

In general, planners at the MPC cite the HRPP when considering applications to change the use of a property (for example, reclassifying a lot from agricultural to planned residential, or any number of changes), usually by rezoning the property or, at times, adjusting a sector plan to allow it to be rezoned for an intended use. Sector plans are guiding documents that outline what types of uses should be allowed in different areas of the city and county—such as keeping industrial developments from cropping up in the middle of neighborhoods or clustering commercial corridors—and may be a necessary step to a rezone depending on the intended use and location of a property. Far less often is the HRPP used to fine-tune development or

establish conservation areas during more common use on review hearings, the next step to developing a property, when the Planning Commission reviews specific site plans and layouts for a property—although it could be.

DUELING DOCUMENTS

The hillside plan was never designed to stop development, but to establish clear parameters, the do’s and don’ts, and to lay out a path for smart growth and planning on land with more than a 15 percent slope, or terrain that rises 15 feet or more over a 100-foot span. The 96-page document touches on dozens of specific recommendations, from reducing building setbacks and road widths in order to minimize disturbance areas, to requiring reforestation plans and other steps aimed at reducing issues of runoff and erosion. It allows planners to grant increased densities up to 10 percent November 12, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 19

Cited by the MPC as an example of bad development practices, a hillside is clear-cut with no erosion controls in place during work on the Wildwood Subdivision in 2008 off Sevier Highway in South Knox. The property developer faced multiple water quality violations related to runoff and erosion on the property, which has since been developed.

Courtesy of Public Records/MPC.

“It’s a good example of a well-intentioned effort by good folks that became something that’s going to end up in a notebook on the shelf.”

— TIM BURCHETT, Knox County Mayor

on areas suitable for development within steep-sloped properties, provided that on a case-by-case basis some unspoiled portions are placed under protective easements and opened to the public.

It also establishes what is known as the Hillside and Ridgetop Protection Area, or HRPA, a designation covering about 33 percent of land in the city of Knoxville and Knox County with slopes greater than 15 percent— lands, in theory, subject to the provisions of the HRPP. Recommendations vary based on the slope of a property, with increasing limitations the steeper the grade.

Yet, depending on where you are in the county, the guidelines themselves hold different weight.

In December 2011 and January 2012, the Knoxville City Council and Knox County Commission, respectively, reviewed and adopted near identical versions of the HRPP, but with one key difference. At the insistence of then-County Commissioner Richard Briggs (now a state senator), an amendment was added to the county’s version—later dubbed the Briggs Amendment—that gutted much of its legal and regulatory authority.

The preface clearly states that the document is solely “advisory in nature” and constitutes “non-binding recommendations” that may be considered for future developments on steep slopes, meaning the county can use it, or not, for future construction projects and rezones.

Knoxville attorney Steve Wise, who specializes in real estate law, says the amendment could help Knox County mount a legal defense if ever 20

KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

taken to court over its application of the HRPP, but it’s impossible to predict how legal proceedings would play out.

“In the county, the hillside plan is only a recommendation. That’s the same in the city also, but in the city it is binding, [meaning] it has to be followed,” says MPC Director Gerald Green, who took over that post in July.

“In the county it’s not mandatory. It’s just one of the factors we consider, and there’s no mandate that the MPC or legislative bodies take action based on the slope of a property.”

The language of the Briggs Amendment is so stark, in fact, that County Mayor Tim Burchett now says it’s his understanding that it never passed into law. Meaning, spokesman Michael Grider clarifies, that it had no legal standing even though the amended version was adopted as part of the general plan by the County Commission with an 7-3-1 vote on its first reading in November 2011.

Then-Commissioner Tony Norman, who co-chaired the HRPP task force, voted against passing the amended version, along with Sam McKenzie and Amy Broyles. Commissioner Dave Wright abstained.

“It’s a good example of a well-intentioned effort by good folks that became something that’s going to end up in a notebook on the shelf,” Burchett says.

Briggs says the amendment was meant to place restrictions on the HRPP, but more importantly to provide folks with a means to appeal any decision made under those guidelines to a board of elected officials, in this case the County Commission.

“The intent was to strip it of regulatory powers because the people using it [at MPC] weren’t elected officials,” Briggs says, noting that if the present guidelines had been in place in years past, some prominent Knox-area developments could never have come into existence, such as the City County building downtown, the Sequoyah Hills neighborhood, or the former Baptist Hospital site along the South Waterfront.

He continues: “[The amendment] really dealt with not putting so many restrictions that the Knox County Commission couldn’t permit a good plan to go forward, or if it was a bad fit that we couldn’t oppose it.”

While the county’s adopted version says the HRPP is not binding, it’s really not quite that simple. If MPC staffers make recommendations based on the HRPP, and those recommendations earn approval from the Planning Commission and, in some cases as necessary, the County Commission, then they do become binding conditions for developing a piece of land anywhere in the county, Green says, providing an avenue for those regulations to be enforced in unincorporated Knox County.

Knoxville City Council added no such qualifiers in its adoption of the HRPP, and Mayor Madeline Rogero says it’s her understanding and expectation that those guidelines are applied to all developments on hillsides within city limits.

“They are legal, guiding documents and not just suggestions,” Rogero says. “City Council adopted those plans unanimously … and it’s my understanding that they’re being

followed and implemented.”

However, MPC records show that the HRPP is not consistently referenced when rezones of hilly properties are handled by the MPC. Of 29 rezoning applications since 2012 that could have fallen under the umbrella of the HRPP, those guidelines were cited only 59 percent of the time, in 17 cases.

The majority of those cases, 20 of the 29, were properties in unincorporated areas of Knox County, where the vast majority of undeveloped hillsides remain. Mayor Burchett asserts those guidelines have no legal weight in his realm, but records show that on at least five occasions provisions in the HRPP were used to scale back or place restrictions on developments in the county, earning the approval of County Commission each time.

Of the nine hilly rezones inside the city of Knoxville, the HRPP was referenced in just three cases ; Once awarding a density bonus, another noting the property complied with the guidelines, and a third time with recommendations from the Planning Commission for a density higher than what the HRPP would allow, but City Council later voted that one down.

If it’s not evident, these guidelines are fairly complex, creating a subjective web of pseudo regulations that must to be evaluated and weighed on a case-by-case basis, balancing the merits and geography of each individual construction site and project. It’s been mired in controversy from its inception, an obvious factor in it faltering part-way through being fully implemented and leading to the county’s stripped-down version.

FOR AND AGAINST

The battle to get something (anything?) on the books after years of work and considerable expense grew fierce in 2011 as business groups and property right proponents continued to decry the HRPP as government intrusion that would make it too costly for developers to build on hillsides.

Environmentalists and some residents maintained that it would help protect the region’s scenic beauty and some sloppy construction practices that had contributed to mudslides and erosion onto neighboring lots.

The Knoxville Chamber, led by President Michael Edwards, was in staunch opposition, releasing a hail-Mary “Plan B” in September 2011.

Through a spokeswoman, Edwards

declined to comment for this story, but letters sent to the city and county at the time outline his concerns.

“The MPC Plan goes too far on hillside regulation, proposing that almost 40% [33 percent, to be exact] of Knox County be designated as a restricted area,” Edwards wrote in a Sept. 23, 2011, letter, referring to a provision of the HRPP that designated land with more than a 15 percent slope be labeled as a Hillside and Ridgetop Protection Area. “On the other hand, the MPC Plan does not go far enough in ridgetop protection. … [It] does not provide any protection for the scenic/visual aspects of ridgetop areas.”

So the Chamber “assembled an advisory group of professionals” and crafted an alternative plan, which called for a clear designation of ridgetop areas to be protected, the adoption of codes and regulations for its enforcement (rather than it being applied during rezoning or use on review proceedings), and increasing the threshold for lands included in the HRPP from 15 percent to 30 percent slopes, thus cutting down on the volume of land with a protected status, among other things. However, the plan never garnered wide-spread political support and died on the vine.

Engineer Gary Norvell, who has worked on developments in East Tennessee for more than 40 years, says some additional clarification would prove helpful even today, specifically codifying recommenda-

tions in the HRPP into the city and county’s building code so potential developers know what they’re in for, a provision in the HRPP that has never been fulfi lled.

“When someone wants to develop a piece of property, they have to put a budget together, a prospectus, and they need to know going in what to expect, or what they’re going to be required to do,” Norvell says. “There are so many things [in the HRPP] that are just general guidelines, you never know if it’s going to apply to this specific case or not. Having it in an ordinance makes it official and tells you exactly what will happen, opposed to something they use as guidelines.

It’s subjective versus objective.”

Norvell served as a member of the task force that developed the HRPP, but resigned from his position in early 2011 with a letter citing a number of concerns. Those included allegations that his role on the task force was marginalized as MPC staff mostly developed and wrote the guidelines without consensus from other members, that too many people were involved to ever come to complete agreement on many issues, that the plan was misrepresented as being backed by developers, and that the draft document at the time contained erroneous information.

There is some economic value in preserving ridgelines and other distinguishable natural features, according to research by then-UT doctoral student Matthew Chadourne.

“We’re becoming a mecca for outdoor recreation, and that’s a positive thing.”

— MADELINE ROGERO, Knoxville Mayor

Following the formation of the task force, Chadourne developed an analysis to quantify how valuable unspoiled views of ridges and hillsides were for property values in Knoxville and Knox County, taking into account market conditions before and during the economic recession.

“The results show that forest views add significant value to homes during both periods (during a housing boom and during a recession).

However, the amenity value added to houses decreased 13 percent from the boom period to the recession period, implying that forest views decrease in value when there is an economic recession,” the study reads.

Chadourne calculates that each acre of forested land that can be seen from a given property adds as much as $100 to its value, while views of barren or scrubland can reduce home values as much as $112 per acre, especially during an economic downturn. According to a separate report from American Forests, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group, in 2001 between 50 and 60 percent of all forested land in Knox County was located on hillsides and ridgetops.

“I think that one of the things Knoxville has going for it is the beauty of our area, and it doesn’t take too much destruction along a ridgeline for people to realize that it’s ugly, and it’s unrecoverable,” says Lisa Starbuck, a former task force member who serves as vice president of Scenic Knoxville.

“I do feel it (the HRPP) was success-

@KNOXMERCURY.COM About 33 percent of Knox County land has slopes steeper than 15 percent, meaning they potentially fall under the guidelines laid out by the Hillside and Ridgetop Protection Plan. Visit knoxmercury.com for an interactive map.

ful, but I think it would be worthwhile to reassemble a committee and study what has happened since the plan was passed; Did we go far enough? How has it worked in practice? Are there adjustments we can make to make it better?”

Knoxville Mayor Rogero says she plans to have a talk soon with MPC head Gerald Green about what, if anything, should be done to further the HRPP and ridgetop protections.

But, she says, that will have to be prioritized based on staffi ng and other demands from MPC, one of the most pressing being issues with the city’s corridor overlay to help promote higher density developments.

“We have been incorporating those regulations into our subdivision regulations, and there are other things we have done more on the conservation side, like working with Legacy Parks on the Urban Wilderness to preserve that land, and there’s about 100 acres back behind South Doyle Middle School that the Pat Wood family donated to Legacy Parks that is now being preserved,” Rogero says. “I think if that whole issue came up again today there would be a different response, at least on the city side, from the community because there’s a strong appreciation in the value of the Urban Wilderness and other areas for those that live here and as an economic strategy. We’re becoming a mecca for outdoor recreation, and that’s a positive thing.”

County Mayor Tim Burchett says he’s still not sure there ever was an issue that needed to be addressed to start with, and he doesn’t see a need to look back at the HRPP or do more in the future.

“I’m a property rights person,” Burchett says. “The government does a good job of going in and creating a problem where there is no problem, then stepping back and saying, ‘look at all this great work we’ve done.’ I just don’t see a need for it.”◆ November 12, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 21

A&E

P rogram Notes

Extended Warranty

Third Man Records Keep on Truckin’ T

he might of Third Man Records extends far beyond its diminutive store in downtown Nashville. Jack White’s record label/performance space/hole-in-the wall shop is yet another instrument he plays to equal parts acclaim and annoyance. His unwavering adherence to garage-rock releases on vinyl discs makes him both a hero to new analog believers and the ultimate hipster pest to grumpy (old) detractors. Is he just doing it to further his rebel-cool image, or because it’s something he truly believes in?

Well, either way, you’ve got to admit that no one matches White’s vinyl showmanship: a clear 12-inch filled with blue liquid! A single-sided 12-inch with a 7-inch single inside!

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Shelf Life: DVD and Blu-ray

KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

24

Flexi-singles tied to biodegradable helium balloons and released! And then there was the Ultra LP for his Lazaretto solo album, possibly the ultimate expression of White’s vinyl record gimmickry, which included everything from a hidden track under the label (who the heck is going to ruin their stylus playing the label?!) to a side that plays from the inside out (better be quick on raising your tonearm when the side runs out). Silly? Most certainly—but White’s always been in on the joke. And when he releases a passion project like his Paramount Records box sets—each one a work of remarkable beauty—you can only admire his marketing creativity.

Now you can immerse yourself in Third Man vinyl mania without

Comedy: Chris Trew

25

making the trek to Nashville—the record store is coming to us with a visit from the Third Man Rolling Record Store in the parking lot of Lost and Found Records on Sunday, Nov. 22, from 2-6 p.m. (It’s free, unless, of course, you buy some records.) There promises to be a live in-store performance from a yet unnamed Third Man Records recording group plus, well, lots of records.

I don’t know if they’ll have room to haul over the brick and mortar store’s novelties lounge and its Third Man Record Booth (which records and presses your performance on the spot), but it should have some interesting slabs of wax on hand for the vinyl faithful. (Coury Turczyn)

Classical Music: The Consul

26

Art: Will Johnson

The Rhinos! released the first single from their debut album, Not Under Warranty, on Feb. 2. “Live Like Bears” is a jangly little pop-punk/emo song, bittersweet and a little melancholy. It’s ideally suited for autumn, especially if you’re young. It’s also a handy introduction to a local band that seems like it could be on the verge of a breakthrough.

This is the second version of “Live Like Bears” that the band has made public. An earlier recording, from 2013, is basically a demo of the Not Under Warranty track; a listen through the band’s Bandcamp page reveals just how far they’ve come in two years. The 2013 version shuffles where the new album track marches forward with authority and comes off as whimsical compared to the later version’s emotional dynamics. (Some other recordings on the Rhinos! ReverbNation page confirm that the group’s made significant progress.)

The Rhinos!—guitarist/singer Michael Carnes, drummer Justin Wright, bassist Tyler Axley, and guitarist Stephen Harmon—celebrate the release of Not Under Warranty at Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage (8502 Kingston Pike) on Thursday, Nov. 12, at 8 p.m. Adrenaline Kid and Mayfest open the show. Admission is $5 and all ages. (Matthew Everett)

27

Movie: Spectre

Shelf Life

A&E

Videodrome A roundup of new DVD and Blu-ray releases at the library

BY CHRIS BARRETT TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT (2014)

Belgian realists Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne reimagine It’s a Wonderful Life minus the angels, Frank Capra, and the wartime expectation of a cheering outcome. Here is what your neighbors really think about you, Sandra (heroically portrayed by Marion Cotillard): While you are convalescing in recovery from clinical depression, your boss invites your coworkers to choose between conserving your position or bonuses for themselves. Bonuses win, and everybody loses. Partly as second chance but mostly as sport, the boss gives Sandra a weekend to change minds before a second vote on Monday morning. In film, we typically only meet characters of this mettle and see them rendered by actors of this caliber on settings related to ballfield or battlefield. Sandra works her way through a list of undesirable or outright hostile exchanges, children and husband in tow, because she must.

THE KILLERS (1946)

You’ll fi nd no flaw with the 1946 noir telling of this Ernest Hemingway (by way of Jim Thompson) short story.

Thirty-three year-old Burt Lancaster is dreamy in his screen debut after an injury cut short his career as circus acrobat. Ava Gardner poses and preens opposite and generally lives up to the legend. It’s a contract hit on a boxer (Lancaster) who agrees with the hitmen that he deserves to die. The 1964 remake—included in this two-fer Blu-ray package which would do well to provoke a marketing trend—is inferior in small ways but remains well worth seeing.

THE TALL BLOND MAN WITH ONE BLACK SHOE (1972)

A tasty trifle from the Continent, The Tall Blond Man, starring Pierre Richard as concert violinist Francois, spoofs the spy movies that dominated box offices during the Cold War 1970s. Surprisingly, even as Francois plays the buffoon in this case of mistaken identity, he is miles suaver than any screen James Bond of the same decade. Numerous scenes are stolen by wardrobe, and lean and lanky Richard has a vocabulary for physical comedy to rival silent-era Buster Keaton—his triple-jointed frame is absolutely made for trapezoidal double-breasted jackets atop silk flares and Italian shoes. Underdog complex aside, it really doesn’t surprise anybody when Christine (Marielle Darc), secret weapon of the French secret service, switches sides in favor of Francois.

I’LL BE ME (2014)

This would have been the fi lm to watch with Oliver Sacks. I’ll Be Me follows country music superstar Glen Campbell and family on an 18-month tour that began in 2011. The occasion was Campbell’s impending retirement following the diagnosis of his Alzheimer’s disease. It’s interesting to observe how performing has shaped the connections between Campbell’s mind and memory. Offstage, he is emotionally erratic and kind of a handful for his family, friends, and doctors. Declarative sentences become questions as he forgets what he is in the process of saying. Over the course, he is able to name his wife and children about 25 percent of the time. But on stage he times his memory lapses for comic effect, like a Vegas showman, and seems most content while improvising some long and fairly smoking guitar solos. ◆ November 12, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 23

A&E

Comedy

Trew Genius Chris Trew’s unabashedly weird comedy comes to the Scruffy City Comedy Festival

BY MIKE GIBSON

N

ew Orleans’ Chris Trew is a performer of rare talent and singular versatility: a comedian and comedic instructor versed in stand-up and improv alike; a professional wrestler/hype man/wrestling manager; a podcast host and weekly sports columnist; and a hip-hop artist with three full-length albums to his credit.

But all of that will be right out the window come Nov. 13, when Trew will use his appearance at the Scruffy City Comedy Festival in Scruffy City Hall for the sole purpose of encouraging Knoxvillians to make rank fools of

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

themselves by air-f@#$ing in front of a hundred or so of their closest friends.

Because in addition to all of those other things he does, like being the co-founder of his very own Crescent City-based “comedy conservatory,” the New Movement, Trew is also the depraved father of the Air Sex World Championships, a combination comedy tour and competition wherein participants in each city on the ASWC itinerary perform simulated sex acts onstage, all in the name of public humiliation and winning a few debased and meaningless prizes.

“It was supposed to be a one-off,” says Trew during a recent phone interview, remembering his first ASWC event some nine years back. “It was going to be a parody of air-guitar contests, held on a Valentine’s Day. I got the idea from a pretty sad version of the same thing that someone held in Japan.

“We did it up with all the drama and hyper-ness of a pro wrestling show. And it turned out to be a ton of fun—we haven’t stopped since. It’s all about getting up on stage and making love to nothing at all.”

Trew’s is truly a fertile and ingenious comic mind. He’s been credited with helping build the contemporary New Orleans comedy scene from the ground up, having started the aforementioned New Movement, a comedy school and theater with a range of performance and writing classes, with fellow comedian Tami Nelson.

And when he talks about his conservatory and his craft, he speaks with the palpable sincerity and digressive passion of a committed artist. “The New Movement is something I wish I had when I was starting out,” says Trew, who got into stand-up as a student at Louisiana State University. “It’s a way for people to be able to get on stage easily and focus on their work. You can get training without worrying about all the stuff that might otherwise slow you down.”

So given Trew’s ambitious yet cerebral approach to art and performance, what’s the appeal of promoting something as unabashedly weird and socially unacceptable as public air sex?

“I just happen to love it,” Trew says with a laugh. “I love how it brings people out of their shells. And I love that it gives them a forum to express themselves sexually, with other people, but in a safe place.

“You end up seeing it all. The best is seeing people who are really shy, who get prompted by their friends to get up on stage, and they end up losing themselves. Then there are people who are super-prepared, super-rehearsed.

Sometimes they get up there in crazy

costumes, dominatrix outfits with clown makeup and stuff.”

Trew says the ASWC is his center-stage endeavor right now, but that isn’t to say it’s the only thing he has brewing. He and Nelson have opened another New Movement Theater in Austin, Texas, and he’s an active participant as both a manager and occasional in-ring performer in the New Orleans professional wrestling scene. He’s also got a quasi-legitimate music career on hold—he’s released three records (The Freshest Dude, My Wiener Touches the Ceiling, and Half Man Half Beard) under the “rap handle” Terp2it.

“I started dabbling in stand-up around ’99 or 2000, and I quickly realized that doing the things I wanted to do was the way to go,” Trew says, assessing the weird and unwieldy trajectory of his career. “I became a fan of those artists who created their own path.

“And every new thing I tried, it opened a new door. So I embraced every door as it opened. I got better and better at multi-tasking. And I realized that the more I have to do, the happier I am.” ◆

WHAT

Scruffy City Comedy Festival

WHERE

Scruffy City Hall, Preservation Pub, and Knoxville Uncorked (Market Square)

WHEN

Friday, Nov. 13Sunday, Nov. 15

HOW MUCH $15-$40

INFO

scruffycitycomedy.com

Classical Music

conductor. As is the custom, a double cast of student singers is split across the four performances.

Classical Mixtape UT Opera and a new string quartet highlight Knoxville’s broadening classical-music landscape

BY ALAN SHERROD

W

ith the proponents of fascism seemingly vanquished at the end of World War II, the United States and its European allies turned again to their prewar ideological enemy, communism. In 1949, the Soviet Union detonated its first nuclear device and Manhattan Project atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs chillingly confessed to spying, deepening fears of insidious and oppressive mechanisms working to subvert democracy. Into this anxious world, composer Gian Carlo Menotti brought his first full-length opera, The Consul, a 1950 work that mixes the absurdist predicaments of Franz Kafka with the totalitarianism alarms of George Orwell. The University of Tennessee Opera Theatre tackles The Consul this weekend in four performances at the Bijou Theatre.

The Consul, which premiered in Philadelphia and then ran for eight months on Broadway, won both the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Music and the Drama Critics Award. Its popularity stemmed from its integrated use of text, music, and action to achieve Menotti’s stated philosophy of a “unified whole” in music drama.

Critics invariably compliment the score’s “modern complexities,” which are moderated by lyrical arias and ensemble pieces.

Menotti’s libretto, set in an unnamed totalitarian European country, relates the story of John Sorel, a freedom fighter forced into

hiding. Sorel’s wife, Magda, attempts to obtain a visa for the couple, his mother, and their child from a consulate of another nameless country. That consulate, though, is the quintessential totalitarian bureaucracy, where people fill out endless forms and endure illogical and unexplainable waits.

“We have decided to focus heavily on the Orwellian and Kafkaesque themes of the opera by presenting a design that is intentionally oppressive and unnerving,” says James Marvel, director of UT Opera Theatre. “We were inspired by the grayscale world of the communist state, so the show is white, black, and gray except for the occasional and intentional bursts of color.”

The set designer for the production will be Blair Mielnik, whose work was last seen in UT Opera’s Cosi fan tutte. UT School of Music’s Kevin Class is the music director and

The health of a music scene can be measured by the existence and acceptance of new groups and ensembles that flourish outside of the bigger, traditionally funded organizations. One such ensemble is the new Knoxville-based string quartet Inner Voices, which will launch with a concert on Friday, Nov. 13, at the new creative hub known as the Hive. Inner Voices consists of violinists Ruth Bacon and Rachel Loseke, violist Christy Graffeo, and cellist Jeanine Wilkinson.

While all four quartet members also perform with the KSO or other local ensembles, their raison d’etre for Inner Voices has taken them in an alternate direction.

“For string players, chamber music is what we live for,” Wilkinson says. “It’s such a unique instrumentation that [allows] each player to be a soloist and at the same time be part of an ensemble. On top of this, the repertoire for this instrumentation is not only extensive but amazing, and anyone who has an opportunity to perform this genre will not turn it down.

“Putting on our own concert may seem like a simple idea because bands do it all the time at bars and such. But for classical players, we forget about this type of performance outlet unless it’s associated with a symphony or chamber series. We are putting on an event where people can eat and drink while enjoying some great music.”

A&E

Their inaugural program is called Mixed Tape and features select movements from a number of familiar works—Ravel’s String Quartet in F, Beethoven’s Op. 18, no.4, and Mozart’s String Quartet No. 14, in addition to Tango Ballet by Astor Piazzolla and Is Now Not Enough? by University of Tennessee graduate and Asheville resident Dosia McKay. The evening is being produced by Kevin Doherty of k. doherty entertainment and the Hive. ◆

WHAT

UT Opera Theatre: The Consul

WHERE

Bijou Theatre (803 S. Gay St.)

WHEN

Friday, Nov. 13Sunday, Nov. 15

HOW MUCH $20

INFO

music.utk.edu/opera

WHAT

Inner Voices String Quartet: Mixed Tape

WHERE

The Hive (854 N. Central St.)

WHEN

For string players, chamber music is what we live for. … Anyone who has an opportunity to perform this genre will not turn it down.

—JEANINE WILKINSON of the new Knoxville string quartet Inner Voices

Friday, Nov. 13, at 7 p.m.

HOW MUCH $10

INFO

facebook.com/ innervoicesstringquartet/

November 12, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 25

A&E

Ar t

Heroes in Orange A gallery of Vols by an unlikely fan, musician Will Johnson

BY ROSE KENNEDY

S

taubach, Swann, Bradshaw.

Kennett, Mo: Those were the jerseys the guys wore in this late-’70s full-tackle sandlot pickup game.

But one kid had an orange #6, Jimmy Streater, and a homemade power T helmet, both gifts from his dad, Roehl Johnson, a University of Tennessee alumnus.

“I wore that jersey so thin that we had to replace it a couple years later,” Will Johnson remembers.

They went to the 1978 Liberty Bowl, father and son. They drove to Memphis, “the only town of significant culture for those of us from across the river,” Johnson says. :It was a frustrating loss to Mississippi State. The mood was somber, and the car savage and foul, all the way home.”

The same pair will travel to a Vol game again this weekend, when the University of Tennessee faces North Texas. And Will, the unlikely lifetime Vol fan, will be bringing an art show with him.

The subject is All Vols: Knox County Warriors. He will hang it at Pioneer House on Thursday. The opening is Friday; the works stay there through the end of the year.

It is a tribute, acrylics of various Vols from years past, each painted in what might best be described as folk realism with snippets of love-song lyrics printed along the side. The Condredge Holloway notes his reputation as “artful dodger,” for example, the “picture of grace, courage, speed, agility.”

They are a little from the Howard Finster school of free-flowing stream of consciousness, but more direct, more contemporary. And they are not precisely Will’s usual thing.

“I’ve always painted baseball

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

players, so painting this collection of football players was a new thing for me,” he says. “Part of the fun was getting a better perspective of the Vols great uniform history.”

The work “Bad News” does indeed feature George Cafego in ’30s padding and earflap orange helmet; Peerless Price appears in ’90s garb; Johnny Majors shows up in his helmet from 1955, alongside the legend, “He did it all and did it well.”

Inky Johnson, Peyton Manning, Robert Neyland—those are a few of the others, but no one was assured of a place on Will’s roster. “There are some legends missing here and there, and I accepted that possibility from the start,” he says. “There are many, and I figure that’s a good problem for a football program to have. I didn’t sweat a strict to-do list but instead went with whatever player happened to inspire or intrigue me at the time the paints were out.”

Will has worked jobs on a farm, in maintenance and janitorial work, in comic-book distribution, in a record store, in restaurants, teaching kids, delivering cars, renting out tuxedos, transporting equipment, making sandwiches, and cleaning up radioactive and mercury-contaminated waste.

Since 2002, he’s paid his bills working as a musician, fronting the bands Centro-Matic and South San Gabriel and playing with the Monsters of Folk and New Multitudes as well as solo. “The touring has taken me around the U.S. and Europe a lot for more than half my life, and I’ve been lucky for that,” he says.

The art began in earnest some seven years ago. “I started with some spare acrylic paints and scraps of MDF board. It was a way to decorate the walls of the spartan apartment I’d

moved into at the time, and a way to pay tribute to some of the sports heroes I’ve loved,” he says. “Working with acrylic felt lower risk in case I just wrecked a piece. And I’ve gotten used to the movement of it on a brush I guess.”

The Knox County Warriors are rendered in a “very beautiful and specific orange, obviously,” that took some work to get where he wanted it.

Ten years ago, he gave the first piece he ever painted to his dad for his birthday. It was inspired by that 1978 Liberty Bowl and depicts a Mississippi State player being tackled by a number of Vols.

“A bitter cold swept in as the sun set, and I got sick on the way home,” he remembers. “I thought it was the Wendy’s, but years later I considered the plausible scenario that it might have been my first true taste of internalized, spectator heartbreak.”

Things looked up later, though. “In the coming years my dad continued to turn me on to the magnitude of Tennessee football, kindly taking me back to the Liberty Bowl when the Vols

would come west for the occasional home-away-from-home game. Thanks to him I got to see Reggie White, Willie Gault, and Bill Bates play at the height of their college careers.”

Looking back, that first gift painting doesn’t seem particularly good, “but I feel like my father appreciated it, at least. I made him a slightly better painting last year; a Whitey Herzog piece.”

This trip could inspire a Neyland painting. “I’d love to do a Neyland piece at some point,” Johnson says.

“Though so far, as stadiums go, I’ve only painted baseball parks.”

The trip might inspire a song lyric, too. Johnson has written more than 1,000 by now. “Various sports metaphors have crept into the lyrics over the years, especially early on. No Tennessee-related lyrics, though I need to get Jimmy Streater into a lyric at some point. He was my first favorite Vol.” “Rocky Top”? He’s not sung it on stage or video, and has no plans for that.

“But I can sing it. I suspect I will belt it at the game.” ◆

WHAT

Will Johnson: All Vols: Knox County Warriors

WHERE

Pioneer House (413 S. Gay St.)

WHEN

Through Dec. 31; an opening reception will be held on Friday, Nov. 13, from 6-9 p.m.

INFO

pioneer-house.com

Movies

Bond Porn Spectre returns the Bond series to its pulpy roots

BY APRIL SNELLINGS

I

n his fourth and perhaps final outing as the world’s most oversexed spy, Daniel Craig seems all brooded out.

After putting 007 through the emotional wringer in the surprisingly affecting Skyfall, Spectre lets him off the hook a little—the tone is lighter, the plot is sillier, and the one-liners fly like rounds from a Walther PPK. The fact that so many of those quips miss their mark is indicative of Spectre’s biggest problem: Its script is a messy, scattershot affair that makes plenty of room for director Sam Mendes to stage thrilling, jaw-dropping set pieces but makes too many clumsy attempts to tie together Craig’s three previous Bond entries. Spectre wrings every possible bit of spectacle from its expensive, globe-trotting action

scenes, even as it squanders some of its most valuable resources—Monica Bellucci, for instance, is woefully underused as an assassin’s not-sogrieving widow, as is Léa Seydoux as a punchy new Bond woman. Poor Christoph Waltz barely gets to chew any scenery at all as Spectre’s much-anticipated supervillain.

It’s still a fun Bond movie, even if it’s not a great one. Spectre kicks off with some truly virtuoso moviemaking: an elaborate tracking shot that follows a debonair, skeleton-masked couple through the dusty throngs of a Mexico City Day of the Dead celebration. Before the title appears, Bond and his target have destroyed much of a city block and engaged in gravity-defying fisticuffs aboard a tumbling, twirling helicopter.

From there, it’s back to London, where a smarmy bureaucrat known as C (Andrew Scott) is engineering a plan to copy the plan engineered in Captain America: Winter Soldier—something about a worldwide surveillance network that will make the 00 program obsolete. While Bond darts around the globe tracking a terrorist organization known as Spectre, his compatriots at MI6, including M (Ralph Fiennes), Q (Ben Whishaw), and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), are busy trying to thwart C’s attempts to get his new global spying machine online.

There were nearly as many people trying to get Spectre’s script into shape. Skyfall writers Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and John Logan are back, joined by English playwright

A&E

Jez Butterworth, but their efforts were apparently focused on retconning several decades of Bond mythology in a puzzling attempt to turn the last four films into one, giant story arc—and, in turn, to tie that arc into the franchise’s earlier installments.

The plot, then, is an episodic mishmash of clumsy revelations that make little sense. The movie seems to think the identity of Waltz’s shadowy villain is a secret, so I won’t divulge it here—needless to say, it’s a character who doesn’t need an ounce of the squishy backstory that Spectre forces upon him.

All of this grumbling about Spectre’s junkyard plot is a preface to a colossal “but.” As silly and contrived as it is, Spectre ultimately entertains, and dusts off enough classic 007 elements to earn it plenty of goodwill.

Think of it as Bond porn. The references to earlier installments never stop— there’s a white cat, an ejector seat, an epic passenger-train dust-up, even a secret lair nestled in a volcanic crater.

If it all feels empty compared to Skyfall, well, how could it not?

Spectre makes good on its title, as it’s necessarily a phantom of its most immediate predecessor. Bond’s adventures have glitz and flash in spades, but emotional capital is harder to come by. After killing off a beloved character and sketching out as much of a backstory as Bond will ever need, there was nowhere to go but a soft reset, and Spectre offers that. From its opening credits sequence, which juxtaposes guns, naked women, and a CG octopus in some delightfully sleazy ways, it’s clear that the cabal behind the Bond franchise means to return the series to its pulpy roots.

Skyfall, awash in sinister atmosphere and absolutely compelling, was a masterpiece, and it’s hard to imagine it will be anything but the defining film of Craig’s Bond stint—especially if Spectre does turn out to be his last.

But even though Craig has indicated that gory suicide would be preferable to spending any more time straightening Bond’s cufflinks, Spectre makes it hard to imagine that he won’t be back for one more turn in the tux. ◆ November 12, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 27

CALENDAR MUSIC

Thursday, Nov. 12 AUTUMN ATTICS WITH MILES OVER MOUNTAINS • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM WILL BOYD • Red Piano Lounge • 8PM THE KNOX COUNTY JUG STOMPERS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM • The Knox County Jug Stompers come from all kinds of backgrounds but have settled on a more or less authentic reproduction of the jug music made popular throughout the South nearly a century ago by Gus Cannon and the Jug Stompers and other bands with similar names, like Clifford Hayes’ Old Southern Jug Band, the Dixieland Jug Blowers, and the Seven Gallon Jug Band.

PONY BRADSHAW • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Pony Bradshaw is an American roots band based out of Chatsworth, Ga. Heavily influenced by artists such as Lightnin’ Hopkins and Townes Van Zandt, Pony Bradshaw looks to create the type of intoxicating, toe-tappin’ music that fueled honky tonks and dance halls across the Mississippi Delta and American South, all the way down to the lonesome howls of disrepair that echo through a troubled mind.

THE RHINOS WITH ADRENALINE KID AND MAYEST • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • $5 • See preview on page 22.

ED SCHRADER’S MUSIC BEAT • Pilot Light • 10PM • Ed Schrader is a natural, albeit unconventional, storyteller.

The Baltimore-based musician, comedian, and sometimes pasta chef, who is best known for his sweaty performances as half of the postpunk duo Ed Schrader’s Music Beat , writes loosely autobiographical songs that are full of witty observations. But while it’s not unusual for storytellers to set their tales to music, Schrader’s words pack a punch on stage—literally. • $6 THE THIRST QUENCHERS • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM • The Ps and Qs house band.

THE CHARLES WALKER BAND • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

DAVID WAX MUSEUM • The Square Room • 8PM • David Wax and Suz Slezak front the David Wax Museum, and together with their band they fuse traditional Mexican folk with indie rock and American roots to create a Mexo-Americana aesthetic. • $12-$15 • See Spotlight on page 33.

WELL WORN SOLES WITH THE JAKOB FERRY STRAGGLERS • 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 Friday, Nov. 13 AMOUR WITH HEARTSICK, AMONG THE BEASTS, INWARD OF EDEN, AND INDIE LAGONE • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 7PM • All ages. • $10 BLIND JOE WITH ELISIUM AND AUTUMN REFLECTION • The Bowery • 8PM • 18 and up. • $6-$10 WILL BOYD • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE THE DEAD RINGERS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

FREE THE OPTIMUS WITH FUNKMASTER FERB AND A BANKS • Longbranch Saloon • 9PM KATY FREE AND WENDEL WERNER • Red Piano Lounge • 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 THE GRAND OLE UPROAR • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria 28

KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

Thursday, Nov. 12 – Sunday, Nov. 22

(Maryville) • 10PM THE GRAVITY TOUR • NV Nightclub • 9PM • Figure presented by Ultimo Productions and Disco Donnie comes to NV Nightclub for The Gravity Tour. 18 and up.

COL. BRUCE HAMPTON • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Col. Bruce has been in constant motion ever since leaving a trail of memorable live performances with his many bands, including The Late Bronze Age and Col. Bruce Hampton and The Aquarium Rescue Unit. Since 2006, The Colonel has been playing a unique blend of blues and jazz with his band Col. Bruce & The Quark Alliance.

THE JAILHOUSE REVIEW • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM JESCOE • Scruffy City Hall • 10PM KELLE JOLLY AND THE WILL BOYD PROJECT • Knoxville Museum of Art • 6PM • Special guests include saxophonist Erena Terakubo from Sapporo, Japan, guitarist Mark Boling, drummer Keith Brown, and pianist Ben Dockery. • $10-$15 JUBAL • Laurel Theater • 8PM • $14 THE CLAIRE LYNCH BAND WITH THE RAILSPLITTERS • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 7:30PM • Claire Lynch is a pioneer who continually pushes the boundaries of the bluegrass genre. The Railsplitters operate with the instrumentation of a bluegrass band while making music that is not limited to tradition.

THE WILL OVERMAN BAND • 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 ANGELA PERLEY AND THE HOWLIN’ MOONS • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE STS9 • Tennessee Theatre • 7:30PM • Instrumental electronic rock band STS9’s meteoric rise to the forefront of the international music scene began nearly 17 years ago in Atlanta, GA, and since that time they’ve headlined America’s most classic theaters, arenas, amphitheatres, and large music festivals. The band’s eleventh album, WHEN THE DUST SETTLES, keeps with XLR8R Magazine’s exclamation that STS9 is “one of the country’s most intriguing, innovative outfits around.” • $30-$35 DAVE SLACK TRIO • Pero’s on the Hill • 7PM • Instrumental and vocal jazz standards.

MIKE SNODGRASS • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM SPANKALICIOUS AND YHETI • The Concourse • 10PM • STS9 afterparty—free with a ticket stub, $5 for everybody else.

18 and up.

VACATIONIST LEAGUE • Saw Works Brewing Company • 6PM • Knoxville jazz-folk duo featuring John Tilson and Brandon Beavers.

WENDEL WERNER • Red Piano Lounge • 6PM Saturday, Nov. 14 CHAS BLAKEMORE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM JOE BONAMASSA • Knoxville Civic Coliseum • 8PM • Bonamassa’s career began onstage opening for B.B. King in 1989, when he was only 12 years old. Today, he is hailed worldwide as one of the greatest guitar players of his generation, and is an ever-evolving singer-songwriter who has released 16 solo albums in the last 14 years, all on his own label, J&R Adventures. • $73-$104 KEITH BROWN AND THE KB3 • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM THE BURNIN’ HERMANS • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM CONNOR CHRISTIAN AND SOUTHERN GOTHIC • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM DOUBLE TAKE • The Concourse • 2PM • Double Take is a double elimination one-on-one DJ battle being hosted by

Square 1 Entertainment and Darkmatter Squad aka The DM Collective. Judges are AquaBoogie, Xcentric, Joe Styles, Weezy, and Verb. 18 and up. • $15 JUSTIN FEDOR AND THE TENNESSEE STIFF LEGS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church • 7PM • Jason Thompson’s band doesn’t play bebop, the mainstay of the American saxman for more than half a century. He prefers to do something different. Frog & Toad can sound more old-fashioned than bebop, with Dixieland and ragtime tunes. But then, in the same set, they’ll sound more modern than bebop, with funk or fusion, or something original he wrote last week.

Admission is free but donations will be accepted for ORUUC’s racial-justice efforts. • FREE HEISKELL WITH THE FRENCH AND THE JANK • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Heiskell is the latest project by former Judybats frontman Jeff Heiskell. • $5 HOME FREE • Niswonger Performing Arts Center

(Greeneville) • 7:30PM • Home Free, Season 4 winner of NBC’s The Sing Off, is an a cappella sensation that has become a national phenomenon. This five man a cappella group has wowed audiences around the nation with their high-energy show peppered with quick witted humor that meshes Nashville standards with pop hits dipped in country flavor. • $25-$125 JUBAL WITH NED VAN GO • 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 KILL WITH MANTICORE • Pilot Light • 10PM • Black/death metal from Sweden. 18 and up. • $7 • See Spotlight on page 31.

KNOX COUNTY JUG STOMPERS • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE THE CHUCK MULLICAN JAZZ BONANZA • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE ANGELA PERLEY AND THE HOWLIN’ MOONS • Sugarlands

DISTILLED: THE NARRATIVE TRANSFORMED Ewing Gallery (1715 Volunteer Blvd.) • Through Dec. 13 • Free • ewing-gallery.utk.edu

The title of this solo retrospective on the career of Memphis painter (and former University of Tennessee visiting artist) Pinkney Herbert suggests a gradual progression from traditional figurative painting to abstraction. That may be the case, but Herbert’s most recent work is unabashedly abstract—large-scale canvases, some nearly 7 feet tall, covered with bold and energetic strokes and slashes of color. It’s powerful stuff, straightforward yet still enigmatic, the brute force of his gestures and the heroic size of his works balanced by a sense of legibility and rationality. There are a lot of identifiable influences—Rothko, Basquiat, Kandinsky—and the resulting work will prompt various responses from viewers. Some of Herbert’s paintings invite curiosity—how did he do that?—or analysis—what’s going on there? But the best of them demand only to be looked at and absorbed. (Matthew Everett)

31

Spotlight: Kill with Manticore

33

Spotlight: The David Wax Museum

Thursday, Nov. 12 – Sunday, Nov. 22

Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE THE RERUNS • Pero’s on the Hill • 7PM • Knoxville’s premier TV band plays your favorite television themes.

STEVE RUTLEDGE • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM SCHATZI AND THE STRING BOFFIN • Longbranch Saloon • 9PM BEN SHUSTER • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE SOUTHERN BELLES WITH CHEW • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

Sunday, Nov. 15 ABHORRENT DEFORMITY WITH FILTH • Longbranch Saloon • 7PM MICHAEL CHARLES • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 6PM PALE ROOT • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM • Aaron Freeman’s taste for contemporary songwriters like Ryan Adams and Darrel Scott provides a balance to Jordan Burris’ penchant for bluegrass and traditional folk. As Pale Root, they’ve quietly settled into their 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. It’s a surprisingly full and mature sound from just two people.

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, Nov. 16 TONY FURTADO WITH HIGHBEAMS • 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 TONY FURTADO • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Very few musicians of any stripe so personify a musical genre as completely as Tony Furtado embodies Americana roots music. Tony is an evocative and soulful singer, a wide-ranging songwriter and a virtuoso multi-instrumentalist adept on banjo, cello-banjo, slide guitar and baritone ukulele who mixes and matches sounds and styles with the flair of a master chef (he’s also an accomplished sculptor, but that’s another story).

MARYVILLE COLLEGE JAZZ BAND CONCERT • Clayton Center for the Arts • 7PM • FREE METAL MONDAY • Longbranch Saloon • 9PM OPEN CHORD BATTLE OF THE BANDS • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Each band will be playing full original sets. The only cover they’ll be doing is a song of their choice by Simon & Garfunkel. A new artist will be chosen to cover each week.Come out to support your favorite local band and hear some great live music.

Winner will advance to the finale night on Dec. 14.

Judging is based on songwriting, performance, originality, entertainment value, and audience vote. Come out for some drinks with family and friends and support local music. • $5 Tuesday, Nov. 17 THE DAVID BROMBERG QUINTET • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • Allow us to introduce David Bromberg, and his new album Only Slightly Mad. You can tell a lot about a person from the company he keeps, and when that company has included Bob Dylan, The Beastie Boys, George Harrison, Emmylou Harris, Doc Watson, John Hiatt, Jerry Garcia, Reverend Gary Davis, Dr. John, Pete Seeger, Willie Nelson,

CALENDAR

John Prine, Phoebe Snow, Jerry Jeff Walker & Mississippi John Hurt you know you’re dealing with a very special case. • $32.50-$45 THE FUSTICS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

INTRONAUT WITH GENERATION OF VIPERS, REALM, AND NATIVE CONSTRUCT • The Concourse • 8PM • Los Angeles post-prog masters Intronaut return with their 4th and most impressive full length album to date; Habitual Levitations. Once again yielding thunderous, tribal drum beats, hypnotic bass patterns, angular guitar riffs and the trance-like vocals of Sacha Dunable, Intronaut pick up where they left off on 2010’s Valley of Smoke, though this time around, see the songs a bit more refined and cultivated. All ages. • $11 THE MARK SCHMICK STRING BAND • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Mandolin picker with Larry Keel and Natural Bridge, and multi-instrumentalist with Masa Con Grasa, Mud Tea, Boss Hawg, and various musical trios, duos, or solo shows.

THE SHIFTY DRIFTERS WITH ABBY THE SPOON LADY • 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 Wednesday, Nov. 18 CHAMOMILE AND WHISKEY • 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 JOE DUNN WITH ROMAN REESE AND MATT A. FOSTER • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Join Joe Dunn as he celebrates his homecoming at the Open Chord with fellow Knoxville musicians Roman Reese and Matt Foster.

All ages. • $5 FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 6:30PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE THE GREAT AMERICAN CANYON BAND WITH PATRICK KINSLEY • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

THE CASEY GREEN TRIO • The Bistro at the Bijou • 7PM • Live jazz. • FREE PI JACOBS • Preservation Pub • 8PM • 21 and up.

KELLEY MCRAE • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7PM • Kelley McRae grew up in Mississippi but called Brooklyn home before teaming up with guitarist Matt Castelein in 2011, when the duo traded in their NYC apartment for a VW camper van and hit the road. Drawing comparisons to Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch, the duo’s music is wide ranging - comprising haunting ballads, tender love songs, and energetic guitar driven songs full of hope. • $10 PRESTON SHIRES TRIO • Red Piano Lounge • 8PM COLE SWINDELL WITH ADAM SANDERS • Cotton Eyed Joe • 10PM • Now and then, a song and artist can’t be denied.

Earlier this year, Cole Swindell was nothing more or less than a terrific songwriter with a Nashville publishing deal and a growing reputation as one of the city’s most exciting young performers. Now, he’s on the road to stardom. • $25 Thursday, Nov. 19 THE BEARDED • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • The Bearded is an old-time style band with new songs, based in Knoxville.

BEN COSGROVE • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM DIGG WITH RED MONEY • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

THE TIM LEE 3 • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM • The new Tim Lee 3 album, 33 1/3, is, like its predecessors, full of inventive, melodic guitar rock with

pop instincts and bar-band muscle.

PAT REEDY AND THE LONGTIME GONERS WITH CLYDE’S ON FIRE • 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 REGIONS • Longbranch Saloon • 7PM SECRET CITY CYPHERS HIP-HOP OPEN MIC • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Join Secret City Cyphers as MCs, poets, singers, musicians and dancers all come together to perform and preserve real hip-hop. All ages. • $3-$5 THE THIRST QUENCHERS • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM • The Ps and Qs house band.

Friday, Nov. 20 BETTER DAZE • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM T. MICHAEL BRANNER CONCEPTET • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE THE BREAKFAST CLUB WITH EVAN STONE • The International • 9PM • 18 and up. • $10-$20 BRIAN CLAY • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM THE COTERIES • Preservation Pub • 8PM • 21 and up.

DEROBERT AND THE HALF TRUTHS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • DeRobert & The Half-Truths are the house band for Nashville, TN raw funk label G.E.D. Soul Records. The Half-Truths got their start in 2007 as a collection of studio musicians lending their talent to the fledgling G.E.D. Soul recording operation. It was with the addition of DeRobert Adams and his impressive broad range of vocal skills that the band began to solidify into the soul powerhouse it is today. After releasing a string of heavy duty raw funk 45’s and a strong full length album, the band has caught the ear of funk and soul heads world wide.

THE JAY ERIC BAND • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 8PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE LINEAR DOWNFALL WITH EX-GOLD AND DAY AND AGE • Pilot Light • 10PM • 18 and up. • $5 MIDNIGHT VOYAGE LIVE ANNIVERSARY: ROB GARZA • The Concourse • 8AM • Rob Garza (of Thievery Corporation) is performing a DJ set for the 5 Year Midnight Voyage LIVE Anniversary. With Marley Carroll. 18+. • 15-20 THE NEW SCHEMATICS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM THE POP ROX • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE SCULL SOUP WITH LEGBONE AND THE HARAKIRIS • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • All ages. • $5 SHAKEY GRAVES • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • While his remarkable success story continues to unfold, Alejandro Rose-Garcia sees And the War Came as a pivotal step in the evolution of Shakey Graves. “This is a doorframe album, as we’re going into a new building,” he says. “It’s taste of everything—what might come in future, which might include just guitar or the one-man band thing, but not pigeonholed to any one sound. I wanted to open some stuff up and get people ready for wherever it’s going.” • $19.50 DAVE SLACK TRIO • Pero’s on the Hill • 7PM • Instrumental and vocal jazz standards.

THE SOUTH CAROLINA BROADCASTERS • Laurel Theater • 8PM • Now based in Mount Airy, North Carolina, the South Carolina Broadcasters are an award winning old-time trio featuring Ivy Sheppard on fiddle, banjo, guitar and vocals; Andy Edmunds on fiddle, guitar and vocals; and David Sheppard on guitar and vocals. Tight harmonies and exceptional instrumentation give the group a powerful November 12, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 29

CALENDAR old-time sound. They’ve played with some of the great string bands of the past-Ivy with the Roan Mountain Hilltoppers and Andy with Benton Flippen’s Smokey Valley Boys. David is a renowned luthier. They draw their inspiration from the Carter Family and early country duos.

• $14 THE WAY DOWN WANDERERS • 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 WAY DOWN WANDERERS • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE WENDEL WERNER • Red Piano Lounge • 6PM THE WILD THINGS • Scruffy City Hall • 10PM WRANGLER SPACE • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

Saturday, Nov. 21 CINDI ALPERT AND THE CORDUROY JAZZ TRIO • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM THE BROCKEFELLERS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $5 BROOMESTIX • Longbranch Saloon • 9PM BEN COSGROVE WITH NEO TUNDRA COWBOY • 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 THE JACKSON EMMER TRIO • Preservation Pub • 8PM • 21 and up. • FREE EMPERORS AND ELEPHANTS WITH INWARD OF EDEN, BELFAST SIX PACK, AND TRANSPARENT SOUL • The Bowery

30

KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

Thursday, Nov. 12 – Sunday, Nov. 22

• 8PM • 18 and up. • $5-$9 WILL HOGE WITH SUNDY BEST • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • “Took a whole lot of miles to know what I know now,” sings Will Hoge on “Growing Up Around Here,” the opening track off of his tenth studio album, Small Town Dreams. “I’m kinda proud of growing up around here.” It’s been a whole lot of miles, indeed: miles on the road, driving the bus himself from venue to venue since the nineties; miles to and from Nashville writing rooms, where he’s spent countless hours penning songs ‘ some for him, some for others; miles exploring lands outside of his native Franklin, Tennessee, chasing the spirits of his musical heroes. • $19.50-$21.50 LEIGH NASH WITH GABE DIXON • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Leigh Nash is perhaps best known as the pixie-like singer with the heavenly voice from Sixpence None the Richer, a CCM group that enjoyed considerable fame in 1999 with the single “Kiss Me.” All ages. • $12-$15 RADIO BIRDS WITH CUMBERLAND STATION • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM THE RERUNS • Pero’s on the Hill • 7PM • Knoxville’s premier TV band plays your favorite television themes.

SECRET COMMONWEALTH • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE BEN SHUSTER • Bearden Field House • 9PM • FREE SOUTHBOUND • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM SUNSHINE STATION • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM • Trippy-hippy folk band.

PATRICK SWEANY • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • On a given night (or on a given album) he’ll swing

through blues, folk, soul, bluegrass, maybe some classic 50s rock, or a punk speedball. He’s a musical omnivore, devouring every popular music sound of the last 70 years, and mixing ’em all together seamlessly into his own stew. Yet, the one thing that most people notice about Patrick isn’t his ability to copy – it’s his authenticity. Like his heroes, artists like Bobby “Blue” Bland, Doug Sahm, Joe Tex, Patrick somehow manages to blend all of these influences into something all his own.

GREG TARDY • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM WILL YAGER TRIO • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE unday, Nov. 22 S BIG DADDY WEAVE • Niswonger Performing Arts Center (Greeneville) • 6:30PM • Through more than a decade of hits like “In Christ,” “Audience of One,” “You’re Worthy Of My Praise,” “Every Time I Breathe,” “What Life Would Be Like,” and “You Found Me,” Big Daddy Weave has shared the journey in a way that has won the ongoing respect of fans, press, and industry alike. • $20-$45 CASTLE WITH O’POSSUM, SPLIT TUSK, AND WHITE STAG • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 6PM • San Francisco heavy metal cultists Castle released their album “Under Siege” on May 20 via Prosthetic Records. Recorded at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, Calif. with producer/mixer Billy Anderson (Neurosis, Eyehategod) — who also produced their 2012 Juno-nominated release “Blacklands” — “Under Siege” pushes Castle’s unique sound further with the confluence of punishing riffs and melodic passages of haunted, full-blooded madness. All ages. •

$8 DONNA THE BUFFALO AND PETER ROWAN • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • Donna the Buffalo’s feel-good, groove-oriented, danceable and often socially conscious music all began over twenty years ago with roots in old time fiddle music that evolved into a soulful electric Americana mix infused with elements of cajun/ zydeco, rock, folk, reggae, and country. • $25 KITES • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $3 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 THE JON WHITLOCK TRIO • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM • Jon whitlock, Meade Armstrong and Jessica Watson make music that is loud and soft, high and low, fast and slow by picking, bowing, strumming and plucking strings together and apart and each with their own voice they sing words that sometimes rhyme… and sometimes do not.

OPEN MIC AND SONGWRITER NIGHTS

Thursday, Nov. 12 SCOTTISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month. • FREE

Thursday, Nov. 12 – Sunday, Nov. 22

Friday, Nov. 13 TIME WARP TEA ROOM OPEN SONGWRITER NIGHT • Time Warp Tea Room • 7PM • Songwriter Night at Time Warp Tea Room runs on the second and fourth Friday of every month. Show up around 7 p.m. with your instrument in tow and sign up to share a couple of original songs with a community of friends down in Happy Holler. • FREE Saturday, Nov. 14 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, Nov. 15 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

CALENDAR

LAYOVER BRUNCH • The Concourse • 12PM • Brunch food

by Localmotive. Music on the patio. Presented by Midnight Voyage Productions. All ages. • FREE

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Friday, Nov. 13 INNER VOICES: MIXED TAPE • The Hive • 7PM • The brand new Knoxville-based string quartet Inner Voices will make its debut at the Hive in Old North Knoxville with a program called Mixed Tape, featuring select movements from some of history’s best-known string quartets as well as stand-alone works. • $10 • See preview on page 25.

UT OPERA THEATRE: THE CONSUL • Bijou Theatre • 8PM •

Gian Carlo Menotti’s 1950 opera mixes the absurdist predicaments of Franz Kafka with the totalitarianism alarms of George Orwell. Visit www.music.utk.edu for more information. • $20 • See preview on page 25.

Saturday, Nov. 14 UT OPERA THEATRE: THE CONSUL • Bijou Theatre • 2:30PM and 8PM • Visit www.music.utk.edu for more information.

• $20 • See preview on page 25.

Sunday, Nov. 15 UT OPERA THEATRE: THE CONSUL • Bijou Theatre • 2:30PM • Visit www.music.utk.edu for more information. • $20 • See preview on page 25.

OAK RIDGE CIVIC MUSIC ASSOCIATION: DAVID BURGESS • Oak Ridge High School • 3PM • The Oak Ridge Civic Music

Tuesday, Nov. 17 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, Nov. 18 TIME WARP TEA ROOM OLD-TIME JAM • Time Warp Tea Room • 7PM • Regular speed old-time/fiddle jam every Wednesday. All instruments and skill levels welcome.

BRACKINS BLUES JAM • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM • A weekly open session hosted by Tommie John. • FREE LONGBRANCH ACOUSTIC OPEN MIC NIGHT • Longbranch Saloon • 9PM Thursday, Nov. 19 IRISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the first and third Thursdays of each month. • FREE Saturday, Nov. 21 OLD-TIME SLOW JAM • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 4PM • A monthly old-time music session, held on the third Saturday of each month. • FREE

DJ AND DANCE NIGHTS Friday, Nov. 13 RETRO DANCE NIGHT • Hanna’s Old City • 9PM • 80s and Top 40 hits with DJ Ray Funk.

SUPERSONIC SOUNDS OF THE ‘70S • Spicy’s • 9PM • FREE

KILL WITH MANTICORE Pilot Light (106 E. Jackson Ave.) • Saturday, Nov. 14 • 10 p.m. • $7 •

Saturday, Nov. 14 RETRO DANCE NIGHT • Hanna’s Old City • 9PM • 80s and Top 40 hits with DJ Ray Funk.

UT HOMECOMING 2015 • The International • 8PM • Featuring Sterl the Pearl. 18 and up. • $20

thepilotlight.com • 18 and up

Sunday, Nov. 15 LAYOVER BRUNCH • The Concourse • 12PM • Brunch food

By Localmotive. Music on the patio. Presented by Midnight Voyage Productions. All ages. • FREE

The Swedish trio Kill has been cranking out traditional black metal—think Mayhem and Darkthrone with a shot of Venom, Bathory, and Hellhammer—since 1997. Over the course of three albums and a clutch of split releases, EPS, live albums, and compilations, the band has progressed hardly at all; 2012’s Burning Blood is eight tracks of buzzsaw guitars and troll vocals, a testament to unholiness delivered with speed and violence.

Friday, Nov. 20 RETRO DANCE NIGHT • Hanna’s Old City • 9PM • 80s and Top 40 hits with DJ Ray Funk.

Saturday, Nov. 21 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.

This one’s for the true believers in the cult of old-school underground heavy metal, a nasty double dose of unreconstructed leather-clad, corpse-painted and hate-obsessed primitive black and death metal that promises to open a portal straight to hell in the Old City this weekend.

Manticore create an even more oppressive atmosphere on Behold the Ascension of the Execrated, the group’s third album, also from 2012. The Ohio band worships at the throne of creepy doom-death tyrants like Incantation and Funebrarum; the tempo lurches and oozes between knuckle-dragging and neck-snapping and back again, and song titles like “Abhorrent Baptism in the Vestal Cavity” and “From the Darkness Below” suggest some of the dark Lovecraftian mood that permeates. (Matthew Everett)

Sunday, Nov. 22 November 12, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 31

CALENDAR Association is pleased to present guitarist David Burgess in a solo recital. Hailed by the Washington Post for his “impressive technique and fine sense of style,” David Burgess is recognized as one of today’s outstanding guitarists, appearing internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. Visit orcma.org or call (865) 483-5569. • $25 MARYVILLE COLLEGE COMMUNITY BAND CONCERT • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 3PM • The Maryville College Community Concert Band, under the direction of Eric Simpson, will present a fall concert. • FREE Monday, Nov. 16 KNOXVILLE SYMPHONY YOUTH ORCHESTRA FALL CONCERT • Tennessee Theatre • 7PM • The Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Association consists of five orchestras and 300 students. • FREE Thursday, Nov. 19 KSO MASTERWORKS SERIES: TCHAIKOVSKY PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1 • Tennessee Theatre • 7:30PM • November’s concert opens with a satirical folk song, Concerto for Orchestra No. 1 by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin, known as “Naughty Limericks”. Guest conductor Shizuo Kuwaharawill conduct the orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, featuring pianist Stewart Goodyear. Concluding the program is Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3.

Friday, Nov. 20 KSO MASTERWORKS SERIES: TCHAIKOVSKY PIANO

Thursday, Nov. 12 – Sunday, Nov. 22

CONCERTO NO. 1 • Tennessee Theatre • 7:30PM • November’s concert opens with a satirical folk song, Concerto for Orchestra No. 1 by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin, known as “Naughty Limericks”. Guest conductor Shizuo Kuwaharawill conduct the orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, featuring pianist Stewart Goodyear. Concluding the program is Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3.

Saturday, Nov. 21 ADAM LEVIN • Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan • 7PM • Adam Levin has been praised by renowned American guitarist, Eliot Fisk, as a “virtuoso guitarist and a true 21st century renaissance man with the élan, intelligence, charm, tenacity and conviction to change the world.” Visit www.knoxvilleguitar.org. • $20 OAK RIDGE ORCHESTRA: BAROQUE TO MODERN • First United Methodist Church of Oak Ridge • 7:30PM • Enjoy an intimate evening with the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra for ‘Baroque to Modern’, featuring music by Telemann, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky.

Sunday, Nov. 22 DENNY MULLINS: PIPES, BELLS, AND SAX • First United Methodist Church • 4PM • An organ recital by Denny Mullins with interludes and accompaniments by FUMC Adult Handbell Choir and saxophonist Jason Law. Candlelight tour and reception following in historic Sanford House on church property. Program will include selections from composers Gabriel Pierné, Gerald Near, Marcel Dupré, J. S. Bach, and others. Free admission. For more information, call Lauren Robinson at 525-0435. • FREE

THEATER AND DANCE

Thursday, Nov. 12 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: MR. BURNS, A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY • Clarence Brown Theatre • 7:30PM • It’s the end of everything in contemporary America. A future without power! What will survive? In post-apocalyptic Northern California, a group of strangers bond by recreating an episode of “The Simpsons.” From this meeting, memories of Marge and Homer become the basis for shaping a new society as the play travels decades into the future. Visit clarencebrowntheatre.com. Oct. 28-Nov. 15.

TENNESSEE STAGE COMPANY: MY THREE ANGELS • Historic Southern Railway Station • 8PM • The Tennessee Stage Company, known to Knoxville audiences for Shakespeare on the Square and the New Play Festival, returns to our Timeless Works series this autumn with the Sam & Bella Spewack’s classic comedy, My Three Angels. This (almost) gentle comedy is the story of a three desperate, but unconventional, criminals who provide a loving, but struggling family with a most happy and unexpected Chruisdtmas. Nov. 5-15. Visit tennesseestage.com. • $15 Friday, Nov. 13 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘MR. BURNS, A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY’ • Clarence Brown Theatre • 2PM • Visit clarencebrowntheatre.com. Oct. 28-Nov. 15.

SHE KILLS MONSTERS • Pellissippi State Community College • 7:30PM • Enter into the fantasy realm of role-playing games in “She Kills Monsters,” a dramatic comedy by playwright Qui Nguyen. Nov. 13-22. Purchase

tickets at www.pstcc.edu/tickets. • $12 TENNESSEE STAGE COMPANY: MY THREE ANGELS • Historic Southern Railway Station • 3PM • Nov. 5-15. Visit tennesseestage.com. • $15 Saturday, Nov. 14 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘MR. BURNS, A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY’ • Clarence Brown Theatre • 2PM • Visit clarencebrowntheatre.com. Oct. 28-Nov. 15.

SHE KILLS MONSTERS • Pellissippi State Community College • 7:30PM • Nov. 13-22. Purchase tickets at www. pstcc.edu/tickets. • $12 TENNESSEE STAGE COMPANY: MY THREE ANGELS • Historic Southern Railway Station • 3PM • Nov. 5-15. Visit tennesseestage.com. • $15 MARYVILLE COLLEGE DANCE ENSEMBLE: OFF THE CHARTS • Clayton Center for the Arts • 7PM • $7 Sunday, Nov. 15 CLARENCE BROWN THEATRE: ‘MR. BURNS, A POST-ELECTRIC PLAY’ • Clarence Brown Theatre • 2PM • Visit clarencebrowntheatre.com. Oct. 28-Nov. 15.

SHE KILLS MONSTERS • Pellissippi State Community College • 2PM • Nov. 13-22. Purchase tickets at www. pstcc.edu/tickets. • $12 TENNESSEE STAGE COMPANY: MY THREE ANGELS • Historic Southern Railway Station • 3PM • Nov. 5-15. Visit tennesseestage.com. • $15 Wednesday, Nov. 18 MENOPAUSE THE MUSICAL: THE SURVIVOR TOUR • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 7:30PM • Four women at a

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

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Thursday, Nov. 12 – Sunday, Nov. 22

lingerie sale have nothing in common but a black lace bra AND memory loss, hot flashes, night sweats, not enough sex, too much sex and more. This hilarious musical parody set to classic tunes from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s will have you cheering and dancing in the aisles. Menopause The Musical: The Survivor Tour Benefiting Susan G. Komen is the first of its kind, donating a portion of every ticket sale directly to the ongoing effort to save lives and end breast cancer forever. • $31-$51

Leno, and David Letterman. • $25-$30 Friday, Nov. 13 SCRUFFY CITY COMEDY FESTIVAL • Downtown Knoxville • The Scruffy City Comedy Festival is returning to downtown Knoxville on Friday, Nov. 13, through Sunday Nov. 15. All venues will be within walking distance of Market Square.

Nearly three dozen comedians will be traveling to Knoxville to perform from all over the United States. In addition to these featured comedians the festival will also have nationally recognized headliners performing each night at Scruffy City Hall. Visit scruffycitycomedy.com. • $15-$30 • See preview on page 24.

Thursday, Nov. 19 MENOPAUSE THE MUSICAL: THE SURVIVOR TOUR • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 7:30PM • Four women at a lingerie sale have nothing in common but a black lace bra AND memory loss, hot flashes, night sweats, not enough sex, too much sex and more. This hilarious musical parody set to classic tunes from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s will have you cheering and dancing in the aisles. Menopause The Musical: The Survivor Tour Benefiting Susan G. Komen is the first of its kind, donating a portion of every ticket sale directly to the ongoing effort to save lives and end breast cancer forever. • $31-$51

Saturday, Nov. 14 SCRUFFY CITY COMEDY FESTIVAL • Downtown Knoxville • The Scruffy City Comedy Festival is returning to downtown Knoxville on Friday, Nov. 13, through Sunday Nov. 15. All venues will be within walking distance of Market Square.

Nearly three dozen comedians will be traveling to Knoxville to perform from all over the United States. In addition to these featured comedians the festival will also have nationally recognized headliners performing each night at Scruffy City Hall. Visit scruffycitycomedy.com. • $15-$30 • See preview on page 24.

Friday, Nov. 20 SHE KILLS MONSTERS • Pellissippi State Community College • 7:30PM • $12 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: A CHRISTMAS STORY • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • Based on the movie classic, the musical follows 9-year-old Ralphie and his quest for the Holy Grail of Christmas gifts—an Official Red Ryder carbine-action air rifle. Nov. 20-Dec. 6. Visit www. orplayhouse.com.

MARYVILLE COLLEGE ALPHA PSI OMEGA: THE BLUE ROOM • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 8PM • A sensation in London and on Broadway, The Blue Room depicts a daisy chain of ten sexual encounters between five women and five men all played by one actor and actress portraying the hypocrisy, the folly and the loneliness of this roundelay.

Nov. 20-22. Visit claytonartscenter.com. • $10

Sunday, Nov. 22 SHE KILLS MONSTERS • Pellissippi State Community College • 2PM • $12 MARYVILLE COLLEGE ALPHA PSI OMEGA: THE BLUE ROOM • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 2PM • Visit claytonartscenter.com. • $10

COMEDY AND SPOKEN WORD

Thursday, Nov. 12 FRANK CALIENDO • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 7PM • Comedian, actor, and impressionist Frank Caliendo has been making people laugh his entire life. He is well known for his impressions of famous actors Morgan Freeman, Al Pacino, Robin Williams and Robert DeNiro; politicians George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama; broadcasters John Madden, Charles Barkley and Jon Gruden; and talk show hosts Dr. Phil, Jay

Sunday, Nov. 15 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub •

8PM • A weekly comedy open mic.

SCRUFFY CITY COMEDY FESTIVAL • Downtown Knoxville • The Scruffy City Comedy Festival is returning to downtown Knoxville on Friday, Nov. 13, through Sunday Nov. 15. All venues will be within walking distance of Market Square. Nearly three dozen comedians will be traveling to Knoxville to perform from all over the United States. In addition to these featured comedians the festival will also have nationally recognized headliners performing each night at Scruffy City Hall. Visit scruffycitycomedy.com. • $15-$30 • See preview on page 24.

Monday, Nov. 16 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, Nov. 17 CASUAL COMEDY • Casual Pint (Hardin Valley) • 7PM • A monthly comedy showcase at Casual Pint-Hardin Valley featuring a mixture of local and touring comedians.

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Saturday, Nov. 21 SHE KILLS MONSTERS • Pellissippi State Community College • 7:30PM • $12 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: A CHRISTMAS STORY • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • Nov. 20-Dec. 6. Visit www. orplayhouse.com.

MARYVILLE COLLEGE ALPHA PSI OMEGA: THE BLUE ROOM • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 8PM • Nov. 20-22.

Visit claytonartscenter.com. • $10

CALENDAR

THUR 11/12 • 8pm

The Rhinos! ( Album Release ) ( INDIE )

THE DAVID WAX MUSEUM The Square Room (4 Market Square) • Thursday, Nov. 12 • 8 p.m. • $12 • thesquareroom.com

David Wax, the namesake of this Boston folk-rock duo, isn’t fooling around with the traditional Mexican folk music that’s at the heart of his band’s distinctive and life-affirming sound. After graduating from Harvard in 2006, he spent a year studying folk and traditional music in Mexico, soaking up the rhythms and instrumentation that separate the David Wax Museum from their more soporific contemporary folk-pop peers. Guesthouse, the band’s beautiful new album, pairs acoustic ballads with fiery dance numbers, elegiac chamber pop, and straight-ahead mainstream indie rock; the best songs, like “Young Man” and “Blood Jump,” throw it all together and erase the borders we usually hear. (Matthew Everett)

FRI 11/13 • 7pm / $10

Amour, Heartsick & More ( HARD ROCK )

SAT 11/14 • 8pm / $10

Heiskell, The French, & The Jank ( ROCK )

8502 KINGSTON PIKE (865) 281-5874 openchordmusic.com

November 12, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 33

CALENDAR November performers are Shane Rhyne, Matt Chadourne, Sean Simoneau, and Tyler Sonnichsen.

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 Friday, Nov. 20 THE FIFTH WOMAN POETRY SLAM • The Birdhouse • 6:30PM • The 5th Woman Poetry slam is place where all poets can come and share their words of love, respect, passion, and expression. It is not dedicated solely women but is a place where women poets are celebrated and honored. Check out our facebook pages for the challenge of the month and focus for our poetry every month.

MAG JACKSON • Longbranch Saloon • 8PM Saturday, Nov. 21 JAMES GREGORY • Niswonger Performing Arts Center (Greeneville) • 7:30PM • For over two decades, the unforgettable caricature of veteran comedian James Gregory has stood grinning; his shirt un-tucked, his arms outstretched, a carefree welcome to a downhome, hilarious comedy experience.The James Gregory show

Business

Thursday, Nov. 12 – Sunday, Nov. 22

turns the clock back to a time when life was simpler; to a better time, before the death of common sense; a time when people sat on the front porch and actually talked to each other without a cell phone in their ear. • $15-$25 THE TRUTV IMPRACTICAL JOKERS’ ‘WHERE’S LARRY?’ TOUR STARRING THE TENDERLOINS • Knoxville Civic Auditorium • 8PM • The Tenderloins are the creators, executive producers, writers and stars of truTV’s hit show, Impractical Jokers. They are currently touring nationwide with “truTV Presents The Impractical Jokers Tour Featuring The Tenderloins”, a mix ofstand-up, never-before-seen hidden camera videos, stories and insight into the making of Impractical Jokers. • $50.50-$201 Sunday, Nov. 22 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic. .

FESTIVALS

Friday, Nov. 13 IRONWOOD ART FAIR • Ironwood Studios • 6PM • Join us for a night of amazing indie art, bands, local food trucks, and more. Doors open at 6pm and the fun lasts until 10pm.

Sunday, Nov. 15 BELLEZA’S 2015 HAIR-FASHION SHOW FUNDRAISER: ONCE UPON A FAIRY TALE • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • Proceeds from the evening’s event will benefit local charity, The Dream Connection. The event

Product awareness

Company goodwill

There’s never been a better time to “go public.”

34

KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

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9/7/15 9:52 AM

will start off with social hour that includes delicious hors d’oeuvres, cash bar, silent auction, and raffle, followed by the main event as talented stylists of Belleza Salon and Spas showcase their creative ideas. If you’re looking for a fun evening of fashion, talent, food, and entertainment, you don’t want to miss this wonderful event. Tickets are available online (www.blza.com), at our salons, or at the door. • $35 Friday, Nov. 20 ROCK THE RED KETTLE • The Square Room • 6PM • The Rock the Red Kettle Concert is an event that will officially kickoff The Salvation Army’s annual Red Kettle campaign and will feature live music by the Rhett Walker Band. The Rhett Walker Band is a Grammy-nominated southern rock group from Nashville with roots in Christian and country music. VIP tickets include admission to a special, pre-concert reception in the Square Room. The reception will feature a meet and greet with the band, heavy hors d’oeuvres, cash bar, a swag bag and early admittance to the concert. The VIP reception begins at 6 p.m. and will last approximately one hour. 100% of ticket sales from Rock the Red Kettle Concert will be used to fund the various Salvation Army programs that address the needs of the Knoxville community and surrounding areas.

FOOTHILLS CRAFT GUILD ANNUAL FINE CRAFT SHOW • Chilhowee Park • 10AM • Featuring glass, fiber arts, woodwork, metalwork, leatherwork, photography, mixed media, clay pottery, printmaking, and jewelry by local artists, craftspeople, and artisans. Nov. 20-22. • $8 Saturday, Nov. 21

DAFFODIL MOB DAY • Helen Ross McNabb Center • 9AM • We’re planting over 60,000 daffodil bulbs at the Baxter, Woodland, and Heiskell exits on Interstate 275 and we need your help. Come volunteer and help make our community more beautiful. Register at 865-521-6957 or by emailing alanna@keepknoxvillebeautiful.org. Meet at the parking lot of the Helen Ross McNabb Center off of North Central to check in and hop on a shuttle to one of the three exits. Wear sturdy shoes and clothes that can get dirty. Volunteers are able to work during the times they are available the day of the event. Food will be provided to all volunteers. Please register at http://goo.gl/ forms/UCFBa0gVWO. • FREE FOOTHILLS CRAFT GUILD ANNUAL FINE CRAFT SHOW • Chilhowee Park • 10AM • Featuring glass, fiber arts, woodwork, metalwork, leatherwork, photography, mixed media, clay pottery, printmaking, and jewelry by local artists, craftspeople, and artisans. Nov. 20-22. • $8 THE JOE HILL ROADSHOW • Historic Candoro Marble Company • 5PM • Part of a series of national events honoring the legacy of the labor organizer and songwriter Joe Hill on the centennial year anniversary of his execution. Food and fellowship beginning at 5pm. Show starts at 7pm. Performers include Jack Herranen & The Little Red Band, Black Atticus, Matt Kinman & Friends, and The Shelby Bottom Duo. All ages. Free event (suggested $5 donation appreciated). • FREE Sunday, Nov. 22 DAFFODIL MOB DAY • Helen Ross McNabb Center • 12PM • We’re planting over 60,000 daffodil bulbs at the Baxter,

CALENDAR Woodland, and Heiskell exits on Interstate 275 and we need your help. Come volunteer and help make our community more beautiful. Register at 865-521-6957 or by emailing alanna@keepknoxvillebeautiful.org. • FREE FOOTHILLS CRAFT GUILD ANNUAL FINE CRAFT SHOW • Chilhowee Park • 11AM • Featuring glass, fiber arts, woodwork, metalwork, leatherwork, photography, mixed media, clay pottery, printmaking, and jewelry by local artists, craftspeople, and artisans. Nov. 20-22. • $8

prematurely each week. Help us give every baby a fighting chance. We have partnered with Bearden Beer Market for our first cornhole tournament. (BBM will donate a $1 from each pint that is bought to the Knoxville March of Dimes.) Tournament will be double elimination with a $30 per team entry fee. Top two teams will win cash prizes (prize amounts based on number of teams participating). We will also have a set of cornhole boards to be raffled off. • $30

FILM SCREENINGS

Saturday, Nov. 14 KTC NORRIS DAM HARD TRAIL RACE • Norris Dam State Park • 6AM • The Norris Dam State Park and Norris Municipal Watershed provides miles and miles of scenic and challenging single-track trails and off-road jeep trails to the delight of avid and competitive trail runners.

The 2015 race will include the traditional 25k and 50k races, but this year we will be adding a 50 mile race.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: APPALACHIAN TRAIL • 8AM • This out and back hike, mostly on the AT, from Newfound Gap to the Jumpoff that is near the Boulevard Trail, will give a good view of the Greenbrier watershed area of the Park. Hike is about 6 miles. Meet at Comcast, 5720 Asheville Highway, ready to depart at 8:00 AM. Leaders: Ray Payne, rpayne10@bellsouth.net and Ron Shrieves, ronaldshrieves@comcast.net.” • FREE

Friday, Nov. 13 SUFFERLAND • Striped Light • 8:30PM • Linear Downfall, an experimental band from Nashville, is known for seamlessly blending psychotic noise along with beautiful melodies.

Their music taps into the highs and lows of life and challenges one to look inward. Their live show is intense and jarring captivating the audience from beginning to end.

Sufferland is a full-length album that is accompanied by a film. It is described as, “A walk through the many compartmentalized landscapes in the mind of a tormented girl who is under the control of a tormented man.” The film was chosen to be a part of the Nashville Film Festival 2015.

Monday, Nov. 16 THE BIRDHOUSE WALK-IN THEATER • The Birdhouse • 8:15PM • A weekly free movie screening. • FREE Tuesday, Nov. 17 PUBLIC CINEMA: PEACE OFFICER • Knoxville Museum of Art • 6:30PM • Peace Officer is a documentary about the increasingly militarized state of American police as told through the story of Dub Lawrence, a former sheriff who established his rural state’s first SWAT team only to see that same unit kill his son-in-law in a controversial standoff 30 years later. Driven by an obsessed sense of mission, Dub uses his own investigation skills to uncover the truth in this and other recent officer-involved shootings in his community, while tackling larger questions about the changing face of peace officers nationwide. • FREE Thursday, Nov. 19 INDEPENDENT LENS: “AUTISM IN LOVE” • University of Tennessee Alumni Memorial Building • 7:30PM • In Autism in Love, director Matt Fuller examines the everyday realities of autistic adulthood, showing how the members of this often-misunderstood community cope with the challenge of keeping romance alive over the years. Lenny searches for the perfect woman, Lindsey and David consider the next step in their relationship, and Stephen faces the end of his marriage as best as he can. Capturing both the joys and heartbreak of love, the film emphasizes struggles that are only too familiar.” Screening is free and open to the public, followed by a town-hall discussion. • FREE

SPORTS AND RECREATION

Thursday, Nov. 12 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, Nov. 13 MARCH OF DIMES CORNHOLE TOURNAMENT • Bearden Beer Market • 5:30PM • In Knoxville, 27 babies are born

Sunday, Nov. 15 SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: INJUN CREEK TRAIL • 10:30AM • Although this is not an official trail, it is maintained by the park service to the cemetery and widely used. We will see several former home sites, the school site, a few other grave sites, and some interesting large stone stacks. Lunch will be at one of the home sites. Hike around 4 miles, rated easy. Meet at the Greenbrier Ranger Station at 10:30. Leader: Ed Fleming, edwrdflm@aol.com. • FREE

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Tuesday, Nov. 17 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 Wednesday, Nov. 18 SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: GREGORY RIDGE TRAIL • 8AM • We will hike to Gregory Bald via the Gregory Ridge Trail. Hike: 11 miles, rated moderately difficult due to distance and elevation gain. Meet at Alcoa Food City, 121 North Hall Road, at 8:00 AM. Leader: Elfie Bealle, elfiebeall@comcast.net. • FREE

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Thursday, Nov. 19 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 Saturday, Nov. 21 BIGFOOT BLAST 5K TRAIL RACE • Windrock Park • Try to make it through the trails at Windrock Park without encountering Bigfoot and then have your photo made with him at the end of the race. Proceeds from this 5K will benefit the Boy and Girls Club of North Anderson County. For more information, call 865-435-3492 or visit www.windrockpark.com.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: CADES COVE BY MOONLIGHT • 5:15PM • With an almost full moon, we will start our hike at the Cades Cove entrance parking area at 5:15 PM (sunset is 5:25 PM). We will look for shooting stars and wildlife on this popular hike. Shoes compatible with walking on pavement plus a headlamp or flashlight are recommended. Hike: 8 miles (via Hyatt Lane), rated November 12, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 35

CALENDAR moderate. If there is enough interest, a second group could be organized to hike the complete 11-mile loop.

Meet at Alcoa Food City, 121 North Hall Road, at 4:15 PM or at Cades Cove entrance at 5:15 PM. (If the weather is questionable, contact the hike leader for confirmation that the hike will occur; we will not hike if it’s raining.)

Leaders: Cindy Spangler, spangler@utk.edu and Rebekah Young, rebekahy27@aol.com . • FREE Sunday, Nov. 22 ROCK ‘N’ ROLL TUNE-UP SERIES 5K • World’s Fair Park • 2PM • FREE

ART

Art Market Gallery 422 S. Gay St. NOV. 3-29: Artwork by Nelson Ziegler and jewelers of the Art Market Gallery.

Bennett Galleries 5308 Kingston Pike THROUGH NOVEMBER: Artwork by Scott Duce, Charles Kieger, Ann Mallory, Robine Surber, and John Taylor.

Bliss Home 24 Market Square NOV. 6-30: Local Nostalgia, mixed-media artwork by Christi Shields.

Clayton Center for the Arts 502 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway

Thursday, Nov. 12 – Sunday, Nov. 22

(Maryville) NOV. 2-20: Real Drawings of Imaginary People, mixed-media portraits and paintings by Steve Foster.

The District Gallery 5113 Kingston Pike NOV. 6-28: Paintings by Brad Robertson.

Downtown Gallery 106 S. Gay St. NOV. 6-28: Mixed-media art by John Messinger.

Emporium Center for Arts and Culture 100 S. Gay St. NOV. 6-25: Ribnica Handicraft Centre: Traditional Woodenware From Slovenia; artwork by Luna Lewis; Recessive, photographs by Abby Malone; and Natural Woman, mixed-media artwork by Jackie Holloway.

Envision Art Gallery 4050 Sutherland Ave. NOV. 20-DEC. 19: Art for the Holidays, featuring work by Derrick Freeman, Inna Nasonova, and Kay List. An opening reception will be held on Friday, Nov. 20, from 5-8 p.m.

Ewing Gallery 1715 Volunteer Blvd.

NOV. 11-DEC. 13: Distilled: The Narrative Transformed, a 30-year survey of the art of Pinkney Herbert. An opening reception will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 11, from 5-8 p.m. See Spotlight on page 28.

Fountain City Art Center

213 Hotel Road OCT. 30-NOV. 30: Fountain City Art Guild Annual Holiday Show and Sale. An opening reception will be held on Friday, Oct. 30, from 6:30-8 p.m.

Knoxville Museum of Art 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive ONGOING: Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in Tennessee; Currents: Recent Art From East Tennessee and Beyond; and Facets of Modern and Contemporary Glass.

Liz-Beth and Co. 7240 Kingston Pike NOV. 2-21: Legendary Ladies of Art, a gallery exhibit and sale of new paintings by Jeanne Leemon, Cynthia Markert, and Ursula Brenner. A reception will be held on Friday, Nov. 13, from 5-8 p.m.

Marc Nelson Denim 700 Depot Ave. THROUGH NOVEMBER: Photographs by Lindsey Teague.

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.

Pioneer House 413 S. Gay St. THROUGH DECEMBER: Knox County Warriors, portraits of UT

football legends by Will Johnson. An opening reception will be held on Friday, Nov. 13, from 6-9 p.m. See preview on page 26.

Zach Searcy Projects 317 N. Gay St. THROUGH NOVEMBER : Merciful Heavens, new paintings by Zach Searcy.

Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church 2931 Kingston Pike SEPT. 11-DEC. 3: An exhibit of artwork by TVUUC members.

University of Tennessee John C. Hodges Library 1015 Volunteer Blvd.

THROUGH DEC. 11: Marginalia in Rare Books, a display of centuries-old books with notes, ownership marks, and inscriptions.

LECTURES, READINGS, AND BOOK SIGNINGS

Thursday, Nov. 12 ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM • Howard H. Baker Center for Public Policy • 1PM • Charles Perrings is a professor of environmental economics and director of ecoSERVICES at Arizona State University. • FREE UT GOETHE FESTIVAL • University of Tennessee • Johann

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BOSTON BRASS THE BOSTON BRASS ALL-STARS BIG BAND: CHRISTMAS BELLS ARE SWINGIN’!

The ensemble’s lively repartee, touched with humor and personality, attempts to bridge the ocean of classical formality to delight audiences in an evening of great music and boisterous fun.

"Finding God Through Difficulty" November 21-22 We invite you to attend this free two-day lecture series with Biblical scholar Dr. Jim Fleming.

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CLAYTON CENTER FOR THE ARTS on the campus of Maryville College 502 E. Lamar Alexander Pkwy.

Maryville, TN 37804

BOX OFFICE: 865-981-8590 ClaytonArtsCenter.com

See full schedule at www.churchstreetumc.org Call 521-0266 for more information.

CALENDAR Wolfgang von Goethe lived nearly 200 years ago, but his work continues to shape ideas today.Goethe’s life and work will be celebrated through film screenings, a poetry contest, panel discussions and performances at a festival to be held Thursday and Friday, Nov. 12-13, at the University of Tennessee. • FREE ANNE CHAPIN: “DRESSED TO IMPRESS. ART AND HAUTE COUTURE IN THE AEGEAN BRONZE AGE” • University of Tennessee Alumni Memorial Building • 7:30PM • Illustrated lecture by Dr. Anne Chapin, Brevard College, North Carolina.

Free and open to the public. Event organized by the East Tennessee Society of the Archaeological Institute of America and the McClung Museum for Natural History and Culture. Sponsored by the Haines Morris Distinguished Lecture fund of UTK’s Department of Classics • FREE Friday, Nov. 13 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. Free and open to the public, each Science Forum consists of a 40-minute presentation followed by a Q-and-A session. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own lunch or purchase it at the cafe in Thompson-Boling Arena. For more information about the UT Science Forum, visit http://scienceforum.utk.edu. • FREE UT GOETHE FESTIVAL • University of Tennessee • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe lived nearly 200 years ago, but his work continues to shape ideas today.Goethe’s life and work will be celebrated through film screenings, a poetry contest, panel discussions and performances at a festival to be held Thursday and Friday, Nov. 12-13, at the University of Tennessee. • FREE Monday, Nov. 16 CELEBRATING FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT: AN EVENING WITH PENNY DEUPREE • Carson-Newman University • 7PM • Part of the Carson-Newman University Appalachian Cultural Center’s 2015 lineup. • FREE Tuesday, Nov. 17 HIP-HOP FORUM: HIP-HOP AND TERRORISM • Beck Cultural Exchange Center • 6PM • This forum will focus on society’s view on what makes a terrorist, analyzing recent mass gun shootings, and how hip-hop has often been the target of influencing violence. Our overall purpose of the Hip Hop Forum is to promote appreciation for and the enjoyment of positive hip-hop culture; to inspire critical thinking within the hip-hop community; to educate the public on its history and current relevance; to organize forums around current events and issues affecting the Hip Hop community; and to provide assistance to the underprivileged communities reflected in Hip Hop musicThe Hip Hop Forum is a re-occurring event. The purpose of the Forum is to use the narrative of hip hop to address social issues and bring together community members to find solutions to those issues that will benefit the community. The first Forum was held at the Birdhouse in June 2014. The Forum is supported by the Highlander Research and Education Center’s We Shall Overcome Fund. • FREE Wednesday, Nov. 18 BOOKS SANDWICHED IN • East Tennessee History Center • 12PM • Knox County Public Library’s monthly book program features Knoxville Police Department deputy chief Nate Allen on 400 Things Cops Know: Street-Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman by Adam Plantinga (Aug. 19); attorney Rob Frost on John Feinstein’s Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life in the Minor Leagues of Baseball (Sept. 16); Knox County Public Defender Mark Stephens on Bryan

Stevenson’s Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (Oct. 28); and James Gray, co-founder and executive director of the East Tennessee Permaculture Research Institute, on Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation by James Howard Kunstler (Nov. 19). For more information, contact Emily Ellis at (865) 215-8767 or eellis@knoxlib.org.. • FREE A SENSE OF PLACE IN APPALACHIA • Carson-Newman University • 4PM • Featuring Carson-Newman international students. Part of the Carson-Newman University Appalachian Cultural Center’s 2015 lineup. • FREE CHARLIE LOVETT: “THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF EBENEZER SCROOGE” • Union Ave Books • 6PM • Book signing & reading with author Charlie Lovett, author of The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge. • FREE Friday, Nov. 20 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. Free and open to the public, each Science Forum consists of a 40-minute presentation followed by a Q-and-A session. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own lunch or purchase it at the cafe in Thompson-Boling Arena. For more information about the UT Science Forum, visit http://scienceforum.utk.edu. • FREE

FAMILY AND KIDS’ EVENTS

Thursday, Nov. 12 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 Blount County Public Library. • FREE Friday, Nov. 13 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 KNOXVILLE CHALLENGER TENNIS TOURNAMENT KID’S NIGHT • University of Tennessee • 5PM • The Knoxville Challenger Tennis Tournament will host a Kid’s Night at the University of Tennessee’s Goodfriend Tennis Center.

Children ages 12 and under will receive free admission and the first 100 kids will receive a goody bag upon entry. The bag will contain a rally towel, which can be signed by the professional tennis players competing in the tournament, along with other goodies. The Knoxville Challenger, a USTA Pro Circuit event, is the largest professional men’s tennis tournament in our region. The Challenger series is designed to provide opportunities to aspiring young professional tennis players to advance to the top levels of the game.

Saturday, Nov. 14 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

THE SANTALAND DIARIES

TICKET GIVEAWAY

Congratulations to Emmett, this week’s winner!

Send in your worst Santa photo for a chance to win tickets to

The SantaLand Diaries (Mature Audiences)

Thursday, Dec. 3rd, 2015

by David Sedaris at the Clarence Brown Theatre Submit your photo along with name and phone number to: contests@knoxmercury.com

Each week’s winning photo will be published in the following week’s issue of the Knoxville Mercury.

Brought to you by:

*Disclaimer: By entering the contest you are giving permission to have your submission (photo) published in the Knoxville Mercury and / or on the Knoxville Mercury and CBT Facebook pages. Winners will be chosen by the Knoxville Mercury Editors from weekly submissions. Winners will be notified weekly. (1 pair of tickets per week.)

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Void where prohibited. Must be a legal U.S. resident, 18 years of age or older, and not be a sponsor or an employee, family member, or household member of a sponsor. Once notified, winner has 24 hours to respond. Odds of winning depend on number of entries received.

Sponsor: Knoxville Mercury, 706 Walnut Ave., Suite 404, Knoxville, TN 37902.

November 12, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 37

CALENDAR 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 Sunday, Nov. 15 GARDEN MONTESSORI SCHOOL OPEN HOUSE • Garden Montessori School (Fountain City) • 1-3PM • An open house for prospective students in 2nd-8th grade. • FREE Monday, Nov. 16 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, Nov. 17 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.

Thursday, Nov. 12 – Sunday, Nov. 22

Free with paid admission or museum membership. http:// 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 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, Nov. 18 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, Nov. 12 BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. •

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

AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • East Tennessee Medical Group • 8AM • Call (865) 382-5822.

CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY: HEALING THROUGH ART • Cancer Support Community • 1PM • Join us as we glaze ceramic wall plaques to be hung indoors. No experience necessary, just a willingness to enjoy the creative process. RSVP. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

Friday, Nov. 13 AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • Farragut Town Hall • 8:15AM • Call (865) 382-5822.

Saturday, Nov. 14 IMPROV COMEDY CLASS • The Birdhouse • 10AM • A weekly improv comedy class. • FREE KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: COMPOSTING FOR HOME GARDENERS • Cedar Bluff Branch Library • 1PM • Learn how to create the secret ingredient for growing gorgeous vegetables and ornamentals: rich organic matter in your soil. Get a head start on your spring garden by learning from Knox County Extension Master Gardeners Dr. Annie Gray and Bill Menius the why’s and the how-to’s of composting. (865) 470-7033 or knoxlib.org . • FREE Sunday, Nov. 15 “ANGER TO ACTION: CREATING CHANGE IN THE WAKE OF

AMENDMENT 1” • Communications Workers-America • 1PM • This half day advocacy training will give you all the tools you need to take action for reproductive freedom in Tennessee. Sessions will include: Storytelling 101, Non-violent direct action, and talking to legislators/ writing letters to the editor. There will be a potluck brunch before the event between 12:30 and 1:00. Please register at scruffycitycat.org. • FREE Monday, Nov. 16 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY QUICK AND TASTY COOKING CLASS • Cancer Support Community • 12PM • Call 865-546-4661. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 5:30PM • Call 865-5772021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted.

Tuesday, Nov. 17 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted.

YOGA WITH SUBAGHJI • The Birdhouse • 5:15PM Wednesday, Nov. 18 AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • John T. O’Connor Senior Center • 12PM • Call (865) 382-5822.

FLOW AND GO YOGA • Illuminations Alternative and Holistic Health • 12:15PM • Call 985-788-5496 or email sandylarson@yahoo.com. • $10 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY: COPING WITH GRIEF AND

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CALENDAR LOSS DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON • Cancer Support Community • 6PM • Phil Johnson, PhD. Losing a loved one to cancer is a very painful experience. The holidays can be especially difficult when someone close to you dies.

Connect with others who understand what you are going through and join Dr. Johnson in a discussion of self-care tips and strategies to get you through the season. 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.

BELLY DANCING CLASS • Illuminations Alternative and Holistic Health • 7PM • Call 985-788-5496 or email sandylarson@yahoo.com. • $15 Thursday, Nov. 19 KNOX COMMUNITY ACTION COMMITTEE LANDLORD SUMMIT • John T. O’Connor Senior Center • 8AM • Learn about resources for landlords in Knoxville including weatherization, lead testing, veteran services, legal issues, and more.

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

AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • John T. O’Connor Senior Center • 12PM • Call (865) 382-5822.

CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY: KNIT YOUR WAY TO WELLNESS • Cancer Support Community • 1PM • Whether you are a novice knitter or an old pro, you are invited to bring your own project or join others in learning a new one. Supplies provided. 865-546-4661. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 Friday, Nov. 20 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY: “FRANKLY SPEAKING ABOUT LUNG CANCER” • University of Tennessee Medical Center • 12PM • Learn about the latest treatments for lung cancer. Side effects, side-effect management and tools to overcome the social and emotional challenges of the diagnosis will be discussed. Bring your questions and learn ways to manage your disease more successfully.

Lunch will be provided. RSVP. This is an offsite program located in the Health Information Center Conference Room at the University of Tennessee Medical Center’s Heart Hospital main entrance. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

MEETINGS

Thursday, Nov. 12 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.

SCIENCE CAFE • Ijams Nature Center • 5:30PM • The November meeting of the STFK Science Cafe takes place on Thursday, November 12 from 5:30 P.M. until 7:00 at Ijams Nature Center. The discussion topic this month is “Outbreak: By the Numbers”, mathematical models for predicting the spread of contagious diseases. Our guest scientist is Dr. Suzanne Lenhart, Chancellor’s Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Tennessee, and Associate Director of the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis. • FREE WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP SALON • SunTrust Bank • 5:45PM • At the last Women’s Leadership Salon of 2015 on November 12th, Jeannie Anderson talks about overcoming obstacles and controlling your own story by dealing with negativity and welcoming success. Anderson is the Founder and Executive Director of LifeSigns.us, Inc. a non-profit organization for women who are committed to discovering and designing a better quality of life for themselves, their families, and their communities. She is an active member of the East Tennessee Women’s Leadership Council, the organization that organizes the Salon. She also speaks, coaches, and conducts workshops and retreats throughout the United States.The quarterly Salon provides a place for dynamic women to network and discuss issues related to enhancing their leadership potential. To register for the November Salon, go to EastTNWomensLS.com. Registration is $26 online or $30 at the door. Registration includes dinner. • $26-$30 Saturday, Nov. 14 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 NATIONAL DAR SOCIETY • Bearden Branch Public Library • 10:30AM • The program will feature information about the United States Vietnam War Commemoration. Women interested in proving lineal descent to a patriot of the American Revolution are welcome to visit. The DAR is a non-profit, non-political volunteer women’s service organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history, and securing America’s future through better education for children. For more information, please visit the chapter website at http://www.tndar.org/~cavettstation/. • FREE Sunday, Nov. 15 SILENT MEDITATION SUNDAYS • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 11AM • The gatherings are intended to be inclusive of people of all faiths as well as those who do not align themselves with a particular religious denomination. For more information contact Mitzi Wood-Von Mizener at 865-497-3603 or community@ narrowridge.org. • FREE Monday, Nov. 16 INSURE TENNESSEE TOWN HALL MEETING • Highland Park Ruritan Club • 6PM • Insure TN would provide healthcare coverage for 280,000 of our Tennessee neighbors, including 24,000 veterans; Insure TN would create 15,000 new jobs and held save 20,000 existing jobs; Insure TN November 12, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 39

Tuesday, Nov. 17 KNOXVILLE COCOAHEADS • Knoxville Entrepreneur Center • 7PM • CocoaHeads is a group devoted to discussion of Apple’s Cocoa and Cocoa Touch Frameworks for programming on OS X (Mac) and iOS (iPhone, iPad). During monthly meetings, members offer tutorials, present their projects, share app ideas, and provide advice to other programmers. Whether you are an experienced developer or just getting started, Knoxville CocoaHeads is a great way to stay current with the latest technologies and improve your programming skills.

Wednesday, Nov. 18 KNOXVILLE WRITERS’ GROUP • Naples Italian Restaurant • 11AM • Knoxville Writers’ Group. 11 a.m.-1p.m. Naples Italian Restaurant. 5500 Kingston Pike. Dr. Bruce Wheeler will speak on his book “Knoxville Tennessee, A Mountain City in the New South”. Luncheon cost $12. For information and reservation call Mary McKinnon at 865-983-3740 by November 16. • $12 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY WOMEN WITH ADVANCED CANCER NETWORKER • Cancer Support Community • 1:30PM • Join other women who are living with cancer as a chronic illness to discuss feelings and experiences that are unique to women with advanced cancer. Please call before your first visit. Call 865-546- 4661 for more info.

All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

ORION ASTRONOMY CLUB • The Grove Theater • 7PM • ORION is an amateur science and astronomy club centered in Oak Ridge that was founded in April 1974 by a group of scientists at the United States Department of Energy facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. We serve Oak Ridge, Knoxville, and the counties of Anderson, Knox, and Roane.We meet on the third Wednesday of each month for coffee and conversation, and our program begins 15 minutes thereafter. • FREE COMITE POPULAR DE KNOXVILLE • The Birdhouse • 7PM • A weekly meeting of the local immigrant advocacy organization.

ETC.

Thursday, Nov. 12 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 ANGLER AND OUTDOOR SWAP MEET • St. Francis Episcopal Church • 7PM • Spincasters, fly fishers, outdoor folk of any sort can barter, buy or sell fishing, camping or other outdoor gear (no guns, please) at the annual free, public swap meet of the Clinch River Chapter, Trout Unlimited. • FREE KNOXVILLE SQUARE DANCE • Laurel Theater • 8PM • Jubilee Community Arts presents Knoxville Square Dance 40

KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

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, Nov. 13 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 ASSOCIATION OF FUNDRAISING PROFESSIONALS PHILANTHROPY DAY • Knoxville Marriott • 11:30AM • The Association of Fundraising Professionals invite you to join us as we celebrate the philanthropic and volunteer spirit of East Tennessee. See http://afpknoxville.afpnet.org/ for more information.

Saturday, Nov. 14 OAK RIDGE FARMERS’ MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 8AM MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 9AM • FREE Sunday, Nov. 15 LARK IN THE MORN ENGLISH COUNTRY DANCERS • Laurel Theater • 8PM • Call 546-8442. 17th-18th Century Social Dancing with live music. Beginners welcome, no partner is required. Also Rapper Sword dance group meets most Sundays at 7:00. Free.

Monday, Nov. 16 KNOXVILLE CONTRA DANCERS • Laurel Theater • 8PM • Call 599-9621. Contra dancing to live acoustic music. No experience or partner required. • $7 Tuesday, Nov. 17 EBENEZER ROAD FARMERS’ MARKET • Ebenezer United Methodist Church • 3PM • FREE Wednesday, Nov. 18 MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 11AM • The Market Square Farmers’ Market is an open-air farmers’ market located on Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville and is celebrating its 12th season this year. • FREE KNOXVILLE SWING DANCE ASSOCIATION • Laurel Theater • 7PM • Call 224-6830. Dedicated to the purpose of promoting swing dance. Lessons at 7 p.m., open dance at 8 p.m.

Architectural Antics Architecturals A vibrant district along Central Street and Broadway.

would infuse our state economy with $1.77 billion dollars annually; Insure TN would provide our neighbors with the access to the early diagnosis and treatment that could save their lives; Insure TN is right for TN and it is the right thing to do right now. • 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.

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FOOD

R estaurant News

Photos by Tricia Bateman

A Penney Saved Babalu Tacos & Tapas prepares to unveil one of downtown’s biggest refurb projects

BY DENNIS PERKINS

W

hile it’s been good to finally see the facade of the J.C. Penney Building revealed again after years of scaffolding and construction, it’s not just a pretty face—behind its front wall is a remarkable reclamation of a building that many folks thought was a total loss. But with the imminent opening of Babalu Tacos & Tapas, the 5,000 square feet of its first floor are ready for showing off; Lord willin’ and if the Certificate of Occupancy arrives on time, sometime on or about Nov. 23 the public will be able cross that threshold for the first time in decades.

This is the fourth location for Babalu, a regional group of restaurants that started in Jackson, Miss., and features Latin-style cuisine in a small-plate format. Another distinguishing characteristic of the company is its interest in inhabiting older buildings rather than building new ones.

42

KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

“We’re a company that loves and embraces urban renewal,” says Elizabeth Fowler, Babalu’s marketing manager.

Fowler was in Knoxville on Wednesday, visiting the new location with Mary Sanders Ferris, the company’s creative director, and Babalu Chairman Mike Stack. Stack says that Babalu’s interest in restoration projects started with its first location.

“We found a very unique location six years ago in the Fondren area of Jackson, the art deco area. It was an old elementary school,” Stack says. In fact, it was the school where the wife of Babalu’s co-founder, Bill Latham, went to first grade. Since then, Babalu has made a specialty of selecting historic buildings and neighborhoods for its new locations.

But this particular project took a lot of love.

“I think one of the fun things and challenges that Greg [Newkirk, director of construction] and the contractor worked through was that none of the walls were square, none of the floors are flat, and we have a 15-foot ceiling,” Stack says. “So everything you see, duct work, pipes, we brought in. This is 100 percent restoration. And it took a lot of effort and a lot of planning to make everything fit. There’s a 3-inch difference in [the height of] the bar from the front to the back.”

Newkirk points to the entry, noting that “the same thing happens across the front—the doors have to be level to open but you’re dealing with a floor that’s not [level]. The guys who did this storefront did a great job.”

One of Babalu’s design principles is to eschew the notion of making things look brand new. Ferris points down to a patch of concrete between sections of original flooring. “We don’t come back and add matching terrazzo to make it all shine,” she says. “We like it to look like it’s been here, instead of trying to contrive something to match this that’s not really going to match in the end. We just pour in some concrete.” It’s a philosophy that is clearly visible in the remaining part of the J.C. Penny name that’s still inlaid in the floor. “It’s missing a letter, but that’s how we’re going

to leave it,” Ferris says. In addition to much of the original flooring, Ferris says that Babalu is also preserving part of the original northern wall of the building.

“When we got in here, before we started putting [new] walls up, there were so many amazing walls and surfaces—but then when you start to lay in the function of a restaurant and kitchen and restrooms and meet code, you lose a lot of original wall surfaces,” she says. “This wall is our last bit of the exterior walls, so we didn’t want to mess with it at all. You can see it has a lot of life—you can see the aging of it, the different plaster work that’s been on it, and how it was originally bricked.

We wanted to celebrate that. We found Continued on page 44.

Babalu has made a specialty of selecting historic buildings and neighborhoods for its new locations.

Stop by & see what's new at your neighborhood market!

Breakfast | Lunch Baked Goods | Fresh Juices Smoothies | Local Deli Meats Cheeses & Breads 513 Union Avenue 865-851-9327

Now’s your chance to tell us what you really think–in person!

MEETUPS Join us for the next Mercury Meetup.

Wednesday, December 9,

5 p.m. - 8 p.m. at

Holly’s Corner 842 N. Central Street, Knoxville, TN 37917 (Some refreshments provided)

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Bring a new unwrapped toy for a chance to win a gift certificate for lunch or dinner at one of Holly’s restaurants.

This is a great opportunity for

When you want to reach the local market, advertise in Knoxville’s best local, independent newspaper.

For more information, call 865-313-2048 or email sales@knoxmercury.com

the business owners and residents of Knoxville to stop by and tell us what’s on your mind!

We hope to see you there.

November 12, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 43

FOOD

Photos courtesy of Babalu

Knoxville

R estaurant News

JACKSON, MS

MEMPHIS, TN

“This is 100 percent restoration…

Everything is new. This is a brand-new restaurant inside this 1903 building.”

—MIKE STACK, Babalu chairman

Top Breakfast Top Meal That’s A Steal

Top Comfort Food

We are grateful for our loyal customers who voted us the Top breakfast in Knoxville, where you can have a meal that’s a steal and nd your comfort in our food.

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540 Union Ave. Knoxville, TN 37902 (865) 523-2860

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We Accept Debit and All Major Credit Cards.

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

a good sealing method, and we’ve decided to make it our statement wall with our logo.”

The restaurant features lots of bar seating—including a banquette that runs nearly the length of the exposed wall, and two community tables—along with a large dining area near the rear of the building that’s dominated by a blue wall that will house long chalk boards to showcase the restaurant’s local suppliers. “We work really hard with local farmers,” Stack says.

The kitchen design is open, including a long station that faces the dining room where you can see all the ingredients for the restaurant’s signature snack—guacamole that’s not only made to order but also made at your table.

Babalu doesn’t have immediate plans to make use of the promenade that runs behind all the buildings on that block of Gay, but they will offer outdoor seating along Gay Street, with plans to eventually add an awning.

The team points out many features as we move through the building, including a complex and specially designed drain system to protect their future downstairs neighbors, the bowling alley Marble

Hall, from any leaks. Stack is particularly keen on pointing out all the work of the subcontractors, especially the electricians, and the city, too.

“Think about all the wiring that is going on in this place. This restaurant uses about 600 amps—take a look at all this conduit, all this duct work,” he says. “Everything is new. This is a brand-new restaurant inside this 1903 building. The local subcontractors have been great. The city has been delightful to work with. You have a lot of departments, and everybody is coordinated and people have been good at anticipating problems and helping us work them through.”

One thing that stands out during this conversation is that Babalu’s is clearly focused on making its outpost a local restaurant—they’re not necessarily trying to design a generic restaurant that could land in any strip mall. It’s not just the delicate job of adapting all the restaurant’s needs to an eccentric old building, it’s also a matter of getting the feel of the neighborhood. And that includes at least one nod toward a popular local theme.

“It’s the fi rst restaurant where we’ll have orange barstools,” Ferris points out. ◆

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Looking for just the right gift?

Shop Knox Holiday Gift Guide is a showcase of great gift ideas from local businesses for everyone on your list. You’ll find gifts for him, for her, and for them.

Available Dec. 3 in the Knoxville Mercury.

Deadline to reserve a listing for your business is Nov. 17th. For more information, contact: CHARLES VOGEL

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November November12, 5, 2015

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 44 45

’BYE

At This Point

Good, Better, Best Redefining perfection

BY STEPHANIE PIPER

S

o here’s a word I hear a lot these days: perfect. Hand the checkout clerk exact change? Perfect.

Return library books on time? Perfect.

Snag the last parking space? You’re not just lucky. You’re perfect.

The concept of perfection seems to have undergone an extreme makeover. This should be good news for me, a driven perfectionist of the old school.

The bar is lower now, apparently.

Ordinary, everyday acts earn the accolade once reserved for straight A’s and Michelangelo’s statue of David and martinis made with precisely the right amount of vermouth.

I’ve noticed that it’s mostly twentysomethings who are throwing the p-word around. The geezer in me suggests that they don’t really know what perfect looks like, raised as they were on beeping, flashing electronics and reality TV. They never heard Pavarotti sing “Nessun dorma” in Thompson-Boling Arena. They never

saw Baryshnikov defy gravity on the stage of the Civic Coliseum.

Perfection and I go way back. At my convent boarding school, medals were awarded each week to those who maintained spotless rooms and never talked in study hall and observed to the letter the intricate code of courtesy and decorum. Half measures won no prizes. It was all or nothing.

There is an image from that era that stays with me: a handwoven wreath of roses and ivy resting on a silver tray. The flowers had been picked that morning and still glistened with dew. The wreath was destined for some arcane ceremony later that day. Caught in a shaft of morning sunlight, it was as perfect a thing as I had ever seen. I seldom won the weekly medals for order and courtesy, but I coveted that wreath and all that went into its creation: the deft hand, the patient, quiet work, the reverence for detail. The flowers

BY MATTHEW FOLTZ-GRAY

46

KNOXVILLE MERCURY November 12, 2015

www.thespiritofthestaircase.com

would fade by evening. For that moment, they summed up the wholeness that I sought.

It’s a sight I have rarely witnessed in the years since then. I saw it in my children’s faces when they were first born, that flash of recognition when the world creaked to a halt and every scattered piece slipped into place. I have glimpsed it in nature: a tree cloaked in early pink blossom on the Green Bay Trail, radiant proof that spring had again returned from the underworld of a Chicago winter. I saw it once in the South Bronx, stopped at a traffic light. A little girl was sweeping broken glass from the steps of a graffiti-covered building. The set of her shoulders, the sure motion of the broom seemed in that split second to tell the story I needed most to hear.

I used to have a Post-it note on my computer that read “Perfect is the enemy of good.” It was a piece of

wisdom I struggled to embrace, along with frequent admonitions to lighten up, chill out, and let go. But good sounded like faint praise, perilously close to good enough. Chilling out and letting go sounded borderline sloppy.

When the Post-it note dropped off one day, I didn’t replace it.

Now I ponder the notion that perfection is all around us, as the twentysomethings would have me believe. I dig for the pennies in my purse to deliver the neat, round sum. I slide my books across the counter and greet my favorite librarian, the one whose smile takes me back to the library of my childhood, safe and silent and full of riches.

I wheel into the last parking space in the lot closest to my office.

It’s Monday again, and it’s raining, but I have an umbrella the size of a pup tent. It’s new and sturdy and for this morning, it’s just about perfect. ◆

I used to have a Post-it note on my computer that read “Perfect is the enemy of good.”

It was a piece of wisdom I struggled to embrace, along with frequent admonitions to lighten up, chill out, and let go.

’BYE

BY IAN BLACKBURN AND JACK NEELY

IT’S HARD FOR SMALL BUSINESSES TO GET AHEAD.

Let’s Help!

Public voting is now open.

So which local business would you like to see receive a $40,000 marketing makeover? Our final contestants are:

Frussie's Deli & Bakery, Visual Communication Interpreting, and Hush Puppy's Pet Services.

Recent

Your votes determine the winner!

Voting is open through Nov. 20.

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Hon. Gary R. Wade | Dean

“Since 1970, I have dedicated my life to the legal profession.

I saw this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and a wonderful way to end my career, as dean of the Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law. The things that excite me about this institution are:

- the wonderful, experienced faculty

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- the inspiring mission of LMU

- the opportunity to train lawyers who will serve honorably in this noble profession.�

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Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law is provisionally approved by the Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar of the American Bar Association, 321 North Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60654, 312-988-6738.