Vol. 2, Issue 27 - July 7, 2016

WE CHOOSE TO BE A COMPETITOR

JULY 7, 2016 KNOXMERCURY.COM V.

2 / N. 27

Coach

Farewell notes and fond remembrances from Knoxvillians inspired by Pat Summitt

NEWS

Downtown Parking Rate Hikes Expected to Quintuple City Revenue

JACK NEELY

Remember the ’80s?

Knoxville’s Footnote in the European Union Story

MUSIC

Garage Rockers Tim and Susan Bauer Lee Find New Ways to Have Fun

FOOD

Sticky Rice Cafe Stakes Out its Culinary Terrain in West Knoxville

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 7, 2016

July 7, 2016 Volume 02 / Issue 27 knoxmercury.com

CONTENTS

“When you choose to be a competitor you choose to be a survivor.” —Pat Summitt

12 Coach COVER STORY

With the death of Pat Summitt last week, we lost one of the most influential Knoxvillians of all time, not just in college athletics but in women’s achievements globally.

In tribute, we’ve gathered essays from people of different walks of life to describe how she inspired them.

NEWS

10 Parking Payout The sun may be setting on downtown’s Wild West parking days. No longer can you let your meter lapse a few minutes without worry, and plans to feed in coins every hour during your work day are ill-advised. The smart meters will be watching, as Clay Duda reports.

11 Surveying the Streets

Photo courtesy of University of Tennessee Athletics

Still Want to Help Out?

Our Press Forward fundraising campaign may be officially complete, but you can still help the Mercury become a great paper for Knoxville! Go to: knoxmercury.com/donate.

DEPARTMENTS

OPINION

A&E

4 6

Letters to the Editor

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18

Howdy Start Here: By the Numbers, Public Affairs, Quote Factory PLUS: “Photo Recollection: Knoxville Streets,” a photo series

by Holly Rainey.

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36

’Bye Finish There: Open Book guest column by Julie Gautreau, Crooked Street Crossword by Ian Blackburn and Jack Neely, Spirit of the Staircase by Matthew Foltz-Gray

Scruffy Citizen Jack Neely recalls Knoxville’s small place in the history of the European Union.

Perspectives Joe Sullivan takes a look at what’s slowing down the nation’s recovery from the Great Recession.

19 20 21

A joint project between the Knoxville-Knox County Homeless Coalition and the Knoxville Homeless Information System surveys Knoxville’s homeless population to determine the statistics and trends behind this social problem. Clay Duda shares their findings.

CALENDAR Program Notes: Tony Lawson returns to the radio station he co-founded, WDVX, and ex-pat Kym Hawkins gets into a Suttree mood.

Inside the Vault: Eric Dawson dusts off some old locally pressed vinyl, including the “Rockwood Polka.”

Music: Matthew Everett talks with Tim and Susan Bauer Lee about their not-just-a-side-project, Bark.

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Spotlights: Bone Thugs-nHarmony

FOOD & DRINK

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Home Palate Dennis Perkins uses his fingers at Sticky Rice Cafe and feels all the better for it.

Movies: Nathan Smith finds the political satire of The Purge: Election Day less than half baked.

July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 3

LETTERS Delivering Fine Journalism Since 2015

GUNS ON CAMPUS—OLD-SCHOOL STYLE

My experiences with guns on campus [“What Do UT Professors Think About Guns Coming to Campus?”

Daily Dumpster blog post by Clay Duda, June 16, 2016]: I think I was the last person shot by a professor on the UT campus.

It was in criminal law. The professor was illustrating an attempt to commit a crime. He went through this long story about what if a professor disliked a student and thought about coming to class with a gun and shooting him. We all had to discuss whether that was a crime.

He added details: What if the professor purchased a gun and ammunition in preparation for shooting the student? We had to discuss whether that was a crime. He added additional details: What if he packed the loaded gun in his satchel and brought it to school? We discussed that also.

He added the final detail: At a snail’s pace, he slowly withdrew the loaded gun from his satchel, pointed it a student, and squeezed off a round.

The class darted for cover. The professor thought he was witty. Most of the class had their opinion confirmed that he was a jerk. The student that the professor shot with the blank had, as a child, witnessed her father being shot and was understandably upset.

The remainder of the class was uneventful, with the exception that the professor didn’t like my answers to some of the questions he had asked— and like a junkie high on drugs, he emptied the revolver at me.

Well, this isn’t the end of the story. Devereaux Cannon, now deceased, was in the class and took a personal interest in the affront that

the professor had committed. The next quarter, he came to class with a pistol also loaded with blanks to return fire. The whole school was aware that Devereaux intended action. The class was not only full of all the registered students, but also as many other students who could fit in the classroom. But UT College of Law is a small school. Apparently, the professor found out and decided that it wasn’t a good idea to fire a handgun at a student.

In true law-school fashion, a query: What, if any, crimes did the professor commit? If the dean and other administrators knew of his actions, did they also commit any crimes? Were there torts committed?

I think it would make a nice law exam question.

Bruce Allen Butler Knoxville

KNOX COUNTY’S DEBTOR PRISON

Thank you for your story on “Prisoner Profiteering” [by S. Heather Duncan, June 30, 2016]. I recently read several related articles in The New York Times. One was titled “Is It a Crime to Be Poor?”, which reviewed court-imposed fines for committing crimes that the incarcerated cannot possibly afford to pay, and then adding other charges and interest to the fines resulting in even longer periods of incarceration! The other article was titled “A Modern System of Debtor Prisons,” which indicates state and local courts have an obligation to inquire about a person’s ability to pay fines and fees before jailing them for nonpayment.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that imprisoning a person

At a snail’s pace, he slowly withdrew the loaded gun from his satchel, pointed it a student, and squeezed off a round.

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 7, 2016

because he or she is too poor to pay a fee amounts to punishing a person for their poverty. When someone proves to be indigent and unable to pay fines, the law requires a court to consider alternatives to imprisonment. Hopefully, Knox County does not punish people for being poor, though all the practices mentioned in the Mercury article would seem to be a hardship on inmates and their families who have lower incomes.

Clifton Caudill Louisville, Tenn.

OPEN CALL FOR TALENT

Help us make the Mercury the best paper in East Tennessee!

If you have an idea for a spectacular new department or column, then pitch us. All ideas will be considered!

Or, if you’re an experienced reporter looking for assignments, let us know about your areas of expertise.

We especially would like to find contributors in the following areas: • business • state politics • arts & entertainment • general funniness Send your pitch letter and writing samples to: editor@knoxmercury.com

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 Brian Canever Patrice Cole Eric Dawson George Dodds Lee Gardner Mike Gibson Carey Hodges Nick Huinker Donna Johnson

Rose Kennedy Catherine Landis Dennis Perkins Stephanie Piper Ryan Reed Eleanor Scott Alan Sherrod April Snellings Joe Sullivan Kim Trevathan Chris Wohlwend

INTERN Josh Witt

DESIGN ART DIRECTOR Tricia Bateman tricia@knoxmercury.com GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

Charlie Finch Corey McPherson CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

David Luttrell Shawn Poynter Justin Fee Tyler Oxendine CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS

Ben Adams Matthew Foltz-Gray

ADVERTISING PUBLISHER & DIRECTOR OF SALES Charlie Vogel charlie@knoxmercury.com SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Scott Hamstead scott@knoxmercury.com Stacey Pastor stacey@knoxmercury.com

BUSINESS BUSINESS MANAGER Scott Dickey scott.dickey@knoxmercury.com

KNOXVILLE MERCURY

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

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. © 2016 The Knoxville Mercury

Send an email to: editor@knoxmercury.com Or message us at: facebook.com/knoxmercury

Award-Winning Journalism for Knoxville Mercury Wins Golden Press Card Awards

In our first time entering the Golden Press Card Awards, presented by the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists, the Knoxville Mercury scored 13 wins— competing against the largest daily newspapers in East Tennessee.

Beyond our three Awards of Excellence, we took prizes in general reporting, illustration, editorial writing, sports reporting, columns, and photography.

1ST PLACE: AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING “Checks and Balances”

by S. Heather Duncan

FEATURE WRITING “Hemp Pioneers”

by Clay Duda

PAGE DESIGN Knoxville Mercury Covers

by Tricia Bateman

JOURNALISM ISN’T EASY. AND IT ISN’T FREE. Although we don’t charge for our content, it costs money to produce. So if you’ve ever thought, “I’d pay for this!” then now is the time to do just that. Please contribute at knoxmercury.com/donate.

July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 5

Photo courtesy of University of Tennessee Athletics

HOWDY

BY THE NUMBERS

Summit on the Scoreboad

38

years Pat Summit served as head coach of the Lady Vols at the University of Tennessee.

100%

graduation rate of Lady Vols student atheletes during her tenure, 161 students in all.

1,098-208 Unexpected wave on West Jackson Avenue. PHOTO RECOLLECTION: KNOXVILLE STREETS by Holly Rainey (loveh865.com)

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QUOTE FACTORY

—Dolly Parton in a New York Times Q&A when asked about having a female presidential nominee. She also added, “But I personally think a woman would do a great job. I think Hillary’s very qualified. So if she gets it, I’ll certainly be behind her.”

Which later caused no little gnashing of teeth among right-wing bloggers who seem to think she’s conservative.

7/7 MEETING: KC SCIENCE BUILDING THURSDAY

6-8 p.m., TDEC office (3711 Middlebrook Pike). Free.

Residents of Mechanicsville (plus anyone else concerned about toxic substances) can learn more about the environmental status of the A.K. Stewart Science Building on the shuttered Knoxville College campus. Steve Goins, director of TDEC’s Division of Remediation, will be on hand to answer questions and take comments.

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7/9 BOOK SIGNING: ‘PINUPS FOR PITBULLS’ 7/10 CELEBRATION: MUSSEL MURAL SATURDAY

Noon-2 p.m., PETCO Farragut (169 Brooklawn St., Farragut). Free.

Pit bulls may have a bad public-image problem, but Deirdre Franklin has made it her mission to turn that around with Pinups for Pitbulls, a not-for-profit canine advocacy group that raises awareness through, yes, pinup calendars. She’ll be signing her new coffee-table book, Little Darling’s Pinups for Pitbulls, as well as calendars.

times making it to the NCAA Final Four since the women’s tournament launched

in 1982

“ I think no matter if it’s Hillary or Donald Trump, we’re gonna be plagued with PMS either way—presidential mood swings!”

PUBLIC AFFAIRS

wins and losses, Summit’s all-time record. Her first victory came on Jan. 10, 1975, playing against Middle Tennessee State, her last on March 24, 2012, against Kansas.

SUNDAY

2 p.m., Tyson Park (2321 Kingston Pike). Free.

The Center for Biological Diversity and its local allies are joining to celebrate Third Creek Greenway’s new Endangered Species Mural, which features the freshwater mussels and fishes of the Tennessee River. (We wrote about this a couple of weeks ago, remember?) Party for the Pink Mucket Pearly Mussel with a live performance

by Smiley and the Lovedawg.

—S. Heather Duncan Source: Sum It Up, Pat Summit biography; ESPN; Fox Sports

7/13 LECTURE: DEAN NOVELLI WEDNESDAY

Noon, East Tenn. History Center (601 South Gay St.). Free.

The Lamar House’s in-house historian, Dean Novelli, reveals all—about the third-oldest building in Knoxville with his talk, “Andrew Jackson Never Slept Here.” For nearly 200 years, it has survived war, bankruptcy, remodeling, urban renewal, and shifting ownership to once again become the center of Knoxville stage performances with the Bijou Theatre. Info: easttnhistory.org.

Summertime, Summer Suppers Knox Heritage’s annual series offers an intuitive education in local history.

“Summer Suppers” is the name for the unusual series of fundraising dinners for the preservationist nonprofit Knox Heritage.

Never the same, each dinner party is held in a historic spot, each with its own theme, and with distinctive fare that’s often a humorous nod to the setting.

They’ve sold briskly this year, and hundreds have purchased tickets. Of the originally announced 13 extremely various events—they’ve included a retail-themed feast at the J.C. Penney Building; a rack of lamb at the home of Knoxville’s original preservationist, Mary Boyce Temple; and a “French Broad River Float and Low Country Boil” in kayaks with beer and lawn games— only three suppers have spaces remaining.

an optional $20 surcharge for those who prefer to ride a bus from Historic Westwood for the event.

The original Summer Supper? Noted artist Adelia Armstrong Lutz, The only one left in Knoxville proper is seated in the foreground at right, wearing white, enjoys a picnic with the one called “Little House, Big Style,” a family friends at Bleak House on Kingston Pike in the 1880s. Westwood, sort of mini-progressive dinner held in two which is now headquarters of Knox Heritage, was built to accommodate of the smaller houses on Eleanor Street in her art studio, and her growing family, in 1890.

Fourth and Gill, one a Craftsman bungalow, and one a Victorian cottage. Although hardly Photo courtesy of Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection small enough to qualify for the trendy “tiny cmdc.knoxlib.org house” movement, they’re modest in size compared to some of their neighbors, and prove that historic preservation doesn’t always have to be grand. It’s on July 23 at 6:00, and tickets, which include architectural discussion, drinks, and a five-course meal, are $150 each.

The following weekend, Saturday, July 30, at 5:30, is an especially unusual event called the “Best Dam Summer Supper!” Completed in 1936, Norris Dam was the first of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s big dam projects, and its proximity is a major reason TVA established its headquarters in Knoxville.

Journalist Ernie Pyle, philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, and architect le Corbusier all visited Norris Dam just to behold it. (Some believe, half-seriously, that the dam had an effect on the Swiss architect’s future work!) Traces of 1930s moderne style are still evident at the dam. It’s a special occasion, because the dam, once open to the public, has been mostly closed to visitors for security in recent years, but this summer supper will include a tour of the facilities. A dinner in the dam’s 1930s “Tea Room” will include barbecue, deviled eggs, watermelon, and other things the fellows in the Civilian Conservation Corps, who built the place, would have recognized. The price is $100 per person, with

The final Supper of this Summer Supper Summer will be the “Big Bash at the Buck Brother,” Saturday, Aug. 27, at 6:45. It’s in downtown Lenoir City, not far from West Knoxville, where the Buck Brothers building at 102 East Broadway, which once featured a pharmacy and dance hall, is being renovated.

The evening will start at the Lenoir City Museum, and proceed to the century-old building next door for a dinner of “Loudon County favorites,” like “Drug Store Counter Hot Dogs,” “Belgium Mac & Cheese,” barbecue, and “Monterey Portobello Mushrooms.” That last one’s “Loudon County favorite” status is not a stretch. Monterey is a national company based in California, but one of its major mushroom-growing facilities is in Loudon County.

Tickets are $100 each.

All proceeds to to Knox Heritage, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit which assists public and private preservation efforts, advocates for historic preservation, and sometimes buys and renovates historic properties. For more information, see knoxheritage.org.

A Clarification Our Father’s Day issue about Knoxville’s prominent fathers and sons raised a question about whether Rep. John J. Duncan, Sr., “retired” from his seat in Congress. As one reader correctly pointed out, the elder Duncan actually died in office on June 21, 1988. However, the longtime congressman, suffering from cancer, had returned to Knoxville a month earlier to announce that he would not seek re-election. The News Sentinel of May 28, 1988, headlined the story “Rep. Duncan Retires.” His son, Jimmy, then a state trial judge, announced his candidacy for the office at the same time, while his father was still alive to offer his blessings. But the elder Duncan was still our congressman at the time of his death at the age of 69.

Sources: Knox Heritage, 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 July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 7

SCRUFFY CITIZEN

Remember the Eighties?

Knoxville’s footnote in the European Union story, and a ghostly intercom

of the royal wedding, which took place three years earlier, on a small TV screen. Tourists crowded around to watch it again. On June 21 the British pavilion closed early. Princess Diana had given birth to a boy, to be named William. The news was reason enough to close up early and get a pint. Some tourists were disappointed. It was about the only time at the usually serene European row that the crowds almost got ugly.

A British fellow explained the EC to me. We want Europe to be sort of like the United States, he said, sharing resources across borders.

That was useful. I had to explain the concept to several perplexed Americans that summer.

BY JACK NEELY

T

he European Union crisis can seem far away, but it the whole thing has one remote connection to Knoxville.

The EU’s predecessor was the European Community, and 34 years ago this summer, their representatives were in an aluminum building over near 11th Street. They were trying to explain their unusual organization to Americans at the 1982 World’s Fair.

Their pavilion was in the international row at the northwestern part of the grounds, presented as if they were a nation, themselves. It was about where Fort Kid’s parking lot is today.

This was the first time the European Community had ever mounted a whole pavilion at a World’s Fair. The idea had been stirring for 25 years, the subject of trade treaties. But the EC had no common currency, and a large part of it was still theoretical.

Every morning that summer, when crowd control reported for work, we got our assignments. Getting the European pavilions was like getting the day off. It was in the shade, the lines never got out of control, and there were Belgian waffles handy. These were the nations who signed up early for the fair, without having to be cajoled. They accepted the fair’s energy theme to the letter. They brought modern, well-designed, clearly worded educational exhibits with good ideas about conserving energy and finding new sources for it. Unlike the later signees, who’d bargained their way into making exceptions, the Europeans didn’t have painting robots or dancing girls or mummies or ancient stone

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warriors or a bar with great big cans of beer. The European pavilions were aimed at literate, earnest, sober adults.

They respected the energy theme and the intelligence of attendees. Hence there were never problems at the European lines. There usually weren’t lines at all.

France was there, and Britain, and Italy, and West Germany. Each was identified with the puzzling-to-Americans label “EC.” Then there was a pavilion just for the EC, to explain it.

In the summer of ’82, thousands of Americans had never heard of the European Community. The EC’s first-ever pavilion at a World’s Fair was a sort of public engagement party.

It had a colorful exterior, a bright mosaic that suggested pixilated flames. A sculpture on the same motif stood outside the pavilion.

Within was an exhibit about a giant solar plant in Italy, and another about Britain’s Joint European Torus, a major effort to develop practical nuclear fusion. Then just in the planning stages, JET exists today in Oxfordshire, an ongoing experiment of great interest in nuclear physics.

All of those nations had their own pavilions in the same neighborhood, and many tourists found the EC pavilion confusing. They’d walk out and see the Great Britain pavilion, and say, “Wait—didn’t we just see the British exhibit?”

To most, maybe, the separate British exhibit was of greater interest.

At some point they added a video loop

The Walnut Building, which has been our home for a year and a half, has a distinction you might notice even before you open the door.

It’s a stainless-steel box that says AMTEL, in that arrogantly plain corporate font that used to look bold and modern. Now intercoms are quaint. A landline-style phone with a metal keypad, it looks something like an old pay phone.

It’s more surprising to see the names on the directory. One is the architectural firm of McCarty Holsaple McCarty. Bruce McCarty’s firm introduced large-scale modernism to Knoxville, and probably had a bigger influence on the face of the city over the last 60 years than any other entity.

Still thriving, they’ve had their own sort of postmodern building over on Main Street for a couple of decades.

Until I noticed their name on the intercom, I didn’t know they were ever located in the Walnut Building. MHM gave it a major facelift then, with much larger windows, effectively

modernizing a modernist building.

Also on the list are some names of well-known lawyers: Timothy Priest, John K. Harber, Charles W. Swanson. In recent years, Swanson has been the city’s law director.

And look. There, in this building, is 13-30 Corporation, its “Management Information Systems” office and “Field Operations” office. You may recall that 13-30 changed its name to Whittle Communications, then added more magazines and a television studio and even a revolutionary new tech-based educational system, as it built a grand Georgian headquarters between Main and Cumberland—all as it blew up like a Supernova. Whittle vanished in 1994.

But you can still try to call up its predecessor, 13-30, right here. It gives you the number.

The intercom looks as if it should still work. The handset is intact, the cord is in good shape, the tiny red light glows brightly when you pick it up, and there’s a little crackle in the earpiece. Ghosts are trying to talk.

Curious, I looked it up in the old city directories at the library. The one year all the names on the intercom were listed with offices here was 1986.

Ronald Reagan was president, Lamar Alexander was governor, Kyle Testerman was mayor, and the U.S. government was trying to help poor Saddam Hussein in his war with the mean Iranians. I was a kid with a full head of hair wondering if it was possible to make a living in print journalism.

And none of us, Ronald, Lamar, Kyle, Saddam or me, had cell phones.

In 1986, McCarty Holsaple McCarty was finishing up the design of the still-arresting ziggurat-style redo of Hodges Library; 13-30 was splitting up and contemplating selling its most famous property, Esquire Magazine. I don’t know what all those lawyers were up to. ◆

In the summer of ’82, thousands of Americans had never heard of the European Community.

The EC’s first-ever pavilion at a World’s Fair was a sort of public engagement party.

PERSPECTIVES

Millennial Mire Is home ownership still an American dream?

BY JOE SULLIVAN

T

he primary thing that’s keeping the nation’s economic growth from becoming more robust is weakness in the housing sector.

Aggregate growth measures such as gross domestic product and employment have long since surpassed the peaks set prior to the Great Recession of 2008-2009. But new housing starts remain mired well below the levels of the early years of the century—before sub-prime mortgage lending inflated the bubble that burst during the crash, with disastrous consequences.

The carnage of foreclosures and steep price declines that left many new houses underwater has largely passed. Sales of existing homes are back on an even keel at prices that are steadily rising in many parts of the country. Yet construction of new dwellings that would spur the economy are lagging far below their turn-of-the-century level, let alone the boom-inflated one of a decade ago.

Knoxville is a microcosm of the nation in this regard. Knox County housing starts, as tracked by the Metropolitan Planning Commission, went on a roller-coaster ride from an annual average of about 3,500 units (including apartments) between 2000 and 2003, to about 4,000 between 2005 and 2007, then down to about

1,600 during the crash years, before recovering to an average of about 2,000 between 2012 and 2015. But note that this “recovery” is little more than half the pre-boom norm and that 2015 was weaker than the year before.

Nationally, the picture is pretty much the same. Housing starts for the first five months of 2016 continue to lag at an annual rate of fewer than 1.2 million, well below the pre-boom norm of more than 1.5 million. Measured in a different way, recent residential construction has only been accounting for about 3 percent of GDP compared to 5 percent historically. That’s a 2 percent gap between the relatively skimpy 2.4 percent GDP growth rate in each of the past two years and the growth rate that would have occurred if housing had kept pace with the rest of the economy, which has tended to be the case in prior recoveries over the past half-century.

So what’s causing the weakness at a time when the post-crash inventory overhang has largely been absorbed, population growth continues apace, and mortgage interest rates (borrowing costs) are close to all-time lows?

In trying to answer this question, housing economists site a number of factors. But they usually start with statistics showing that “household formations” have not kept pace with

population growth. Which raises the question: What is a household formation? Well, it’s deemed that whenever young adults leave their parents’ home and buy or rent a residence, they create a household. Whether they do it on their own or with five roommates in an apartment, that’s still counted as a single household as distinct from a family household, which the Census Bureau deems can only be formed by a married couple.

Its ability to measure all of this seems dubious to me. But the statistics probably don’t totally lie. And the most recent statistics show that housing formations are running at a rate of well under a million a year, which means less demand for housing.

So why is that? Well, “everybody knows” that in the wake of the Great Recession lots more young folks in their 20s and even into their 30s continued to live with their parents while they sought a job and/or because they were strapped by student debt.

Moreover, couples are getting married and starting to have kids at a considerably older age than even a generation ago, which lessens the formation of family households that are most likely to be home buyers.

More stringent credit standards than during the boom-to-bubble period may also be factor, although these have relaxed considerably of late.

Over and above all that, Fannie Mae’s former chief economist, Tom Lawler, now a semi-retired consultant, believes psychology may count for more than economics. “The ethos back in the day was to buy as much

house as you can as soon as you can, not only as a place to live but as an investment because prices are only going to go up,” Lawler observes.

Now, “Millennials are the first group since World War II who know families that got devastated by the crash. So millennials are more cautious about their financial situation.”

The home ownership rate in the U.S. has dropped from 69 percent to 63 percent at present, and Lawler doesn’t foresee it making much of a comeback anytime soon. Another reason, in his view: Builders are catering to buyers of larger, more expensive homes rather than smaller, more affordable starter homes. The number of houses getting built with more than 3,000 square feet is actually well up at present from the norm of the past, whereas the number with 1,500 square feet has plummeted.

Since people have to live somewhere, there’s obviously been a pick-up in apartment building—but not by enough to make up the slack in overall residential construction.

Numerous surveys point to the prospect that many of today’s renters intend to buy a home at some point. If that materializes anytime soon, their latent demand could actually be a good thing in terms of sustaining economic growth. The recovery from the Great Recession has just hit the seven-year mark, which already makes it one of the longer upswings in U.S. history (albeit one of the less robust). A return to “normalcy” in home building could help extend it beyond the 10-year record set between 1991 and 2001. ◆

Since people have to live somewhere, there’s obviously been a pick-up in apartment building—but not by enough to make up the slack in overall residential construction.

July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 9

Photo by Clay Duda

Parking Payout Hikes in downtown parking rates expected to quintuple revenue for city

BY CLAY DUDA

T

he sun may be setting on downtown’s Wild West parking days. No longer can you let your meter lapse a few minutes without worry, and plans to feed in coins every hour during your work day are ill-advised.

The meters will be watching.

The city officially started cracking down on parking culprits July 1, hiring more officers (through the Public Building Authority) to police parking meters, increasing rates for meters and some parking garages, and expanding the use of parking meters to cover Saturdays in addition to the Monday-Friday workweek.

It has also started the monthslong process of installing as many as 1,400 new, solar-powered parking meters capable of monitoring each parking space and alerting any of the 10 parking enforcers patrolling downtown and Fort Sanders when time expires or if someone flat-out doesn’t pay. These new machines are also capable of accepting payment via credit and debit card, and have the ability to sync with some phone applications to potentially alert motorists to open spots or allow them

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to pay through their phones—though city officials say there are no immediate plans to implement those features.

Chief Traffic Engineer Jeff Branham says the new technology will help streamline parking enforcement in the city, allowing officers to target problem areas and also collect data that can be used to fine-tune the system in years to come. It’s also projected to bring in about five times as much revenue as the current parking scheme, but none of that will come from parking during football games. The city has decided to waive the parking meter fees in Fort Sanders during UT football home games.

According to estimates from the city, revenue from parking meters is anticipated to rise from $300,000 annually to $1.5 million during the next fiscal year (which also happened to start July 1). Money brought in by parking tickets is expected to remain flat at $225,000, officials say.

“That said, when the city factors in its total expenses for traffic enforcement and operating lots and garages, the overall revenue does not exceed expenses,” city spokesman Eric

Vreeland said in an email. “All revenue that the city will collect through the new meters and enforcement will get plowed back into downtown parking and amenities, but it’s not a moneymaker.”

These high-tech smart meters also come at a cost, including a monthly bill for data management and credit card processing. The city has already spent about $1 million to purchase 1,022 new parking meters, which are being installed through August in downtown and along the Cumberland Corridor in Fort Sanders (between White and Lake avenues and from 17th Street west to the railroad tracks). It has another $400,000 set aside to purchase as many as 400 additional meters in the coming months.

Data and wireless charges for each parking meter total $6.25 monthly, an annual cost of about $77,000 paid to parking meter company the IPS Group. In addition, credit card processing by that same company ranges from $6-$8 per meter per month, depending on volume, totaling $73,000-$98,000 yearly. Without those services, features on the new machines like credit card processing and data collection cease to function. The cost for 10 full-time PBA parking enforcers totals $550,000 annually.

For those already dissatisfied with downtown parking and the city’s management of it, the parking changes have been a sort of battle cry.

News of the hikes sent social media a flutter last week, with dozens of people commenting and sharing a Mercury blog post warning of the impending changes.

“I like how the city’s viewpoint is basically ‘downtown is getting more popular, so we’re going to make sure only the people who can afford to pay more get to enjoy it easily,’” Taylor Redden wrote on the Mercury Facebook page. “Or those who work downtown and are forced to pay the higher rates.

Just a moneymaker. *sigh*” “Just another reason to never step foot/spend a dime in Knoxville,” Jason A Brooks commented.

Greg Manter found the slew of negative reactions a bit intriguing: “Amusing how people react to anything about parking. Parking is still free in the garages after 6pm and on weekends. The monthly rate for downtown workers is going down at the Coliseum

garage. There is really nothing to get all bent out of shape about.”

NEW DOWNTOWN PARKING POLICIES

Love ’em or hate ’em, the changes are here, and they’re numerous. Chief among things to take note of: • More parking enforcers: There are now 10 officers working parking enforcement six days a week. That includes six officers making rounds downtown and four patrolling the Cumberland Avenue of Fort Sanders, roughly between White and Lake avenues and from 17th Street west to the railroad tracks.

• More parking meters, more money, more places: Short-term parking meters now cost $1.50 hourly, an increase of 50 cents to $1 compared to most of the old meters (previously rates varied by location). Some places will get meters were currently there are none, including Gay Street and parts of Summit Hill Drive.

• Long-term parking meters are a thing: These long-term meters charge 30 cents hourly to park up to 10 hours. However, these meters are located in areas considered to be on the periphery of downtown, like the Gay Street Viaduct, along Depot Avenue, and on South Central Street.

Most of those locations have free parking nearby.

• Saturday enforcement (for meters): One big change is that street parking downtown will now be metered six days a week, Monday-Saturday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Street parking on Sunday is still free. It is also still free to park in any of the city-owned parking garages on both Saturday and Sunday, and on weeknights after 6 p.m.

• Monthly garage rate changes (up and down): Monthly parking rates in all city-owned garages (except the Civic Coliseum deck) are increasing by $5. Hourly parking will remain unchanged at $1 per hour. Monthly parking rates at the Civic Coliseum is being cut by $5. It was $20 monthly, now it’s $15. That’s because there are literally thousands of unused parking spots there and the city is hoping more people will take advantage of the free trolley, which picks up in front of the lot and loops downtown every 7-8 minutes. ◆

Lisa Higginbotham, in green, instructs volunteers during the second night a the three-day biannual homeless survey on Jan. 26. 53 volunteers fanned out across the city to conduct 249 interviews for the survey.

Photo by Clay Duda

Surveying the Streets Biannual study tracks the trends and statistics behind homelessness in Knoxville

BY CLAY DUDA

E

nergetic and a bit frazzled, Lisa Higginbotham hands out paperwork and envelopes stuffed with $1 bills to a dozen or so volunteers gathered in a corner at the Knox County Public Defender’s Office.

These are the team leaders, the point-people that will help coordinate a total of 53 volunteers fanning out across the city to meet homeless men and women living on the streets and attempt to ask them questions.

It’s the second night of the three-day-long biennial homeless survey, a regular attempt ongoing for three decades to collect information and quantify root causes of homelessness, as well as track trends within the community here in Knoxville. The survey is a joint project between the Knoxville-Knox County Homeless Coalition and the Knoxville Homeless Information System (KHMIS). The coalition first started conducting the survey in 1986. Now it is assisted by KHMIS, an operation out of the University of Tennessee established in 2004 to track services provided to homeless men and women.

“We really want this survey to spur direction and incite change,” Coalition Chair Chris Smith says.

The survey happens about the same time every other year, during the last week of January. That’s when these volunteers—bundled for the cold night ahead—visit food pantries, service providers and shelters, and illegal encampments tucked away on vacant lots and under freeway overpasses to gather data and real-life stories. If the interviewees stick it out, answering the dozens of questions in detail needed to conduct the study, he or she will earn $3. It’s an exercise rarely glimpsed by the general public, or much of anyone outside this small group conducting interviews. To protect the validity of the research, surveyors must also protect the identities and even the locations where they talk to the people they interview.

The data lives on in anonymized charts, graphs, statistics, policies, and reports—the most recent of which was unveiled Tuesday at Flenniken Landing, a supportive housing development in South Knoxville designed to help men and women transition out of homelessness.

KHMIS also releases an annual report tallying services and outcomes in conjunction with the biennial survey on even years.

“The thing that continues to puzzle me is this number: 64 percent [of the 249 people surveyed] have been treated for mental illness, and we know a number of these people have also spent time in jail,” explains Dr. Roger Nooe, a coalition member who has helped lead the survey since its inception. “What I think this underscores is how costly homelessness is if we don’t do anything about it. It also underscores the need for more affordable housing.”

Of those who have suffered from a mental illness, 70 percent said they spent time in jail. Nooe says, on average, they served 29 more days behind bars than a person without a mental illness, and are often more likely to have a future run-in with law enforcement. Pointing to work in other communities that has proven successful, Nooe and others stress a need for more affordable housing options and continuing a shift toward a “housing first” model that has vastly reduced the number of homeless people in places like Utah and Phoenix, Ariz. That approach quite literally puts housing first, giving a homeless person a place to live coupled with resources and services to help them overcome whatever obstacles are contributing to their situations, which could be anything from drugs to mental illness or criminal convictions.

“That’s one of the hardest nuts to crack on this issue,” says Michael Dunthorn, head of the city’s Office on Homelessness. “How do we expand access to the services that are already here and how do we find the resources to provide supportive housing as needed? It’s a huge challenge to find those resources and put them in place, but that’s pretty much my focus for the next year.”

Patterson says that improved data collection has also helped better understand issues of homelessness, noting that KHMIS now tracks program outcomes (such as how many people leave a place like emergency shelter or other programs and remain in housing, among many other things) and no longer just tallies demographics. Local rapid re-housing programs, for example, reduced the time it took

people to get into a residence by 53 percent from 2014 to 2015, and emergency shelters have streamlined their process by about 8 percent— good signs, he says. Still, more needs to be done to tackle these issues in order to reduce the number of people homeless in Knoxville.

“There are still far too many people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless in our community,” Mayor Madeline Rogero said during the press conference Tuesday.

“We also know there is not enough housing for low-income individuals.”

Local homeless advocate and executive director of the East Tennessee Peace and Justice Center, Eddie Young says he’d like to know more about how many people total are homeless at any given time in Knoxville, a point-in-time count not included in either of the reports. “We know we have 450 beds, so even if there are 700 people on the street—and that’s a low number—then we know we need more bed space,” he says. (Higginbotham says the point-in-time count wasn’t included because they have yet to be approved by federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Unofficially, there were an estimated 748 people homeless in Knoxville on Jan. 28.)

What is clear is that more than 9,000 people in Knoxville sought out services last year, according to KHMIS data, although that may not be a complete picture of how many people are homeless in Knoxville.

Nearly half of the people interviewed this January said the loss of a job or some other financial hardship was the main cause of their homelessness.

Thirty-five percent cited drug or alcohol abuse, and 34 percent said relationship problems had forced them out. Only 2 percent said they preferred to be homeless.

Nooe notes that the report continues to help dispel myths like most people choose to be homeless or that services attract people from out of the area (the majority hail from Knox and surrounding counties). He noted that the number of homeless veterans has dropped substantially since the first survey 30 years ago, down from more than 40 percent then to about 15 percent today (the number of homeless vets surveyed for this report did increase about 3 percent compared with 2014 figures). Read the full report online at knoxmercury.com◆ July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 11

Coach

Farewell notes and fond remembrances from Knoxvillians inspired by Pat Summitt

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 7, 2016

Photo by Patrick Murphy-Racey

Confessions of a Non-Athletic Superfan

BY JAYNE MORGAN

orange hair bows, chattering excitedly and waving pom-poms. I expected mainly women, older parents, a student contingent, but there were kids everywhere. Of all ages.

And men. Lots of men.

After we sat down in our seats, three guys I can only describe as Bubbas sat in front of us in camouflage and ball caps. Uh oh. Here comes trouble. I comforted myself with the thought that if they got too rude and crude, I could always go home early. Then the game began.

I can’t tell you who we played or the final score; that hardly mattered. What did matter to me, taking my breath away, was seeing a crowd of 17,000 or more go crazy cheering a women’s team as it pounded up and down the court, battling, sweating, competing, all under the famous Summitt stare that could cow a platoon of Santeria priestesses.

And those Bubbas? They knew every player by name and stats. They yelled for the women and cussed out the refs. It wasn’t a women’s game to them, it was a helluva game. Oh brave new world, they cared!

And this is why women of my age

Jayne Morgan is an actress and a longtime fixture of the Knoxville theater scene; she is currently artistic director of Flying Anvil Theatre. Follow Jayne at jayneemorgan.com.

Head Coach Pat Summitt during the Jan. 19, 2006 game between the Vanderbilt Commodores and the Tennessee Lady Volunteers at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Photo courtesy of University of Tennessee Athletics

T

he first time I saw a Lady Vols basketball game was in 1996, when the Lady Vols were on their way to winning a fourth national title.

But I didn’t know that. I followed football reflexively, a Knoxville survival mechanism, but women’s sports didn’t register at all.

For good reason. As a card-carrying UT alumni and theater geek, I survived the indignities of having theater parking lots commandeered and performances canceled whenever the basketball or football teams played. Years of trying to negotiate Byzantine performance schedules in order to avoid game days had built up a callous of resentment. The last thing I wanted to do was support the local sports hegemony in any way, shape, or form.

And I really didn’t like basketball.

My only memory of the game was playing half court in high school gym class. There was no women’s varsity team and our gym teacher explained that we weren’t allowed to play full court because the constant running might cause our vaginas to fall out.

Seriously.

While Pat Summitt was driving John Deere tractors and leading her high school teams to victory in Middle Tennessee, the girls of the old Farragut High were jogging carefully the few yards allowed to us on the court, trying to avoid thinking about our lady parts flopping about on the hardwood like so many soggy under-inflated basketballs. I wasn’t much of a player in any case, always fouling out within minutes of the opening jump ball.

So when a group of friends decided to go to a Lady Vols game, I looked upon it as a mildly interesting lark. A chance to experience a sociological ritual as foreign to me as a Santeria chicken sacrifice.

The first surprise came when we purchased tickets, our only choice being the nosebleed section of Thompson Boling Arena. I was surprised to see so many people filling the stands, then stunned to see who those people were. Fathers settling their 3-year-old daughters into their seats. Whole Brownie Scout troops, bedecked in

don’t just love Pat Summitt, we revere her. Unlike men, most of us didn’t grow up with team sports. We weren’t taught how to be competitive. To reach for greatness. In anything, ever. At least I wasn’t. But Pat has been teaching all along that it’s in there—in each of us, if we’re willing to work for it. It doesn’t matter when it comes, whether you are 12 or 68, man or woman, Bubba or theater geek, that is one powerful message right there and when Pat Summitt says it, you believe it.

After that game, I was hooked. I became a fan, read Pat Summitt’s books, and wondered if I could have cut it on her team. I found myself missing something I never realized I lacked: a coach. To drive me to expect more of myself, looking deep inside of me with that thousand-mile stare, never satisfied, never accepting anything but my best. Too old, unathletic, still not that into sports, it doesn’t matter. I want to play for Pat Summitt. Right now. I want to run sprints for her, run till I puke. I want to throw elbows and take a charge. I wanted her to be our coach forever.

But Pat knew that the flip side of

teaching us we can be better than we ever dreamed, is teaching us to recognize our limitations. Realities must be faced, even if they suck. You can’t will yourself to be taller. And working harder won’t stave off age, or the cruel fact of Alzheimer’s. Facing a foe there is no good defense against, Pat was coaching all of us right up till the end—developing new techniques for accepting loss with grace.

I teach acting classes and sometimes I tell myself I’d like to be the Pat Summitt of acting coaches.

It’s a daunting challenge. She taught me what a coach could be—demanding, yes. Caring, absolutely. She was all about making us believe we are bigger and better than we have ever suspected. That’s the example of her life. Not that we never lose, but that we never settle for anything less than our best effort, come what may.

I never met Pat Summitt. But she is my coach too.

July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 13

Searching for the Right Questions, But Getting the Right Answers

BY BROOKS CLARK

What about the AP photo? “Yes,” Pat said, smiling. “I called the Marciniaks and told them it wasn’t child abuse,” (As Lady Vols fans know so well, it was in the Marciniaks’ living room in Allentown, Penn., that Pat’s water had broken, causing her to quickly catch a plane home to make sure that Tyler was born in Tennessee.)

Why did you bench Michelle in the previous year’s title game against UConn? (She had whipped a long pass to a center, open under the basket, who let the pass go through her hands.) “We’ve been working on shortening our passes,” said Pat. “We want 12-foot passes, not 20-foot passes. Michelle knows [the center] can’t catch that pass.”

Pat glanced at my list of questions on the cardboard. “I see where you’re going with this,” she said, standing up and heading toward her side of her desk. I thought for a moment the interview was over. Instead the opposite happened. “That makes me think of something that just arrived today,” she said, cheerfully. She had given the team personality tests that Rodgers Cadillac gave its sales people to understand what motivates each individual. Summitt opened up the report and said that something had jumped out at her: basically, that she and her flashy point guard were exactly the same. More than anything else, they were both motivated to win, and they would do anything to achieve winning. Summitt said, in so many words, that this had given her a new

Portrait of Head Coach Pat Summitt in 2011 with all eight of her NCAA National Championship Trophies at Thompson-Boling Arena.

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 7, 2016

Photo courtesy of University of Tennessee Athletics

O

n a November morning in 1995, I had an interview with Pat Summitt.

It was in her office. I sat on the famous sofa, where hundreds of Lady Vols had received advice, counseling, stern words, loving words. She sat across from me. Is there a word for the feeling of sitting across from a living legend, hoping not to embarrass one’s self? Of course, Summitt was friendly, open, and engaged. The glare, as many have said, was reserved for the basketball court. As she said many times, “Our players know that, when they step across the line onto the basketball court, the standard is perfection, and they accept that.”

Pat glanced at my No. 10 Reporter’s Notebook. My questions, scrawled on the brown cardboard inside flap, were about Michelle Marciniak, the flashy blonde point guard whose “spin move” to the basket—usually punctuated by an impertinent flourish of Marciniak’s ponytail—had been driving Pat crazy. It was decidedly not in the manner of Lady Vols basketball.

In an earlier interview, I’d asked Marciniak why she had Scotch-taped an AP photo to the dashboard of her Honda of Pat grabbing her jersey and yelling in her face. “I wanted to make sure that that never happens again,” answered Marciniak.

Is Pat being too hard on you? I asked. “Oh, no,” she said. “She’s trying to make me into the point guard that I can be.” At some point, Marciniak said, “I want a championship so bad it hurts.”

So now I was asking my questions to Summitt.

The warm-up: What should a point guard do? “Have the team in the palm of her hand,” she said. “She should be the coach on the floor.”

We talked about how Pat had first watched Marciniak as a ninth-grade AAU player but even then worried about how her flashy style would fit in with the Lady Vols’ system.

perspective on how she had been relating to her point guard.

It should come as no surprise that an interview with one of the greatest coaches in history provided one of the most memorable moments for a humble reporter. But this was better than that. So much of Summitt’s coaching genius and personal willingness (and ability) to adapt to changing circumstances were laid out in the allegory of Spinderella and—it turned out, her Tough Love Godmother. That season was the story of Pat working with Marciniak, a psychology major, to get the most out of an introverted center who was shrinking more than most from Pat’s sterner coaching. It was also the story of Marciniak gathering the entire team on a sofa to explain to a freshman that she had been respectful of her elders long enough. For the team to win, she had to play like an All-American instead of a freshman. Happily, Chamique Holdsclaw did as asked, and the Lady Vols won the first of three NCAA titles in a row.

All this and more was told elegantly by, among others, the great Gary Smith in Sports Illustrated in 1998 and Sally Jenkins in the books she wrote with Pat. If you ever had a moment with Pat Summitt, you have remembered it and retold it in the past few days.

Great coaches change lives and make the people they meet, not just the players they coach, better. And I’m grateful for having had that moment, when Pat helped me do my job better.

Brooks Clark is a project manager for Alumni Communications at the University of Tennessee—but in the ’90s he was Metro Pulse’s sports correspondent, often writing cover stories on UT athletics.

In the Fast Lane with a Multi-Tasking Wonder

BY PATRICK MURPHY-RACEY

I

graduated from Marquette University in 1989, having photographed virtually every single basketball game from my sophomore year. It was a great gig because you got fed before every game, which was key for me as a student. Marquette was a big basketball school, being counted among the “Jesuit mob” of hoops schools.

When I arrived in Knoxville in September of ’89 to work for the newspaper, I got assigned to a men’s basketball game and was shocked to see only 3,000 people in the stands in this massive arena that had just been opened before my arrival. A few days later, I got assigned to my first Lady Vols game, and was again shocked—at how many people were there. Even in the late ’80s, the Lady Vols were drawing well over 10,000 a game.

By the end of that season, I soon found myself in London, England to cover Pat and her team playing international opponents—and eventually, I got to my first Final Four down in New Orleans. I remember finding Catherine “Tat” Shiely, who was coach of the Marquette women’s team.

I introduced myself to her and told her I was sorry for not ever covering our own women’s basketball team. She smiled and asked me who I was covering at the Final Four. When I told her, she threw her head back and laughed and said, “Patrick, you are in good hands. Apology accepted.”

Pat Summitt is personally responsible for my trips to six Final Fours, London, the White House (twice), and to New York City when she received the ESPY. She’s also the reason why I got hundreds of assignments from Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Sport Magazine, The Sporting News, The National, and the list goes on and on.

In all that time, Pat treated me more as a friend than a journalist. She always called me by my first name and insisted on me doing the same for her.

She allowed me access, many times,

Patrick Murphy-Racey is a longtime professional photographer. You can find his work at pmrphoto.com.

I rode shotgun to the arena as she pushed that Benz past 70 mph on Alcoa Highway, steering with her knees as she applied mascara and talked on the cell phone stuck between her cheek and shoulder.

Photo by Patrick Murphy-Racey

into her locker rooms in clear violation of the NCAA rules, but no one ever challenged her, ever.

Pat is responsible for me being able to not just make some amazing photos throughout my career, but she allowed me to pay the mortgage on our home.

She also affected my prayer life in a positive way when I got to spend two full days with her for Sports Illustrated, leading up to the Indianapolis Final Four. I met her at her home and rode shotgun to the arena as she pushed that Benz past 70 mph on Alcoa Highway, steering with her knees as she applied mascara and talked on the cell phone stuck between her cheek and shoulder. I was terrified, but kept shooting all the way to campus.

Pat’s loss to me personally is palpable. It’s been a hard few days but shooting the sunset over the Henley bridge on the day she died seemed to help me gain some closure. I’ve been dragging my feet as I’ve wanted to do a book of my photographs on Pat Summitt for a long time. In typical fashion, Pat has now provided me with the motivation to get off my butt and get busy. Thanks Coach. You still inspire me even in death to reach higher and push beyond 100 percent in all things. I thank you for your example, and will pray for Tyler and the rest of your family. I will do that book and honor you in the process.

I will get it done!

Finding Yourself Under that Famous Glare

BY SUSAN A. KEMPPAINEN

S

everal years ago, when I worked at Covenant Health producing training videos, I had the opportunity to tape Coach Summit for a citywide hospital project on treating patients with ventilator-assisted pneumonia.

We’d set up in the Lady Vols locker room for the shoot and then found ourselves waiting on Pat Summitt. We waited. We waited and then we waited a little longer. After all, it was PAT SUMMITT. We’d have waited until Hell froze over if need be.

Finally, the door swung open and here came Pat, charging in barefoot with her shoes in her hand. She apologized for being late, but one of her players had just become engaged and attention needed to be paid.

She then complained about her shoes and I assured her we’d just shoot her from the waist up and shoes weren’t needed. She smiled and the shoes were tossed to the side.

We began the taping. She was word perfect. On point. Professional.

Until we came to the word “ventilator.”

She couldn’t say the word for any amount of money and it was a pretty key word. “Ventlur.” No. “Venteelar.”

Nope. “Ventleer.” Still not there. She laughed at herself and wondered why that word was so hard for her. I offered to change the word, not knowing I how I was going to do that; and, she said

“No, I’m going to get it.” We practiced, practiced, and practiced. She’d get it wrong and you could see her determination get stronger and stronger. And, finally, she got it. She smiled that big smile of hers. Thanked us for our patience. We did the final taping; and, then, she was gone. Rushing out the door. Still barefoot.

My second meeting with Pat was at a women’s conference where she spoke of never giving up. Always putting one foot in the front of the other and being determined to do better regardless of the circumstance.

The legendary Lady Vol Coach was being a coach for women, as she had for countless numbers of her players.

The women of the conference left empowered and ready to change—myself, included.

As the conference wound up and people thronged around her, I’d sat with Pat’s mother, Hazel Head, a sweet, gregarious woman who was a bit frail, but razor sharp. She was as friendly a woman as I’d ever met. I walked with Ms. Head and Pat to the elevator. As we stood there, I chatted with Pat about what she’d said and how difficult it could be sometimes. I explained I suffered from chronic depression and asked how in the world you just kept putting one foot in front of the other when you’d rather do anything else.

And then came “the glare.” She locked those steel blue eyes on me and paused for a second (which

seemed like 12 years) and said, “You get out of bed every day. You take a step. You just do it.”

After our conversation, I thought back to the 2009 NCAA tournament, when the vaunted Lady Vols lost in the first round of play to Ball State. Pat was quoted as saying that once in her hotel room, she cried, she threw things and didn’t sleep. Yet, the next morning, once the team arrived back in Knoxville, she held practice. There were no more games that season, but she was teaching a lesson.

You lose. You get back up. You work so it doesn’t happen again.

I’ll never forget seeing those two sides of Pat Summitt: the warm, light hearted woman who could laugh at the farm girl from Henrietta who struggled to say “ventilator,” and the determined, no-nonsense coach who didn’t take human frailty as an excuse. It’s just something to overcome and defeat.

She taught me a lesson that has stayed with me. While I may not be able to control my depression, I can get out of bed everyday, take a step or two and just get on with it.

Thanks, Coach. We’ll not see your likes again.

Susan A. Kemppainen is a life-long Knoxville resident, graduate of UT’s theatre department, and retired videographer from Covenant Health. She currently edits a webpage on medical education.

July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 15

Inspiring Confidence to Become Coaches Ourselves

BY BENNY SMITH

I

Photo courtesy of the Center for Sport, Peace, and Society

Photos by Tricia Bateman

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 7, 2016

have often told folks that my role as general manager at WUTK, the student radio station at the University of Tennessee, resembles that of a coach as much as it does almost anything else. I have to be sure to recruit a good team, made up of many people from various walks of life working toward the same goals. So it goes without saying that I have looked to successful coaches as role models to provide inspiration and enlightenment on how I can do the job that I need to do, every day. The two coaches I have drawn the most inspiration from happen to be my father, W.D. “Dee Dobber” Smith, and the greatest basketball coach of all time, Pat Summitt.

WUTK has had a sports show for many years, and it has a long and impressive list of alumni who have gone on to do incredible work in the world of sports broadcasting and journalism. The show is a point of great pride for us, but getting a head coach at a D1 school to commit to doing an interview with a college radio station is never an easy task. That is, unless the coach you request is Pat Summitt. She was the only coach who

would take time to come over to our studio and allow the student staff to conduct live interviews with her.

There was a lot of nervous energy inside the station the first time she agreed to come in and be our live guest. It was my job to keep the troops calm and make sure they were focused on the job at hand. It was almost a Christmas Eve-like atmosphere inside the basement walls of our studio. I remember being at the door to greet her when she walked in—and seeing a genuine smile on her face that showed me, right away, that she wanted to be there.

Coach shook everyone’s hand inside the station, and said “Well, where do you want me to go?” We sat her down in the studio and her confident presence rubbed off on the students, which is one of the things that a great coach can do. No longer nervous, the students conducted a fantastic interview, and she acknowledged them for doing so. During the interview, she talked about a lesson her father taught her that “If you do a job, it’s not done until you do it right.” That really stuck with me. Its simple yet powerful message guides me every day, and I proudly use that quote when teaching and training students, as well as

coaching my daughter’s soccer teams.

After the interview, I got to spend just a few minutes alone with one of my idols. I wanted to make sure she knew how important what she just did was for my students, and for me. And just how much we all appreciated what that she had done for UT and for her student-athletes. We both agreed it’s a blessing that we were able to help young men and women realize their career goals and dreams, and give the students opportunities and encouragement to make those dreams become a reality. To be able to share that bond, and that moment, was something that still inspires me to do what I love to do.

It’s hard to even fathom Knoxville without Coach Summitt. But just as my dad lives on through the many lessons he taught me, Coach Summitt will do the same through so many others. Work hard, prepare well, treat all people the same, be yourself, love what you do, help others. Now, by using those lessons from my dad and Coach Summitt, I will always strive to do my best to “do it right.”

Thanks, Coach. Go Lady Vols!

Benny Smith is the general manager and program director for Volunteer Radio 90.3 WUTK-FM, “The Rock.”

Pat Summit provided basketballs to an Iraqi girls’ basketball league and later brought a group of Iraqi girls to one of her basketball camps for free. A new film about Summit’s impact on them, called Coaching Change: A Legacy of Love, is being released this summer.

“Your greatest championship will be #9 … when we beat this disease!

Thank you for changing the university, the state, and the world!”

—a poster at the public shrine created around her statue on the UT campus

Head Coach Pat Summitt cuts down the net during the 2008 SEC Championship Final game between the LSU Tigers and the Tennessee Lady Volunteers at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

Photo courtesy of University of Tennessee Athletics

July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 17

A&E

P rogram Notes

Photo by Linda Billman

WDVX U-Turn WDVX co-founder and former program director Tony Lawson returns to the station as a creative consultant

T

hat didn’t take long. Just a little more than a year since he left his longtime position as program director at WDVX, Tony Lawson is back in Knoxville and back at the award-winning roots/country/Americana/folk community radio station he co-founded nearly 20 years ago.

“I’m pretty excited to get back in a new role at the station,” Lawson says.

In March 2015, Lawson left WDVX to join WBCM, a new radio station associated with the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol. The move surprised many people; Lawson founded WDVX, with Don Burgraff, in 1997, and had remained involved as the station grew—moving from its original home in a trailer on a hilltop in Clinton to a studio inside the Knoxville Visitors

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 7, 2016

Center on Gay Street, establishing the Blue Plate Special series of six-days-aweek live-broadcast concerts, and attracting a worldwide audience through its online stream.

But a change in management in Bristol has sent Lawson into business as a “creative consultant,” and his first contract is with his old station. (He did some consulting work with WBCM before he took a job there.)

“I’d had thoughts before I joined [WBCM] about becoming a sole proprietor on my own and maybe start consulting on some projects, so what a great place to begin a new venture,” Lawson says of his return to WDVX. Lawson will be involved in programming and fundraising and will also appear on the air in the

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Music: Bark

afternoon. His first day back on the air is Thursday, July 7.

That’s just one big change at WDVX. The station announced in late June, just days before Lawson’s return was made public, that Katie Cauthen has been promoted from AAA music director to Lawson’s former post as station program director/content manager. Cauthen, a 2011 University of Tennessee graduate, has worked at WDVX in various positions since 2008, including host of the country-music showcase Category Stomp on Monday nights.

“I’m jumping right into the fire,” Lawson says—the station is holding its annual one-day fund drive on July 19 to raise money for technological improvements to its transmitter. But the music industry is changing, he says, and more people are adopting the model he helped establish.

“It’s not going to be that much different,” he says. “We’ll just jump in and see what we’re feeling. There’s some great music out there, and it’s amazing—and sometimes it’s a little scary, too—to see these guys get popular, like Chris Stapleton and Jason Isbell and Sturgill Simpson.

The stuff we’ve been playing for 20 years is starting to get more recognition. It’s a Billboard chart, it has a Grammy. It’s amazing, and I think more stations are probably going to look at more niche programming.”

Lawson also says Knoxville has made big strides since he left a year ago, based on his impressions during a WBCM stint back here at the Knoxville Stomp Festival of Lost Music in May. “I’m really excited about Knoxville since I’ve been gone,” he says.

“We came down and did video sessions at Knoxville Stomp and had a blast. … It was so exciting—in a 15-month span, this town has gone to another level.

“And Suttree’s has all those pinball machines now. That’s so dangerous.” (Matthew Everett)

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Strange Bedfellows CORMAC MCCARTHY INSPIRES EX-KNOX SINGER KYM HAWKINS AND HER NEW NEW YORK BAND Kym Hawkins isn’t the only reason Knoxville audiences might be interested in Strange Candy, the new EP by Brooklyn indie-pop band Gillian.

(Hawkins, a Johnson City native, graduated from the University of Tennessee and played in the Knoxville power-pop band Plainclothes Tracy before moving to New York in 2013.)

No, the peg for most local listeners is that the last three songs on Strange Candy—“Radio Clock,” “Windfall,” and “House Boat”—are all inspired by Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree. It’s something Hawkins has talked about in previous interviews (including one with the Mercury in April 2015); she says Gillian guitarist/singer/songwriter Geoff Bennington was reading the 1979 Appalachian urban gothic classic, set mostly around downtown Knoxville in the early 1950s, when she joined the band. That encouraged her to finally pick it up, she says, and characters from the novel have popped up in various Gillian songs since.

The references to McCarthy’s book on Strange Candy aren’t explicit, but they’re there—marble and cemeteries (“Radio Clock”), bats and a cave (“Windfall”), and the titular houseboat in “House Boat.” The funky dance-pop songs certainly don’t sound like anything the hard-bitten McCarthy has ever written, though.

The EP, released on June 30, is available at iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, and Bandcamp. (M.E.)

Movies: The Purge: Election Day

Inside the Vault

Private Pressings A pair of rare vinyl discoveries reveals treasures of old-time East Tennessee music

BY ERIC DAWSON

J

im Cooley of Rockwood called up and said he had a record I might find interesting. It was a 1960s recording of a 90-year-old Rockwood woman playing banjo and telling stories. That did sound interesting. I wondered what small local label might have released such a record.

Turns out it was a vanity-press record of Robbie Clack, transferred from reel-to-reel tape to vinyl at Loran Baker Recording Service. Baker was a TVA employee who ran a small studio out of the garage of his Fountain City home. In a 1956 News Sentinel ad, Baker offers tape and disc services for “Church Programs, Public Addresses, Funeral Services, Weddings, Rentals, etc.”

The record is a heavy slab, at least 200 grams, housed in a plain

white jacket with a handwritten title: “Cousin Rob With Her Five String Banjo at 90 Years of Age.” A typed track list is affixed to the back. It’s likely the only copy made, pressed as a souvenir for Clack and her family.

She was born in 1875, so the recording must have been made around 1965, just two years before her death.

The recording is very low-fidelity, “from a tape recording on a Sunday afternoon.” At times you can hear more than one person laughing, suggesting a very casual setting—people gathered with Clack to preserve her playing, singing, and stories. The repertoire is fairly familiar, with songs such as “Free Little Bird,” “Cotton Fields,” “This Train,” and “Steal Away.” No doubt Clack heard some of these songs on radio and records over

the years, but to listen to her raw playing and singing, it’s easy to imagine she’d been hearing some of these selections since her childhood.

There is also at least one original instrumental composition, “Rockwood Polka,” and three spoken narratives, including two short personal anecdotes and the legend of a haunted well in Rockwood that was the site of a murder/suicide.

It’s exceptionally rare to come across a 1960s-era recording of an East Tennessean who was born in the 1870s, especially one of a woman playing banjo and singing. It can be a bit of a rough listen at times, but maybe that’s fitting for a recording of someone who spent the first few decades of her life without a radio or phonograph player or even electricity.

Clack was 15 years older than Dock Boggs, who was recording albums for Folkways at the time, and just a few years younger than Uncle Dave Macon, who died in 1952. You want to be careful not to romanticize this kind of thing, but it’s astonishing to think that around the time the Beach Boys were recording Pet Sounds and Karlheinz Stockhausen’s was composing Hymnen, a woman from a small East Tennessee town made a record that recalled a time decades before broadcast or recorded sound existed.

Another remarkable recording has been under my nose for a few years. I just happened across it while organizing records in the archive. I’d only ever glanced at the back cover of A Wagon Load of Old Time Country Music, a private press compilation recorded in Clinton around 1982. I’d

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missed the liner notes that mention Willie Sievers Sharp plays piano on her brother Mack Sievers’ recording of “Five Foot Two.” With their father, Bill, and cousin Walter McKinney, Willie and Mack were part of the Tennessee Ramblers, a group that recorded six songs at the 1929 Brunswick-Vocalion Knoxville sessions. There aren’t many recordings by Knoxville sessions performers from the latter half of the 20th century; aside from a home tape by fiddler Newman Wise, this is the latest one we’ve found.

Willie’s piano playing was much admired by her contemporaries in the 1920s and 1930s, but the only chance we’ve had to hear it was in Terry Zwigoff’s 1985 documentary Louie Bluie, about Howard Armstrong, and in outtakes from a 1989 episode of The Heartland Series. That was shot at Carl Bean’s Big Valley Barn in Clinton, and Wagon Load features several of the acts who frequently performed there in the 1970s and ’80s. In addition to the Sievers and Bean, the record features Monroe Queener, Ray Rutherford, John Rice and Elizabeth Irwin, Jay and Janie Ward, and old-time fiddling master Bob Cox. It was recorded just a few years before Mack Sievers died.

The whole album is a lot of fun, but it’s especially fantastic to hear Willie play piano on a record. Here, her rollicking barrelhouse style backs her brother’s take on the 1920s hit “Five Foot Two,” also known as “Has Anybody Seen My Gal?” Mack’s voice was not at its strongest—he was 78 years old at the time, though he and Willie were still performing together around the region as the Novelty Hawaiians. Willie was still playing guitar behind the back and between her legs, referred to in the News Sentinel, before a 1982 Market Square performance, as a “woman trick player.” They must have been something to see, performing in the same place where, nearly six decades earlier, they took part in fiddle contests. ◆ Inside the Vault searches the TAMIS archives for nuggets of lost Knoxville music history.

July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 19

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Music

Power Couple Tim and Susan Bauer Lee find new ways to have fun in garage-rock duo Bark

BY MATTHEW EVERETT

T

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and many other notable local artists.

The band came about unexpectedly. As half of the indie/power-pop duo the Windbreakers, Tim had flirted with success on the college-rock circuit in the 1980s. But he’d been silent for a decade when he and Susan moved to Knoxville from Mississippi in 2000. Here, he picked the guitar back up and recorded a couple of low-key albums. When Susan took up the bass, the Tim Lee 3 was born.

The couple’s new project, Bark, features Tim on bass (well, Fender Bass VI, which is more like a bass than a guitar, strictly, but is functionally a little bit of both) and Susan

record, 33 1/3.)

“The first record we did live in a day or a day and a half,” Tim says. “It was just the way to do it—knock it out, let’s get it done. Now, we’ll put more thought into it. We’ll futz around with it more, because we can.”

The way they describe their working relationship in Bark, it sounds like it would be harder for the Lees not to play together than to keep up their hectic schedule of local and out-of-town shows and recording sessions.

“We’ve been together our whole adult lives,” Tim says. “For us to get in a van and go somewhere, it just takes no thought. We go take the back roads, we’re not on anybody else’s schedule, we just go and drive—it’s so natural. The road work we’ve done so far with Bark, most of it’s been in Mississippi, where we both have family. So we’ve actually been able to climb in a van and go see family and then it’s like, oh, yeah, we’ve got to go load gear and play. It’s almost a vacation, in way.

“The Tim Lee 3 is not hard at all, but as easy as it is, this is easier.

They’re both fun, but this is fun in different ways.” ◆

WHO

Johnny Azari with Bark, Will Fist, Karl Mountain, and Steve Gigante

WHERE

Pilot Light (106 E. Jackson Ave.)

WHEN

Sunday, July 10, at 6 p.m.

HOW MUCH $5

INFO

Photo by Clay Duda

im and Susan Bauer Lee were already among the hardest-working people in the Knoxville music scene when they built a rehearsal space for their band, the Tim Lee 3, in their basement. Two years later, what seemed at the time like a simple home-improvement project has led to a new band, new songs, new tours, and, sometime soon, a new album.

And an entirely new creative focus.

After the new rehearsal space was finished, Tim bought a cheap drum kit so TL3 drummer Chris Bratta wouldn’t have to bring his set in and take it back out again for every practice. Within a few weeks, though, Susan had been inspired.

“It had been down there for about a month and I was like, aw, I should learn to play drums one day,” she says. “I started talking to Chris and he started writing out charts for me and teaching me to play, and then I was like, oh, I can do this! … It was almost the exact same way I started playing bass. I just woke up one day and said, ‘I want to learn to play bass.’

Tim got me a bass and I started playing. That was 13 years ago.”

For 10 years, the Tim Lee 3—Tim on guitar and vocals, Susan on bass and vocals, and Bratta—has been a mainstay of Knoxville’s rock community. They’ve released four full-length albums of smart, punchy, straightahead rock with big guitars and big hooks. The band has played at dozens of benefit shows and local festivals, and Tim and Susan have made guest appearances on albums by Todd Steed, Jeff Heiskell, Leslie Woods, Kevin Abernathy, Plainclothes Tracy,

behind the drums. Bark has offered them a new outlet; it’s a lo-fi post-punk garage-rock combo inspired by American blues and roots revisionists like the Cramps, the Gun Club, and R.L. Burnside, originally conceived as a side project.

“We’re going for that vibey, swampy thing,” Tim says. “Anything you can steal, wherever you can steal it from, you take it and put it in your thing.”

But the Lees don’t take half-steps, and Bark has gradually become a second almost-full-time-band. “Susan learning to play drums—it was really that simple,” Tim says.

At the same time that Bark is playing more live shows—they’re hitting Atlanta, Nashville, St. Louis, and Winston-Salem, N.C., this summer and early fall, with a slot for BlankFest on Market Square scheduled in late August—they’re also finishing the fifth Tim Lee 3 album, tentatively scheduled for release in October. After that, Tim and Susan will head into the studio for the first official Bark album. (They released an EP last year, but it was only available as a premium for the crowdfunding campaign that paid for the last TL3

thepilotlight.com bark-loud.com

Movies

Skin Deep The Purge: Election Year fumbles its progressive politics

BY NATHAN SMITH

F

or three summers now, the Purge franchise has attempted to provide an affordable, insular alternative to the bloat normally associated with the summer movie season. It’s hard to throw much criticism at these things; for all their shortcomings—and there are plenty—they’re relatively straightup, mid-budget affairs that make back their money and then move along.

They’ve also become increasingly diverse, which is a welcome change from the majority of American genre franchises, which tend to like their casts as white as an envelope full of anthrax powder.

For those not familiar with the conceit, here’s a refresher: An economic collapse in the late 2010s led to the election of the New Founding Fathers,

revealed in this film as racist, theocratic fanatics with plenty of Nazi-ish imagery to spare. The so-called NFFA then instituted the Purge, an annual holiday in which all crime becomes legal for 12 hours. This allows Americans to “unleash the beast within,” releasing their repressed aggression and unburdening the national economy. The Purge: Election Year is the first in the franchise to really dig into the politics of writer-director James DeMonaco’s alternate America, positioning anti-Purge Sen. Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell) against the New Founding Fathers in a presidential race for the soul of the nation. (Never mind that a country that gives itself over completely to violent crime for even a night wouldn’t last

long, or that most people would be much more likely to smoke in a restaurant than participate in ritual murders. These movies require massive suspension of disbelief.)

Anyone who’s seen the poster or trailer for The Purge: Election Year knows that its tagline—“Keep America Great”—suggests that it might cash in on our current political situation.

Depending on your political persuasion, it does, to an extent; the image of a well-meaning blonde woman taking on a white supremacist cult isn’t that difficult to imagine these days. In the fi lm, the Purge also attracts foreign “murder tourists” to America, holding up a freakish, funhouse mirror to our real-life country’s international reputation. But the parallels to the

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contemporary political climate stop right about there.

The Purge fi lms are surprisingly frank about issues of class; characters openly discuss how the government uses the annual Purge to wage genocide against the poor and homeless for its own benefit. But it is just as clear that the poor and homeless characters we meet in these movies are generally black or Latino.

The Purge: Election Year speaks much more about race than its predecessors. By the end, events in Election Year have escalated into an almost full-on race war, with black anti-Purge radicals doing battle with neo-Nazi mercenaries. Even then, though, the racially conscious subtext is never more than set dressing.

Characters of color in this movie live—and die— in the service of Roan, a white progressive reformer.

There are a couple of problems here: first, the characters of color depend on white characters for definition; second, the equation of a black radical group with violence reinforces, however unintentionally, some pretty nasty stereotypes. And that’s without even mentioning that almost every black character in The Purge: Election Year has current or former gang associations, which presents a whole other set of problems.

The Purge: Election Year is a defi nite improvement over both its predecessors; DeMonaco is much better at urban action set pieces than he is at home invasion-style horror, even if these movies make me wish John Carpenter was still active.

Leading man Frank Grillo has the potential for bona fide action-movie stardom, and some of his hand-tohand combat sequences are almost thrilling.

But there’s not enough of interest to redeem this movie from its failings.

DeMonaco spoils his most haunting images, of purgers parading around in patriotic garb and Spring Breakers-style teenyboppers wielding assault weapons, in the trailer. His increasing interest in diversity, however reluctant, is needed and appreciated. But even if his intentions are in the right place, not much else is. ◆ July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 21

MUSIC

Thursday, July 7 THE WILL OVERMAN BAND WITH RYAN SOBB • 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 LEGACY • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6PM • FREE THE BLUE EYED BETTYS • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • The Blue Eyed Bettys delight with their folky-bluegrass sound. But what always seems to grab audiences immediately are their powerful vocals in three part harmony. • FREE THE BACKSEAT DELILAHS • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 8PM KIMBER CLEVELAND • Wild Wing Cafe • 8:30PM • FREE JIMMY AND THE JAWBONES WITH THE WILL OVERMAN BAND • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $3 KEVIN ABERNATHY • Scruffy City Hall • 6PM • Abernathy’s voice comes through loud and clear on his second solo album, Ain’t Learned Yet, a vision of straight-ahead guitar rock that nevertheless manages to nod at styles as varied as crisp ’80s hard rock, ’90s indie and alt-country, and classic-rock radio. • FREE KASONDRA ROSE • Scruffy City Hall • 7:30PM MOJO: FLOW • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM RAP ROUND ROBIN 2016 • Pilot Light • 9:30PM • Featuring Height, DDDD, P.T. Burnem, 83 Cutlass, and Lane Shuler. 18 and up. • $5 MARTY O’REILLY AND THE OLD SOUL ORCHESTRA • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • It’s blues but not blues, folk but not folk, soulful but not soul.

extroverted imagination, and a bottomless cultural appetite. 18 and up. • $10-$15 TIME SAWYER • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Time Sawyer blends a grassroots feel with heart-felt lyrics to put on a high-energy, entertaining show.

DAVE LANDEO AND THE SOUL BEATS • Wild Wing Cafe • 10PM • FREE THE DEAD RINGERS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

• $5 PANDAS AND PEOPLE WITH THE COPPER CHILDREN • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE LADY D • Wild Wing Cafe • 6PM • FREE KUKULY AND THE GYPSY FUEGO • Hard Knox Pizzeria • 6PM • Kukuly Uriarte sings in multiple languages, plays guitar in many styles, and, since 2011, leads the multifaceted jazz ensemble Kukuly and the Gypsy Fuego. • FREE THE EARLY MORNING STRING DUSTERS • Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center ( Townsend) • 7PM • Part of the Sunset Concert Series.

THE DRIFTIN’ HOBOS • Seymour Public Library • 7PM • The Driftin’ Hobos will perform nostalgic cowboy and railroad songs. Proceeds benefit Friends of Seymour Library’s building extension fund. This is part of the Summer Sounds and Sweets series sponsored by Friends of the Library. For more information, call 865-573-0728. • FREE MENDINGWALL • Vienna Coffee House (Maryville) • 7PM • FREE NATTY’S COMMON ROOTS • Just 1 More Bar and Grille • 7PM • Reggae, surf rock, and indie. • FREE THE BLUEGRASS DRIFTERS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 9PM TOM JOHNSON • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE WARBAND WITH CRISWELL COLLECTIVE • Pilot Light • 9:30PM • Local thrash metal revivalists return! 18 and up.

• $5

Friday, July 8 JOE’S TRUCK STOP WITH JAY CLARK AND THE TENNESSEE BEAVERS • 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 JEREMY NAIL • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • Nail’s debut album Letter (2008) was hailed by the Austin Chronicle as “a diverse, gripping listen, one that’s centered around his ability to capture waking moments with intensity. Nail’s visions take shape with a self-confidence by a local singer-songwriter that hasn’t been displayed on a first effort since Jeff Klein.” • FREE BRANDON FULSON • Jimmy’s Place • 7PM • FREE ERIC CALDWELL • Sugar Mama’s Bakery • 7:30PM FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 8PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE KITTY WAMPUS • Buckethead Tavern • 8PM • Classic rock, blues, and R&B. BONE THUGS-N-HARMONY • The International • 9PM • 18 and up. • $25-$75 • See Spotlight.

PARMALEE • Cotton Eyed Joe • 9PM • 2016 ACM “New Vocal Duo/ Group of the Year” nominee Parmalee is one of Country music’s most successful new acts. • $10 AARON KIRBY AND SOUTHERN REVELATION • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM THE BURNIN’ HERMANS • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM SOULFINGER • Brackins Blues Club ( Maryville) • 9PM • Funky big-band soul and R&B. MUX MOOL WITH FRAMEWORKS AND FAST NASTY • The Concourse • 10PM • Mux Mool’s homespun electro hip-hop is the product of an introverted mind, an

Saturday, July 9 CUMBERLAND RIVER WITH JEREMY PINNELL • 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 HIT MEN • Concord Park • 6PM • Part of Knox County’s Second Saturday Concerts series at the Cover at Concord Park. • FREE LEON RUSSELL • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson ( Maryville) • 6PM • Leon Russell is a music legend and perhaps the most accomplished and versatile musician in the history of rock ‘n roll. In his distinguished and unique 50 year career, he has played on, arranged, written and/or produced some of the best records in popular music. • $20 THE BLUEGRASS DRIFTERS • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE WITCHHELM WITH MOUNTAIN KING, SPLIT TUSK, SWALLOW THE SKY, AND RAT PUNCH • The Bowery • 7PM • Witchhelm, a heavy doom band from Ohio, headlines with support from Knoxville’s heavy hitters. 18 and up. • $10 HANDSOME AND THE HUMBLES • Jimmy’s Place • 7PM • Handsome and the Humbles play old-fashioned heartland country-rock record, inspired by Uncle Tupelo, the Drive-By Truckers, Ryan Adams, and the Hold Steady, specializing in a kind of three-chord wistfulness. • FREE DAVID BENEDICT AND MICHAEL MOORE • Vienna Coffee House (Maryville) • 7PM • This duo has developed a distinctive style of original and traditional acoustic instrumental and vocal music–equally pulling from the genres of jazz, old-time, bluegrass, classical, and popular

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 7, 2016

music. • FREE PALE ROOT • Sugar Mama’s Bakery • 8PM MOJO: FLOW • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM THE JONNY MONSTER BAND • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM DIXIEGHOST • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Knoxville band Dixieghost is pushing back against what it means to be a folk band. The band’s lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist, Jason Hanna, a Knoxville native, is trying to distance his band from mainstream radio-friendly folk groups like Mumford and Sons while staying true to his and his bandmates’ traditional folk and Appalachian roots.

THE POP ROX • Wild Wing Cafe • 10PM • FREE CHARGE THE ATLANTIC WITH OPPOSITE BOX • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $5 JAZZSPIRATIONS LIVE • Red Piano Lounge • 7:30PM • The host is national keyboard recording artist Brian Clay.

Brian performs and invites jazz artists from around the country to join him on stage. The music is smooth and

soulful. This month, Clay welcomes smooth jazz bassist Sean Michael Ray, who has performed with Maxwell, John Waite, Sheila E., and more. Details at smoothjazzknoxville.com. • $20 SENRYU WITH THE BILLY WIDGETS, YAK STRANGLER, AND LIGHT ARMOR PLUS TEN • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • “Burned Bread Alarm,” the first track on Yak Strangler’s new album, opens with a short, jagged, jazzy guitar riff over a drum roll, followed by a brief guitar solo that suggests, in just a few bars, a blender full of Eddie Van Halen, Frank Zappa, the Butthole Surfers’ Paul Leary, psychedelic mushrooms, and Pat Metheny. Over the next half hour, guitarist Chris Newman and drummer/vocalist Rylan Bledsoe churn through a frantic and slightly demented mash-up of post-punk, art rock, funk, and whatever else seems to cross their minds when they’re writing songs together. • $5 THE BLUE EYED BETTYS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 9PM HAROLD NAGGE AND ALAN WYATT • The Bistro at the Bijou

Photo by Travis Shinn

CALENDAR

Thursday, July 7 - Sunday, July 17

BONE THUGS-N-HARMONY The International (940 Blackstock Ave.) • Friday, July 8 • 8 p.m. • $25/$30 day of show • internationalknox.com

It’s pretty hard to believe that it’s been more than 20 years since Bone Thugs-n-Harmony dropped its iconic 1995 album, E. 1999 Eternal—you know the one, with the chart-topping song “Tha Crossroads,” which won a Grammy and received so much radio play that you thought about stepping into the crossroads of two fast-moving vehicles.

But unlike many groups that hit it big in decades past, Bone Thugs hasn’t been coasting on its early success. Over their 25-year career, the Cleveland rappers Bizzy Bone, Wish Bone, Layzie Bone, and Flesh-n-Bone have kept true to their group’s signature brand of hip-hop, expanding and developing the fast rapping, vocal harmonies, and classic R&B overtones without sacrificing the panache that has earned it a solid following of lifelong fans. Since officially reuniting with the original lineup in 2008 (Flesh-n-Bone spent about eight years in prison), the group released a full-length album and has toured extensively. It’s pending release E. 1999 Legends is said to be Bone Thugs’ final effort—which means this could very well mark their final tour, though if history is any indication the BTNH rappers may not be ready to drop the mic just yet. VIP tickets for this show are sold out. With DJ Pryme Time. (Clay Duda)

CALENDAR • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE YUNG LIFE WITH BUFFALO RODEO AND ROCK EUROPA • Pilot Light • 10PM • For most of its eight-year existence, the aptly named Yung Life has been a hobby. Now that three of them have graduated from the University of Tennessee, they’re ready to make a more serious commitment to the band. The first step is the release of their ambitious and long-gestating third album of synth pop, Soft/Divide, which serves as the next step in the band’s creative evolution. 18 and up. • $5 Sunday, July 10 SHIFFLETT’S JAZZ BENEDICT • The Bistro at the Bijou • 12PM • Live jazz. • FREE SUNDAY JAZZ BRUNCH • Downtown Grill and Brewery • 12:45PM • Knoxville’s coolest jazz artists perform every Sunday. • FREE RICKY MITCHELL • Sugar Mama’s Bakery • 6PM • FREE MAGNOLIA MOTEL WITH ROYAL BUZZ AND SAVANTS OF SOUL • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $3 KATY FREE • Red Piano Lounge • 5PM J. LUKE • Wild Wing Cafe • 6PM • FREE JOHNNY AZARI WITH BARK, WILL FIST, KARL MOUNTAIN, AND STEVE GIGANTE • Pilot Light • 6PM • Johnny Azari (New Orleans ) plays his own mutant form of the Mississippi Delta-Blues. Bark is a side project of the Tim Lee 3, featuring Tim and Susan Lee on mostly bass-and-drums arrangements, embellished with some economical guitar lines—imagine Joy Division playing White Stripes songs. • $5 • See Music story on page 20.

PALE ROOT • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM • 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.

Monday, July 11 OLIVIA RUDEEN AND MADELINE WITH GHOSTS OF GATEWOOD • 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 SCHOOL OF ROCK SUMMER TOUR WITH DIVINITY ROXX • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 5PM • Divinity Roxx’s journey started on the burgeoning music scene in Atlanta, GA after falling in love with the bass guitar while studying Journalism at UC Berkeley. All ages. • $8-$20 THE VIVANTS • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • Hailing from San Francisco, The Vivants find their musical faith in the inspiring traditions of Southern music and showmanship. • FREE CRANFORD HOLLOW • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • A blended mix of Southern Rock, Appalachian Fiddle Music and American Rock and Roll.

CHAD MELTON • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $3 BEN SHUSTER • Wild Wing Cafe • 10PM • FREE Tuesday, July 12 ANDREW TUFANO WITH THE VIVANTS • 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 ELI FOX • Wild Wing Cafe • 5:30PM • 16-year-old multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Eli Fox is already a Knoxville veteran—he was a member of the teen folk-bluegrass band Subtle Clutch and currently plays in the Knoxville Banjo Orchestra. His soon-to-bereleased solo album, Nothing to Say …, will show off his contemporary take on traditional roots music. • FREE

MARBLE CITY 5 • Market Square • 8PM • Live jazz every Tuesday from May 3-Aug. 30. • FREE DAVID ALLAN COE WITH JOSEPHUS AND THE GEORGE JONESTOWN MASSACRE • The Concourse • 8PM • Country music’s most outrageous outlaw is still at it. 18 and up. • $20-$25 ZOLOPHT • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $3 Wednesday, July 13 NELLEN DRYDEN WITH THE STILLHOUSE SHAKERS • 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 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 BRUNS • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • Bruns is a gospel-infused Tom Petty as much as it is Bruce Springsteen in the New South. While the rest of the country yearns for simplicity, they have somehow adopted a style of music that only becomes more complicated with the passage of time. • FREE TENNESSEE SHINES: BAREFOOT SANCTUARY AND JAMIE COOK • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7PM • It’s a night to celebrate East Tennessee’s own—fiddler Evie Andrus brings her band to play traditional fiddle tunes from her debut record. Plus, special guest Jamie Cook will play some of his solo tunes. • $10 MITCHELL, COKER, AND DEACON • The Bistro at the Bijou • 7PM • Live jazz. • FREE MIKE SNODGRASS • Wild Wing Cafe • 8:30PM • FREE CHEWERS WITH HEINOUS ORCA • Pilot Light • 9:30PM • 18 and up. • $5 Thursday, July 14 GREG PAYNE AND THE PIEDMONT WITH CHARLOTTE BERG • 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 MIKE CRAVER • Scruffy City Hall • 6PM MICHAELA ANNE • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • Upon releasing her 2014 album, Ease My Mind (Kingswood Records), singer-songwriter Michaela Anne garnered considerable acclaim for her introspective songwriting. • FREE THE DIRTY DOUGS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM A MARCH THROUGH MAY WITH MY CRIMSON WISH • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • All ages. • $5 TALL PAUL • Wild Wing Cafe • 8:30PM • FREE FALLOIR WITH KINDER THAN WOLVES AND HELLAPHANT • Pilot Light • 9PM • Falloir sails through proggy waters with tricky time signatures and dynamic shifts, knotty, cascading dual-guitar riffs, and dense, pummeling percussion. Hellaphant’s self-titled debut EP, from 2014, was a charming collection of three-chord anthems that hinted at the influence of the SST roster, Jawbreaker, and more contemporary bands like Cloud Nothings, FIDLAR, and Wavves. 18 and up. • $5 BRUNS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM Friday, July 15 ROGER ALAN WADE WITH ROD MELANCON • 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 GUY MARSHALL • Campbell Station Park • 6PM • The July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 23

CALENDAR folksy five-piece band is armed with an infectious stage presence and an earnest arsenal of songs that touch on themes of whiskey and wallowing. Part of the Lawn Chair Concert series. • FREE ROCK THE CRADLE BENEFIT CONCERT • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson • 6PM • Featuring Fairview Union and Whiskey Compass. Proceeds benefit Secret Safe Place. • $15 ALIVE AFTER FIVE: SOUL CONNECTION • Knoxville Museum of Art • 6PM • Originally formed in 1966 under the name of Soul Sanction, this group became one of the legendary bands of East Tennessee and still holds the attendance record at Alive After Five. They have opened shows for B.B. King, James Brown, Ray Charles, and Bobby “Blue” Bland. Their combination of keyboards, horns, guitars, and drums, blended with a variety of male and female vocals and harmonies and covers a wide musical spectrum of Rhythm & Blues, Soul, and dance music, all done with infectious energy and unmistakable style. • $15 WILD WING CAFE • 6PM • FREE THE NOUVEAUX HONKIES • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • FREE THE PAINTERS • Vienna Coffee House (Maryville) • 7PM • FREE FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 8PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE RICKY MITCHELL WITH THE YAK PAK, FREEQUENCY AND MARSHALL ELGIN • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM HILLBILLY JEDI • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM

Thursday, July 7 - Sunday, July 17

DOWNSLAVE WITH REALM, WAMPUS CAT, AND DUST AND DECAY • The Concourse • 9PM • Grooving Southern thrash metal. 18 and up. • $5 TRAE PIERCE AND THE T-STONE BAND WITH ALANNA ROYALE AND MAJOR AND THE MONBACKS • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM DREW STERCHI AND THE BLUES TRIBE • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM SHIFFTY AND THE HEADMASTERS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 9PM CAL ROBBINZ • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE THE AQUADUCKS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • The Aquaducks stand out as a high octane funk and soul band among the twangy accents one is apt to find in the city where country music is king.

SOUL MECHANIC WITH JAHMAN BRAHMAN • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $5 SWEET YEARS WITH SEA GHOST AND MY SON GORDEAUX • Pilot Light • 10PM • Sweet Years’ second EP, Tough Season, offers a great overview of a sound that falls somewhere between early Merge Records alt-punk and earnest Polyvinyl-style arpeggiation. 18 and up. • $5 THE BLAIR EXPERIENCE • Wild Wing Cafe • 10PM • FREE Saturday, July 16 JORDY SEARCY WITH MAYDAY MALONE • 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

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Sunday, July 17 SHIFFLETT’S JAZZ BENEDICT • The Bistro at the Bijou • 12PM • Live jazz. • FREE

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HURRICANE RIDGE • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 3PM • FREE WILDFLOWERS: A TRIBUTE TO TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6PM • $10 SPARKLE MOTION • Last Days of Autumn Brewery • 7PM SAMMIE SUGGITT • Vienna Coffee House (Maryville) • 7PM • FREE BIG VALLEY MUSTANGS WITH THE CLASSIC Q BAND AND IS THAT A HAWK? • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • All ages. • FREE TEMPER THROUGH TEARS • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM MARLOW DRIVE • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM THE NAUGHTY KNOTS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 9PM THE CHUCK MULLICAN JAZZ BONANZA • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE DEAD SOLDIERS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Dead Solders is an American Roots based band from Memphis Tennessee with influences ranging from Rock, Soul, outlaw country, to bluegrass and experimental music.

THREE STAR REVIVAL WITH ZAC CONLEY • Preservation Pub • 10PM • Jazzy, jammy, funky Americana. 21 and up. • $5 THE BROCKEFELLERS • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE DALTON GRAY • Wild Wing Cafe • 10PM • FREE

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SUNDAY JAZZ BRUNCH • Downtown Grill and Brewery • 12:45PM • Knoxville’s coolest jazz artists perform every Sunday. • FREE EARLY AFTERNOON HIP-HOP SHOW • Pilot Light • 2PM • Featuring Mr. Ill, Earl Grae, the Verns, Infinite Skillz, Joe Stu, El Presidente, Ladi G Zulu, Ya Boy Skolla, DJ Reality, and Movement. 18 and up. • $5 ORI NAFTALY WITH SOUTHERN AVENUE • Star of Knoxville Riverboat • 4PM • From April through October, blues lovers will convene to celebrate this truly American art-form during a 3 hour Sunday afternoon cruise on the Star of Knoxville Tennessee Riverboat. Visit smokymountainblues.org. • $16-$20 J. LUKE • Wild Wing Cafe • 6PM • FREE BLACKFOOT WITH SCATTERED HAMLET • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 7PM • If theres one thing Rickey Medlocke cant do, it’s sit still. The Blackfoot co-founder and Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist is constantly looking for ways to challenge his creative impulses, and his latest pet project has been to shepherd the next-generation incarnation of his beloved Blackfoot. Under Medlocke’s steady guidance, the Florida-based foursome has been jamming together live under the vaunted Blackfoot banner. All ages. • $15-$20 THE GREG HORNE BAND • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM • Greg Horne performs as a solo songwriter and with his rock band, the Greg Horne Band (click the “music” button to see video!). He also performs as a multi-instrumentalist with other artists, including RB Morris, Jay Clark and the Tennessee Tree Beavers, the Bearded, Quake Orphans (Tim and Susan Lee), and Wild Ponies.

CALENDAR NAAN VIOLENCE WITH DEATH PANELS • Pilot Light • 9PM • 18 and up. • $5 THE GROOVE ORIENT • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $3

OPEN MIC AND SONGWRITER NIGHTS

Thursday, July 7 IRISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the first and third Thursdays of each month. • FREE BREWHOUSE BLUES JAM • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Join Robert Higginbotham & the Smoking Section at the Open Chord for the Brewhouse Blues Jam. Bring your instrument, sign up, and join the jammers. We supply drums and a full backline of amps. Sign-ups begin at 7 p.m. before the show. Held the first Thursday of every month.

RED PIANO BLUES SESSIONS JAM • Red Piano Lounge • 7PM • The Red Piano Lounge has become Knoxville’s gathering spot for both blues fans and musicians on Thursday nights. Featuring the blues from Clapton to B.B. King to John Lee Hooker to Stevie Ray Vaughn and many more. So bring your axe, sticks, harps, and strings and come be a part of the jam. 21 and up. • FREE Friday, July 8 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, July 9 SCRUFFY CITY DRUM CIRCLE • Market Square • 7PM • Join us for a night of drumming and dancing at Krutch Park near Market Square in downtown Knoxville. Everyone is welcome. You can drop off your drums at the park between 6 and 7 p.m. and we’ll keep an eye on them while you park. We’ll also have some spare percussion instruments on hand for lending. Bring a chair and a friend. • FREE Sunday, July 10 SING OUT KNOXVILLE • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 7PM • A folk singing circle open to everyone. • FREE Monday, July 11 BARLEY’S OPEN MIC NIGHT • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM Tuesday, July 12 PRESERVATION PUB SINGER/SONGWRITER NIGHT • Preservation Pub • 7PM OLD-TIME JAM SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Hosted by Sarah Pirkle. • FREE Wednesday, July 13 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 Thursday, July 14 RED PIANO BLUES SESSIONS JAM • Red Piano Lounge •

7PM • The Red Piano Lounge has become Knoxville’s gathering spot for both blues fans and musicians on Thursday nights. Featuring the blues from Clapton to B.B. King to John Lee Hooker to Stevie Ray Vaughn and many more. So bring your axe, sticks, harps, and strings and come be a part of the jam. 21 and up. • FREE SCOTTISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month.

• FREE Saturday, July 16 OLD-TIME SLOW JAM • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 4PM • A monthly old-time music session, held on the third Saturday of each month. • FREE Sunday, July 17 FAMILY FRIENDLY DRUM CIRCLE • Ijams Nature Center • 3:30PM • Drumming for kids of all ages on the third Sunday of the month. Bring a drum or share one of ours.

Bring a blanket or chair. Open to drummers of all ages and levels. Free and fun. • FREE

DJ AND DANCE NIGHTS

Sunday, July 10 LAYOVER SUNDAY BRUNCH • The Concourse • 12PM • Enjoy good eats, refreshing libations, and the most appropriate afternoon tunage in the company of this city’s most dedicated loafers. We’ll be serving our normal brunch in all it’s glory, courtesy of Localmotive. Musical accompaniment by the likes of Slow Nasty, Psychonaut, and a rotating list of special guests. All ages. • FREE Friday, July 16 TEMPLE DANCE NIGHT • The Concourse • 9PM • Knoxville’s long-running alternative once night. 18 and up. • $5 Sunday, july 17 LAYOVER SUNDAY BRUNCH • The Concourse • 12PM • Enjoy good eats, refreshing libations, and the most appropriate afternoon tunes in the company of this city’s most dedicated loafers. We’ll be serving our normal brunch in all it’s glory, courtesy of Localmotive. Musical accompaniment by the likes of Slow Nasty, Psychonaut, and a rotating list of special guests. All ages. • FREE

THEATER AND DANCE

Friday, July 8 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: ‘FIDDLER ON THE ROOF’ • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • Tevye, an affable dairyman, must cope with the strong wills of his three eldest daughters - each of whom wish to defy tradition and marry for love – while also attempting to maintain his family’s culture and faith as outside influences of Tsarist Russia encroach upon his little village. July 8-24. Visit orplayhouse.com.

Saturday, July 9 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: ‘FIDDLER ON THE ROOF’ • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • July 8-24. Visit orplayhouse.com.

Sunday, July 10 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: ‘FIDDLER ON THE ROOF’ • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 2PM • July 8-24. Visit orplayhouse.com.

Thursday, July 14 SHAKESPEARE ON THE SQUARE • Market Square • 7PM • Shakespeare on the Square annually features two of the July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 25

CALENDAR magnificent plays of Williams Shakespeare, comedies, tragedies and histories, rotated nightly Thursdays through Sundays outdoors on Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville. This year, Shakespeare on the Square presents The Merry Wives of Windsor, featuring one of Shakespeare’s funniest and most unique characters, the dissolute knight Sir John Falstaff, in what may be the original situational comedy, as Falstaff attempts to court two women at the same time behind their husbands’ backs; and King Lear, the classic tragedy of an aging and weary British king who divides his kingdom among his three daughters and realizes—all too late—that love is found in actions, not in words. Visit tennesseestage.com. • FREE-$15 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: ‘FIDDLER ON THE ROOF’ • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • July 8-24. Visit orplayhouse.com.

Friday, July 15 SHAKESPEARE ON THE SQUARE • Market Square • 7PM • Shakespeare on the Square annually features two of the magnificent plays of Williams Shakespeare, comedies, tragedies and histories, rotated nightly Thursdays through Sundays outdoors on Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville. Visit tennesseestage.com. • FREE-$15 THE WORDPLAYERS: ‘BIG RIVER’ • Bijou Theatre • 7:30PM • The Tony Award-winning Broadway musical based on Mark Twain’s classic novel Huckleberry Finn. Suggested for ages 12 and up. July 15-17. Visit wordplay’s.org. • $21.50 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: ‘FIDDLER ON THE ROOF’ • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • July 8-24. Visit orplayhouse.com.

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 7, 2016

Thursday, July 7 - Sunday, July 17

Saturday, July 16 THE WORDPLAYERS: ‘BIG RIVER’ • Bijou Theatre • 2:30PM and 7:30PM • Suggested for ages 12 and up. July 15-17.

Visit wordplay’s.org. • $21.50 SHAKESPEARE ON THE SQUARE • Market Square • 7PM • Shakespeare on the Square annually features two of the magnificent plays of Williams Shakespeare, comedies, tragedies and histories, rotated nightly Thursdays through Sundays outdoors on Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville.Visit tennesseestage.com. • FREE-$15 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: ‘FIDDLER ON THE ROOF’ • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • July 8-24. Visit orplayhouse.com.

Sunday, July 17 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: ‘FIDDLER ON THE ROOF’ • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 2PM • July 8-24. Visit orplayhouse.com.

THE WORDPLAYERS: ‘BIG RIVER’ • Bijou Theatre • 3PM • Suggested for ages 12 and up. July 15-17. Visit wordplay’s. org. • $21.50 SHAKESPEARE ON THE SQUARE • Market Square • 7PM • Shakespeare on the Square annually features two of the magnificent plays of Williams Shakespeare, comedies, tragedies and histories, rotated nightly Thursdays through Sundays outdoors on Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville. Visit tennesseestage.com. • FREE-$15

COMEDY AND SPOKEN WORD

Sunday, July 10 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic.

Monday, July 11 ON THE MIC WITH MIKE • Scruffy City Hall • 7PM • Each episode features unique interviews and performances from Knoxville’s best artists, as well as sketches, segments, games, and more. Upcoming guests include Kukuly and the Gypsy Fuego (June 27), Maps Need Reading (July 11), Blond Bones (July 25), Rossdafareye (Aug. 8), and Electric Darling (Aug. 22). Visit beevalleyproductions.com/comedy/onthemicwithmike.

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, July 12 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 OPEN MIC STAND-UP COMEDY • Longbranch Saloon • 8PM • Come laugh until you cry at the Longbranch every

Tuesday night. Doors open at 8:30, first comic at 9. No cover charge, all are welcome. Aspiring or experienced comics interested in joining in the fun can email us at longbranch.info@gmail.com to learn more, or simply come to the show a few minutes early. • FREE KNOXVILLE POETRY SLAM • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • All ages. • $5 Thursday, July 14 PIZZA HAS • Pizza Hoss • 8PM • On the second Thursday of the month, Pizza Hoss in Powell hosts a showcase featuring sets from some of the best comedians in East Tennessee along with selected up-and-coming talent.

Each month one of the hosts of Rain/Shine Event productions (Shane Rhyne, Matt Chadourne, Tyler Sonnichsen, and Sean Simoneau) serves as your guide to introduce you the best of our region’s comedy scene. • FREE Friday, July 15 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.

Sunday, July 17 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic.

Thursday, July 7 - Sunday, July 17

FESTIVALS

Saturday, July 9 MOSSY CREEK CRUZERS CAR SHOW • 9AM • The Mossy Creek Cruzers Car Club will be having their sixth annual car show on Saturday, July 9, at Jefferson Middle School (361 W. Broadway Blvd) in Jefferson City. Pre-Registration is $15, day of show $20. All of our registration fees go to our charities. We provide scholarships to Jefferson County High School, give money to Special Olympics, Shopping with Kids, Children’s Hospital in Knoxville and various other charities in our communities. Dash plaques for the first 150 entrants. Door prizes, food, vendors, crafts, music and 50/50 tickets. For more information visit our website at www.mossycreekcruzers.org or follow us on Facebook. • $15 Sunday, July 10 CARS AND COFFEE • West Town Mall • 8AM • Calling all auto enthusiasts—West Town Mall is once again revving up its engines to host Harper Auto Square’s Cars and Coffee. Car lovers of all ages are invited to cruise on over to the community shopping center’s parking lot to enjoy free coffee and donuts, meet with other enthusiasts, show off their set of wheels and celebrate all things auto.

Hundreds of makes and models will be on display, including classics, exotics, hot rods, muscle cars, motorcycles and more. Visit harperautosquare.com. • FREE

FILM SCREENINGS

Friday, July 8 SUMMER MOVIE MAGIC SERIES: ‘CASABLANCA’ • Tennessee Theatre • 8PM • Casablanca: easy to enter but much harder to leave, especially if your name is on the Nazis’ most-wanted list! Atop that list is Czech Resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), whose only hope is Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), a cynical American who sticks his neck out for no one ... especially Victor’s wife Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), the ex-lover who broke his heart.

So when Ilsa offers herself in exchange for Laszlo’s safe transport out of the country, the bitter Rick must decide what’s more important -- his own happiness or the countless lives that hang in the balance. Winner of three Academy Awards including Best Picture. • $9 A1 LAB ARTS A.ONE/PRO/FORM/ARTS/FEST • Center for Creative Minds • 8PM • The A.One/Pro/Form/Arts/Fest will “celebrate the history of media and art” with showings of “bad” student art films, “funky documentaries,” surreal Betty Boop cartoons, early sitcoms first screened in movie theaters (like the Three Stooges), performance art, and the X-rated films of the edgy British director Ken Russell. Among the highlights of the schedule is Russell’s The Devils, on July 16, featuring sexuality among nuns, which Warner Bros. refused to release uncut in the U.S., and a July 22 screening and discussion of the evolution of experimental 2D animation, using techniques from painting directly on film to moving sand around light screens. The door price includes popcorn and peanuts; you can bring your own beer. Visit a1labarts.org for more info. • FREE-$5 Saturday, July 9 A1 LAB ARTS A.ONE/PRO/FORM/ARTS/FEST • Center for Creative Minds • 8PM • The A.One/Pro/Form/Arts/Fest will “celebrate the history of media and art” with showings of “bad” student art films, “funky documentaries,” surreal Betty Boop cartoons, early sitcoms first screened in

CALENDAR

movie theaters (like the Three Stooges), performance art, and the X-rated films of the edgy British director Ken Russell. Visit a1labarts.org for more info. • FREE-$5 Sunday, July 10 SUMMER MOVIE MAGIC SERIES: ‘CASABLANCA’ • Tennessee Theatre • 2PM • $9 Monday, July 11 THE BIRDHOUSE WALK-IN THEATER • The Birdhouse • 8:15PM • A weekly free movie screening. • FREE Friday, July 15 A1 LAB ARTS A.ONE/PRO/FORM/ARTS/FEST • Center for Creative Minds • 8PM • The A.One/Pro/Form/Arts/Fest will “celebrate the history of media and art” with showings of “bad” student art films, “funky documentaries,” surreal Betty Boop cartoons, early sitcoms first screened in movie theaters (like the Three Stooges), performance art, and the X-rated films of the edgy British director Ken Russell. Visit a1labarts.org for more info. • FREE-$5 SUMMER MOVE MAGIC: ‘THE GOONIES’ • Tennessee Theatre • 8PM • From the imagination of Steven Speilberg, The Goonies plunges a band of small heroes into a swashbuckling, surprise-around-every-corner quest beyond their wildest dreams. Following a mysterious treasure map into a spectacular underground realm of twisting passages, outrageous booby-traps and a long-lost pirate ship full of golden doubloons, the kids race to stay one step ahead of a family of bumbling bad guys ... and a mild-mannered monster with a face only a mother could love. • $9 Saturday, July 16 A1 LAB ARTS A.ONE/PRO/FORM/ARTS/FEST • Center for Creative Minds • 8PM • Visit a1labarts.org for more info. • FREE-$5 KNOXVILLE HORROR FILM FESTIVAL: TERROR IN THE WOODS • Ijams Nature Center • 7PM • Join us for a night of horror and scares if you are brave enough to head out onto the haunted trails with Dead Man’s Farm. We will be showing a double feature of Pumpkinhead and Pumpkinhead 2 with a special guest appearance from the director of Pumpkinhead 2, Jeff Burr (who also directed Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 and From A Whisper to a Scream). Food trucks, beer garden, and other amazing vendors will be on site for the event to add to the horror of the night. The movies are rated R so it is at the parents discretion if you would like to bring your children.

Presented by Ijams Nature Center, Knoxville Horror Film Fest, and Dead Man’s Farm - Haunted House.• $15 Sunday, July 17 SUMMER MOVE MAGIC: ‘THE GOONIES’ • Tennessee Theatre • 2PM • $9

SPORTS AND RECREATION

Thursday, July 7 CYCOLOGY BICYCLES THURSDAY MORNING RIDE • Cycology Bicycles • 10AM • cycologybicycles.com. • FREE FLEET FEET GROUP RUN/WALK • Fleet Feet Sports Knoxville • 6PM • fleetfeetknoxville.com. • FREE NORTH KNOXVILLE BEER RUNNERS • Central Flats and Taps • 6PM • Meet us at Central Flats and Taps every Thursday night for a fun and easy run leading us right through Saw Works for a midway beer. • FREE CLIMBING AT IJAMS CRAG • Ijams Nature Center • 5PM •

You can register online or by calling 865-673-4687. riversportsoutfitters.com/events/. • $10 BILLY LUSH BOARD SHOP SUP AND SUDS • Billy Lush Board Shop • 5:30PM • Join us for your choice of a group paddle or SUP yoga class followed by cold beer from our taps at the shop. We will launch from the dock for a one-hour group paddle or yoga class then meet back in the shop for suds. • $19-$25 BEARDEN BIKE AND TRAIL LAPS ON CHEROKEE BOULEVARD • Bearden Bike and Trail • 6PM • Visit beardenbikeandtrail.com. • FREE FOUNTAIN CITY PEDALER THIRSTY THURSDAY ROAD RIDE • Fountain City Pedaler • 6PM • Visit facebook.com/ Fountain-City-Pedaler-Bike-Shop. • FREE CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES THURSDAY NIGHT RIDE • Cedar Bluff Cycles • 6:20PM • Visit cedarbluffcycles.net. • FREE CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES BEGINNER ROAD RIDE • Sequoyah Park • 6:20PM • Visit cedarbluffcycles.net. • FREE

UP NEXT!

Friday, July 8 RIVER SPORTS FRIDAY NIGHT GREENWAY RUN • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • riversportsoutfitters.com. • FREE Saturday, July 9 SUP 101 • Outdoor Knoxville Adventure Center • 10AM • We cover all the basics of standup paddleboarding in this introductory class. No experience required. • $45 BIKE ZOO SATURDAY MORNING RIDE • The Bike Zoo • 9AM • Join us every Saturday for a three-hour ride of 50 miles or more, usually at a fast pace of 18-20 mph. Visit bikezoo.com. • FREE SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: APPALACHIAN TRAIL MAINTENANCE • Smoky Mountain Hiking Club • 8AM • We plan to work on the section of the Appalachian Trail between the Mt. Cammerer trail and Cosby Knob. Please bring work gloves in addition to normal hiking gear. Hike: about 8-10 miles, rated moderately difficult. Meet at Comcast, 5720 Asheville Highway, at 8:00 am or at the Cosby Campground Hiker Parking area at 9:00 am. Please pre-register with the leader so that enough tools will be available. Leader: Tim Bigelow, bigelowt2@mindspring. com. • FREE WESTSIDE Y TRI • West Side YMCA • 8AM • This West Knoxville favorite is a great beginner race with a short 200-yard swim, two-lap 7-mile ride through the famous West Hills neighborhood, and flat 4k run on the West Hills greenway. Also the fourth leg of the RDE Grand Prix Sprint series. Overall, age group, and relay awards.

Volunteers provided by the Westside Y, with proceeds going to the YMCA’s Save a Life program. • $45-$85 TENNESSEE ASSOCIATION OF VINTAGE BASE BALL • Historic Ramsey House • 12PM • Vintage base ball, played according to the rules and customs of 1864, returns to Tennessee for its fourth season, offering 55 regular season matches in 2016. Since its inaugural season in 2013, the Tennessee Association of Vintage Base Ball has grown to include 10 vintage base ball clubs in Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga. • FREE Sunday, July 10 KTC BEATIN’ A HASTIE RETREAT TRAIL RACE • 9AM • It’s another opportunity to tour Knoxville’s fabulous Urban Wilderness. We’ll meet at Anderson South Head Start, then mosey across Sevierville Pike to the starting line on Centeroak. A shorter 4½ mile course will also be offered, but no Grand Prix points will be awarded for it. Of course, there’s always the chance that RD Jerry Monroe will change the course completely, so be on your toes.

Monday, July 11 CLIMBING AT IJAMS CRAG • Ijams Nature Center • 5PM • July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 27

CALENDAR Pre-registration is advised. You can register online or by calling 865-673-4687. riversportsoutfitters.com/events/. • $10 TVB MONDAY NIGHT ROAD RIDE • Tennessee Valley Bikes • 6PM • The soon to be famous Monday night road ride happens every Monday. • FREE KTC GROUP RUN • Mellow Mushroom • 6PM • Visit ktc.org.

• FREE BEARDEN BEER MARKET FUN RUN • Bearden Beer Market • 6:30PM • Visit beardenbeermarket.com. • FREE Tuesday, July 12 CYCOLOGY BICYCLES TUESDAY MORNING RIDE • Cycology Bicycles • 10:30AM • Visit cycologybicycles.com. • FREE CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES TUESDAY GREENWAY RIDE • Cedar Bluff Cycles • 6:30PM • cedarbluffcycles.net. • FREE HARD KNOX TUESDAY FUN RUN • Hard Knox Pizzeria • 6:30PM • Join Hard Knox Pizzeria every Tuesday evening (rain or shine) for a 2-3 mile fun run. Burn calories.

Devour pizza. Quench thirst. Follow us on Facebook. • FREE Wednesday, July 13 SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: CATALOOCHEE DIVIDE TRAIL • Smoky Mountain Hiking Club • 7:30AM • Cataloochee Divide Trail to Purchase Knob. Hike: 9.6 miles, rated Moderate. Meet at Comcast, 5720 Asheville Highway, at 7:30 am. Leader: Ron Brandenburg, ronb86@ comcast.net. • FREE KTC GROUP RUN • Runner’s Market • 5:30PM • Visit ktc.org.

• FREE TVB EASY RIDER MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDE • Ijams Nature

Thursday, July 7 - Sunday, July 17

Center • 6PM • On Wednesday nights we hit the local trails for an easy-paced mountain bike ride. Check out our Facebook page or give us a call at 865-540-9979 for more info. We meet near Mead’s Quarry. • FREE Thursday, July 14 CYCOLOGY BICYCLES THURSDAY MORNING RIDE • Cycology Bicycles • 10AM •. cycologybicycles.com. • FREE CLIMBING AT IJAMS CRAG • Ijams Nature Center • 5PM • Pre-registration is advised. You can register online or by calling 865-673-4687. riversportsoutfitters.com/events/. • $10 BILLY LUSH BOARD SHOP SUP AND SUDS • Billy Lush Board Shop • 5:30PM • Each Thursday at 5:30 p.m. May through August. Join us for your choice of a group paddle or SUP yoga class followed by cold beer from our taps at the shop. We will launch from the dock for a one-hour group paddle or yoga class then meet back in the shop for suds.

Rentals are $19 for the group paddle and $25 for the yoga class and includes a complimentary beer. Those who join the group paddle with their own board get $1 off pints till close. • $19-$25 FLEET FEET GROUP RUN/WALK • Fleet Feet Sports Knoxville • 6PM • All levels welcome. fleetfeetknoxville.com. • FREE NORTH KNOXVILLE BEER RUNNERS • Central Flats and Taps • 6PM • Meet us at Central Flats and Taps every Thursday night for a fun and easy run leading us right through Saw Works for a midway beer. • FREE BEARDEN BIKE AND TRAIL LAPS ON CHEROKEE BOULEVARD • Bearden Bike and Trail • 6PM • Visit beardenbikeandtrail.com. • $0

FOUNTAIN CITY PEDALER THIRSTY THURSDAY ROAD RIDE • Fountain City Pedaler • 6PM • Visit facebook.com/ Fountain-City-Pedaler-Bike-Shop. • FREE CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES BEGINNER ROAD RIDE • Sequoyah Park • 6:20PM • Visit cedarbluffcycles.net. • FREE CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES THURSDAY NIGHT RIDE • Cedar Bluff Cycles • 6:20PM • Visit cedarbluffcycles.net. • FREE Friday, July 15 RIVER SPORTS FRIDAY NIGHT GREENWAY RUN • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • riversportsoutfitters.com. • FREE Saturday, July 16 CARTER MILL 10K SPLASH • Carter Mill Community Swimming Pool • 7:30AM • New for 2016 is the KTC Summer Series, including the Pilot Fireball Moonlite Classic 5K, Shawns.com Carter Mill 10K Splash, and the Pigeon Forge Midnight 8K. Register using the bundled, discount pricing at ktc.org. Run two of the three and volunteer for at least one to earn a special prize to be distributed at the Hal Canfield Milefest in September.

BIKE ZOO SATURDAY MORNING RIDE • The Bike Zoo • 9AM • Visit bikezoo.com. • FREE SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: ANDREWS BALD SUNSET AND CLINGMAN’S DOME STARGAZING • Smoky Mountain Hiking Club • 5PM • As most of the visitors are leaving Clingmans Dome, we will be arriving in time to make the short walk out to Andrews Bald by dusk. After viewing the sunset from the bald, we will make the return trip to Clingmans Dome via twilight. (Bring your flashlight!) Then we will head up to the Dome for some stargazing. Hike to Andrews Bald and back: 4 miles. Walk up paved path to

Clingmans Dome and back: 1.2 miles, for a total of 5.2 miles. This outing is rated easy. Meet at Alcoa Food City, 121 North Hall Road, ready to leave at 5:00 pm. Leaders: Billy and Tamara Heaton, bheaton8@yahoo.com. • FREE SAW WORKS 5K AND BEER MILE • Saw Works Brewing Company • 7PM • Its time for a party in Knoxville! Come join us as well take a 5K tromp through the Old City and have a party on the patio at Saw Works Brewing Company. The festivities begin with a 5K at 7 p.m. and then a Beer Mile looping around old city. With each registration for the 5K, you get two beers brewed at the SWBC as well as a spiffy race shirt and discounts on any additional beers and growlers.

ART

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts 556 Parkway (Gatlinburg) MAY 21-AUG. 20: Arrowmont’s annual instructor exhibit.

JUNE 29-AUG. 4: 2016-17 Artists-in-Residence Exhibit.

Art Market Gallery 422 S. Gay St. JUNE 28-JULY 31: Artwork by Sandra Abraham and Elaine Fronczak. An opening reception will be held on Friday, July 1, at 5:30 p.m.

Bliss Home 24 Market Square JUNE 3-JULY 30: Photography by Brian Murray. A First

Light it Up! We are refurbishing our iconic marquee and vertical sign this summer and need your help.

Help us shine brighter! Buy a bulb or purchase limited edition merchandise to help support the project!

To learn more or to donate, visit tennesseetheatre.com/marquee

28

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 7, 2016

Thursday, July 7 - Sunday, July 17

Friday reception will be held on Friday, July 1, from 6-9 p.m.

Broadway Studios and Gallery 1127 N. Broadway July 1-30: Paintings and drawings by Beverly Duncan Gleason. An opening reception will be held on Friday, July 1, from 5-9 p.m.

Center for Creative Minds 23 Emory Place JULY 1-30: A.One/Pro/Form/Arts/Fest, a month-long film, video, and performance art festival. An opening reception and preview will be held on Friday, July 1, from 7-8:30 p.m. See Spotlight on page 20.

Downtown Gallery 106 S. Gay St. JUNE 3-AUG. 19: Through the Lens of Ed Westcott, an exhibition of photos taken by the official photographer for the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge.

East Tennessee History Center 601 S. Gay St. APRIL 16-OCT. 30: Come to Make Records, a selection of artifacts, audio and video recordings, and photographs celebrating Knoxville’s music heritage and the 1929-30 St. James Hotel recording sessions.

Emporium Center for Arts and Culture 100 S. Gay St. JULY 1-29: A Sense of Community, a group show by the Townsend Artisan Guild; sculpture by Ty Crisp; Small Stories, mixed media and collage by Renee Suich; Faces of Jazz, photos by Daniel Taylor; and Service, Sacrifice, Honor, photographs of member of the military and their families by Cheryl Sharp. An opening reception will be held on Friday, July 1, from 5-9 p.m.

Envision Art Gallery 4050 Sutherland Ave. JUNE 10-JULY 8: The Nature of Power, paintings by Marc H. Cline.

Knoxville Museum of Art 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive MAY 6-AUG. 7: Full Stop, a large-scale installation by painter Tom Burkhardt, and Contemporary Focus 2016, with artwork by installation/video/sound artist John Douglas Powers. ONGOING: Higher Ground: A Century of the Visual Arts in Tennessee; Currents: Recent Art From East Tennessee and Beyond; and Facets of Modern and Contemporary Glass.

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture 1327 Circle Park Drive JUNE 4-AUG. 28: Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas. ONGOING: The Flora and Fauna of Catesby, Mason, and Audubon and Life on the Roman Frontier.

Westminster Presbyterian Church 6500 Northshore Drive JULY 1-AUG. 31: An exhibit of contemporary quilts by Melissa Everett.

FAMILY AND KIDS’ EVENTS

CALENDAR

Thursday, July 7 LITTLE LEARNERS • Blount County Public Library • 10:30AM • Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:30 a.m., “Little Learners,” recommended for ages 3-5. Interactive sessions focus on language acquisition and pre-literacy skills incorporating stories, music, motion, play, crafts and more. • FREE CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 1PM • For middle and high school students, with coach Tom Jobe. • FREE LEGO CLUB • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • LEGO Club will take place in the children’s library. Kids will complete different-themed and timed LEGO Challenges, as well as have some time for free building. The library will provide the LEGOs, so all you have to bring is your imagination. • FREE Friday, July 8 ETTAC FRIDAY FUNDAY • East Tennessee Technology Access Center • 9AM • For parents of children with and without disabilities, the East Tennessee Technology Access Center opens its doors to them during the summer through July on Fridays with lots of activities to keep them entertained and stimulated. For children age 5 to 10. Parents must register for all sessions by the Thursday before the session. Call (865) 219-0130 and press 3, email lorriec@ ettac.org, or go to www.ettac.org. • $5 S.T.E.A.M. KIDS • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • For grades K-5. FREE Saturday, July 9 CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 10AM • For middle and high school students, with coach Tom Jobe. • FREE MCCLUNG MUSEUM FAMILY FUN DAY: DINOSAURS AND FOSSILS • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 1PM • Join us for free a free Family Fun Day featuring activities, crafts, tours, and more. We’ll celebrate our special exhibition, “Dinosaur Discoveries,” with the theme “Dinosaurs and Fossils.” All materials will be provided. The program is free and open to the public.

Reservations are not necessary. • FREE MARYVILLE COLLEGE MOUNTAIN CHALLENGE • Blount County Public Library • 2PM • Mountain Challenge will teach teens about self-esteem and determination through a series of outdoor exercises and activities. Mountain Challenge provides high-quality, safe outdoor experiences, designed to change the world for the better, one person at a time. Activities will take place in the Sharon Lawson Room. • FREE BLOUNT COUNTY NERD GROUP • Blount County Public Library • 3PM • Starting this summer, students can learn the basic principles of computer programming, also known as coding. By participating in the newly-formed Blount County Nerd Group, students seventh grade and up can learn skills such as making simple games, developing professional websites and creating mobile apps. Participating students are encouraged to bring their own technologies including a laptop. However, students who do not have adequate technology will be provided a laptop by the library when necessary. • FREE Sunday, July 10 KMA ART ACTIVITY DAY • Knoxville Museum of Art • 1PM • Every second Sunday of each month, the KMA will host free drop-in art activities for families. A local artist will be on-site to lead hands-on art activities between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. • FREE Monday, July 11 ARCHAEOKIDS: EXPLORING ANCIENT ART AND ARCHAEOLO-

GY • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 1PM • Experience archaeology and the art of ancient Egypt and ancient Native Americans through artifacts, crafts, snacks, and a field trip. Ages 9–11 (rising 4th, 5th, and 6th graders). July 11–15. • $110 Tuesday, July 12 LITTLE LEARNERS • Blount County Public Library • 10:30AM • Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:30 a.m., “Little Learners,” recommended for ages 3-5. Interactive sessions focus on language acquisition and pre-literacy skills incorporating stories, music, motion, play, crafts and more. • FREE ARCHAEOKIDS: EXPLORING ANCIENT ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 1PM • Experience archaeology and the art of ancient Egypt and ancient Native Americans through artifacts, crafts, snacks, and a field trip. Ages 9–11 (rising 4th, 5th, and 6th graders). July 11–15. • $110 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY KID TO KID: FUN WITH A PURPOSE • Cancer Support Community • 3:30PM • Your children will gain coping skills and have opportunities to talk about a loved one’s cancer diagnosis while also having fun. Please call before your first visit and RSVP. 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

Wednesday, July 13 LITTLE ARTISTS CAMP • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 9AM • Stories and songs, guided activities, and take-home projects inspired by our art collections. Ages 2-3 with caregiver. $20 for museum members.

BABY AND ME • Blount County Public Library • 10:30AM • Recommended for ages 2 and under. • FREE ARCHAEOKIDS: EXPLORING ANCIENT ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 1PM • Experience archaeology and the art of ancient Egypt and ancient Native Americans through artifacts, crafts, snacks, and a field trip. Ages 9–11 (rising 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. July 11–15. • $110 Thursday, July 14 LITTLE ARTISTS CAMP • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 9AM • Stories and songs, guided activities, and take-home projects inspired by our art collections. Ages 2-3 with caregiver. $20 for museum members.

ARCHAEOKIDS: EXPLORING ANCIENT ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 1PM • Experience archaeology and the art of ancient Egypt and ancient Native Americans through artifacts, crafts, snacks, and a field trip. Ages 9–11 (rising 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. July 11–15. • $110 CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 1PM • FREE LEGO CLUB • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • FREE Friday, July 15 ETTAC FRIDAY FUNDAY • East Tennessee Technology Access Center • 9AM • For parents of children with and without disabilities, the East Tennessee Technology Access Center opens its doors to them during the summer through July on Fridays with lots of activities to keep them entertained and stimulated. For children age 5 to 10. Parents must register for all sessions by the Thursday before the session. Call (865) 219-0130 and press 3, email lorriec@ ettac.org, or go to www.ettac.org. • $5 ARCHAEOKIDS: EXPLORING ANCIENT ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 1PM • Experience archaeology and the art of ancient July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 29

CALENDAR Egypt and ancient Native Americans through artifacts, crafts, snacks, and a field trip. Ages 9–11 (rising 4th, 5th, and 6th graders). July 11–15. • $110 ETTAC BABIES AT PLAY • East Tennessee Technology Access Center • 1PM • For parents of children with and without disabilities, the East Tennessee Technology Access Center opens its doors to them during the summer through July on Fridays with lots of activities to keep them entertained and stimulated. Babies at Play is an Early Intervention and Pre-Kindergarten play group.

We will have switch-adapted toys, beginning communication activities, music, and more.Each session costs $5, but scholarships are available. Parents must register for all sessions by the Thursday before the session. Call (865) 219-0130 and press 3, email lorriec@ ettac.org, or go to www.ettac.org. • $5 S.T.E.A.M. KIDS • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • FREE Saturday, July 16 CHESS AT THE LIBRARY • Blount County Public Library • 10AM • For middle and high school students, with coach Tom Jobe. • FREE BLOUNT COUNTY NERD GROUP • Blount County Public Library • 3PM • FREE

LECTURES, READINGS, AND BOOK SIGNINGS Saturday, July 9

Thursday, July 7 - Sunday, July 17

DEIRDRE “LITTLE DARLING: FRANKLIN: ‘LITTLE DARLING’S PINUPS FOR PITBULLS’ • Petco Animal Supplies • 12PM • Ten years after Deirdre “Little Darling” Franklin started Pinups for Pitbulls, Inc., the not-for-profit canine advocacy group that raises awareness through eye-catching pinup girl calendars, The Overlook Press will publish a collection of the best photography from past years alongside Franklin’s personal story, educational facts about the pit bull breed, and positive training tips. Franklin will sign copies of the book at this event. • FREE Sunday, July 10 SMOKY JACK: THE ADVENTURES OF A DOG AND HIS MASTER ON MOUNT LECONTE • Union Ave Books • 2PM • Book signing and reading with Anne Bridges, and Ken Wise, authors of Smoky Jack: The Adventures of a Dog and His Master on Mount LeConte. • FREE ROBERT BEATTY: ‘SERAFINA AND THE TWISTED STAFF’ • Barnes & Noble • 2PM • Join Friends of Literacy at Barnes and Noble on July 10th to meet New York Times bestselling author Robert Beatty and celebrate the release of his new book, Serafina and the Twisted Staff.

This special event includes a presentation by the author, Q&A, free food and drink, a book signing, lots of Serafina giveaways, and the opportunity to meet the author and fans of Disney Hyperion’s newest book series. A portion of proceeds from all book store and café sales will go to benefit Friends of Literacy. • FREE Tuesday, July 12 KNOXVILLE CIVIL WAR ROUNDTABLE • Bearden Banquet

Enter to win a pair of Weekend Passes tO Forecastle Festival 2016 featuring The Avett Brothers, Alabama Shakes, Death Cab for Cutie, Ryan Adams, and many more!

SEND YOUR FULL NAME, PHONE NUMBER, AND EMAIL TO CONTESTS@KNOXMERCURY.COM

BY MIDNIGHT ON SUNDAY, JULY 10!

LOUISVILLE, KY | JULY 15-17, 2016 30

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 7, 2016

Hall • 7PM • Featuring notable historians and other Civil War experts. Call (865) 671-9001 for reservations. • $3-$17 Wednesday, July 13 DEAN NOVELLI: “ANDREW JACKSON NEVER SLEPT HERE: THE LAMAR HOUSE FROM 1817 TO TODAY” • East Tennessee History Center • 12PM • The third oldest building in Knoxville, the Lamar House, which houses the present day Bijou Theatre, has stood for 199 years with a nearly unbroken record of providing the city with business, cultural, and entertainment services. Dean Novelli will discuss the storied building’s construction and its survival through war, bankruptcy, remodeling, urban renewal, and shifting ownership. For more information on the lecture, exhibitions, or museum hours, call 865-215-8824 or visit the website at EastTNHistory.org. • FREE

CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS

Thursday, July 7 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted.

BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 PORTRAIT AND LIFE DRAWING SESSIONS • Historic Candoro Marble Company • 12:30PM • Portrait and life drawing

practice at Candoro Art & Heritage Center. $10. Call Brad Selph for more information (865-573-0709). • $10 KNOXVILLE CAPOEIRA CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • Visit knoxvillecapoeira.org. • $10 THIRSTY (FOR KNOWLEDGE) THURSDAY • Old City Wine Bar • 6:30PM • Join our sommelier, Matt Burke, every Thursday in the cellar of the Old City Wine Bar for our ongoing wine education series. Free to listen and only $20-$25 to partake in the libations. • $20-$25 SUP YOGA • Concord Park • 6PM • Register at barrebelleyoga.com/class-schedule. • $25 SUP YOGA • Ijams Nature Center • 6PM • Register at barrebelleyoga.com/class-schedule. • $25 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. Special attention will be provided to beginners interested in learning how to knit and experience the meditative quality of knitting. Supplies provided. Call 865-546-4661. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

SALVAGE JEWELRY WORKSHOP • Creature Seeker Oddities • 6PM • Have you ever wondered what you can do with the stuff in your junk drawer? Everyone has that junk drawer of old keys, broken jewelry, lost earrings, and out of time watches that have been sitting there for ages, collecting dust. Why not reclaim these lost treasures and make them into beautiful new creations that can be worn with new life? To register, email me at lilysjb@hotmail.com to save your spot. • $25

Thursday, July 7 - Sunday, July 17

VICTORIA FARLEY: A COURSE IN MIRACLES • Illuminations Metaphysical Center • 6:30PM • $10 STANDUP PADDLEBOARDING 101 • Sequoyah Park • 6PM • Visit riversportsoutfitters.com. • $35 Friday, July 8 BASICS OF ASTROLOGY • Illuminations Metaphysical Center • 6:30PM • Led by Jim Goins. • $25 Saturday, July 9 IMPROV COMEDY CLASS • The Birdhouse • 10:30AM • A weekly improv comedy class. • FREE SUP YOGA • Ijams Nature Center • 9AM • Register at barrebelleyoga.com/class-schedule. • $25 YOGA AT NARROW RIDGE • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 9:30AM • For information call 865-497-2753 or email community@narrowridge.org. • FREE KNOX HERITAGE PRESERVATION NETWORK • Knox Heritage • 10AM • Preservation Network is a series of free workshops held once every month on the second Saturday. The monthly workshops feature guest speakers who are specialists in windows, flooring, roofing, stained glass, tile, plumbing, electrical, and more. For more information visit www.knoxheritage.org. • FREE KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: ARE YOUR SHRUBS HIDING YOUR HOUSE? • Bearden Branch Public Library • 1:30PM • Join Master Gardener John Payne to learn when and how to properly prune those bushes, shrubs and small trees that are planted in the foundation beds around your house. Call 865- 588-8813 or visit knoxlib. org. • FREE SUP 101 • Outdoor Knoxville Adventure Center • 10AM • $45 Sunday, July 10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE BALLET BARRE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 1PM • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE OPEN LEVEL MODERN TECHNIQUE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 2PM • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE IMPROVISATION CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 3:30PM • $10 MUSHROOM FORAGING WITH DR. HITCHCOCK • Ijams Nature Center • 9AM • There is a unique opportunity this July to learn about mushroom identification and collecting in Knoxville. Dr. Hitchcock will be leading this three-hour foraging expedition organized by the Knoxville Foraging Meetup. Tickets are $17 for adults and $15 for children. To learn more about Dr. Hitchcock, visit thefungiforager.com. • $17 SUN ILLUMINATED SPIRIT COMMUNITY • Illuminations Metaphysical Center • 11:15AM • With Michael Lott.

LEARN BRIDGE IN A DAY • Knoxville Bridge Center • 1:30PM • The Knoxville Association of Bridge Clubs is offering the introductory class Learn Bridge in a Day on Sunday, July 10, from 1:30 to 5:30 pm. The cost is $20 per person. The class is a fun way to learn to the basics of bridge. You will be taught by Kevin Wilson, a Knoxville native and nationally recognized bridge teacher and professional.

Bring a partner or we can provide one for you. Contact Jo Anne Newby at (865) 539-4150 or email KnoxvilleBridge@gmail.com. • $20 Monday, July 11 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 5:30PM • Call 865-5772021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted.

NIA CARDIO-DANCE WORKOUT TECHNIQUE • Broadway Academy of Performing Arts • 10AM • Blending dance arts, martial arts, yoga and healing arts in a 55-minute mindful fitness fusion. Email emilybryant24@yahoo.com.

CALENDAR

Tuesday, July 12 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY NUTRITION AMMUNITION • Cancer Support Community • 12PM • Call (865) 546-4611.

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

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

KNOXVILLE CAPOEIRA CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • Visit capoeiraknoxville.org. • $10 ACROYOGA • Dragonfly Aerial Arts Studio • 7PM • F • $15 Wednesday, July 13 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED MODERN TECHNIQUE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • Visit circlemoderndance.com.

HEALING, MEDITATION, AND SPIRITUAL INSIGHTS • Illuminations Metaphysical Center • 6:30PM • With Michael Lott.

CIRCLE MODERN DANCE OPEN LEVEL BALLET CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 7:30PM • Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10 CLIMBING FUNDAMENTALS • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Come learn the basics of climbing every second and fourth Wednesday of the month. Space is limited so call 865-673-4687 to reserve your spot now. Class fee $20.

Visit riversportsoutfitters.com/events. • $20 NIA CARDIO-DANCE WORKOUT TECHNIQUE • Broadway Academy of Performing Arts • 6PM • Email emilybryant24@yahoo.com.

Thursday, July 14 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted.

PORTRAIT AND LIFE DRAWING SESSIONS • Historic Candoro Marble Company • 12:30PM • Portrait and life drawing practice at Candoro Art & Heritage Center. $10. Call Brad Selph for more information (865-573-0709). • $10 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY: HEALING THROUGH ART • Cancer Support Community • 1PM • Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: ARE YOUR SHRUBS HIDING YOUR HOUSE? • Humana Guidance Center • 3:15PM • Join Master Gardener John Payne to learn when and how to properly prune those bushes, shrubs and small trees that are planted in the foundation beds around your house. Call 865-329-8892. • FREE KNOXVILLE CAPOEIRA CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • Visit knoxvillecapoeira.org. • $10 THIRSTY (FOR KNOWLEDGE) THURSDAY • Old City Wine Bar • 6:30PM • Join our sommelier, Matt Burke, every Thursday in the cellar of the Old City Wine Bar for our ongoing wine education series. Free to listen and only $20-$25 to partake in the libations. • $20-$25 BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 SUP YOGA • Concord Park • 6PM • Register at barrebelleyoga.com/class-schedule. • $25 SUP YOGA • Ijams Nature Center • 6PM • Register at barrebelleyoga.com/class-schedule. • $25 Friday, July 15 THE BEST OF THE BEST: A REVIEW OF CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG ADULT BOOKS PUBLISHED IN THE LAST YEAR • East Tennessee History Center • 8AM • We are pleased to present a special workshop and book sale featuring best new books for children and young adults from the past

year. Continuing education credit will be granted.

Presented by the Center for Children’s and Young Adult Literature at UTK and KCPL. • $25-$50 Saturday, July 16 YOGA AT NARROW RIDGE • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 9:30AM • For information call 865-497-2753 or email community@narrowridge.org. • FREE BONNY MILLARD: WRITING YOUR STORY • Central United Methodist Church • 10AM • Award-winning journalist, writer, and educator Bonny Millard will show participants how to turn personal stories into publishable narratives while considering the right vehicle: essay, profile, memoir or fiction. • $40 IMPROV COMEDY CLASS • The Birdhouse • 10:30AM • A weekly improv comedy class. • FREE KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: STARTING FALL VEGETABLES • All Saints Catholic Church • 10:30AM • Call 865-215-2340. • FREE SUP YOGA • Ijams Nature Center • 9AM • Register at barrebelleyoga.com/class-schedule. • $25 SUP 101 • Outdoor Knoxville Adventure Center • 10AM • $45 Sunday, July 17 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE BALLET BARRE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 1PM • Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE OPEN LEVEL MODERN TECHNIQUE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 2PM • Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE IMPROVISATION CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 3:30PM • Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10 BEGINNING BRIDGE LESSONS • Knoxville Bridge Center • 1:30PM • The Knoxville Association of Bridge Clubs is offering an in-depth, 17-week course on duplicate bridge, with a focus on learning the modern two over one bridge system. The first begins Sunday, July 17 at 1:30 p.m. The second begins Tuesday, July 19 at 6 p.m. Bring a partner or we can provide one for you. Contact Jo Anne Newby at (865} 539-4150 or email KnoxvilleBridge@gmail.com. • $5

MEETINGS

Thursday, July 7 ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS • The Birdhouse • 6PM • A meeting group for adults who grew up in alcoholic or dysfunctional homes. The group aims to bring emotional healing to those who have been or who are in these situations and have experienced any level of trauma or abuse as a result. Led by Laura Moll, the class is free to attend. • FREE TRANSGENDER DISCUSSION GROUP • Maryville College • 6:30PM • Join us for fellowship and conversation and help guide a new dialog within the LGBT community of Blount County by sharing your story with friends and allies. This group will meet biweekly June 23-Aug. 18 at the Clayton Center lobby at Maryville College. • FREE CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY FAMILY BEREAVEMENT GROUP • Cancer Support Community • 6PM • CSC is committed to providing bereavement services to those who have lost a loved one to cancer. Please contact our clinical staff before attending.Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY BREAST CANCER NETWORKER • Thompson Cancer Survivor Center West •

Knoxville’s BEST live music venue 6 nights a week!

Happy Hour 3pm to 8pm Huge selection of Craft, Import & Local beer Locally roasted coffee

thurs July 7 • 8pm

Brewhouse Blues Jam w/ Robert Higginbotham & the Smoking Section free • all ages ( blues )

fri july 8 • 8pm

clockwork angels ( a tribute to rush ) $10 • all ages ( rock )

sat JUly 9 • 8pm

Senryu W/ The Billy Widgets Yak Strangler Light Armor Plus Ten $5 • All Ages free cookies!!!! ( ALT-rock )

mon july 11 • 5pm

School of Rock SUMMER TOUR presents: Divinity Roxx w/ School of Rock Knoxville House Band $20 workshop ( 5pm ) + show ( 7pm ) $8 Show Only • all ages ( funk / rock ) "Coolest venue in town! Not too big, not too small. Great sound system and audio engineers. Lights show, good food, cold beer and a music store in the back. Oh, and they give lessons, too. Seriously? I still can't believe this place is real."

-Austin Hall of Sam Killed The Bear

Knoxville’s Best Musical Instrument Store

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

July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 31

CALENDAR 6PM • This drop-in group is an opportunity for women who have or have had breast cancer to come together to exchange information, offer support, education and encouragement. Bring your favorite seasonal snack to share. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

NAACP • Beck Cultural Exchange Center • 6PM • The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination. Join the fight for freedom by becoming a member of the NAACP. KNOXVILLE WRITERS’ GUILD • Central United Methodist Church • 7PM • The Knoxville Writers’ Guild exists to facilitate a broad and inclusive community for area writers, provide a forum for information, support and sharing among writers, help members improve and market their writing skills and promote writing and creativity. A $2 donation is requested. Additional information about KWG can be found at www.

KnoxvilleWritersGuild.org.

Saturday, July 9 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

Thursday, July 7 - Sunday, July 17

NETWORKER • Cancer Support Community • 10AM • Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

NARROW RIDGE SILENT MEDITATION GATHERING • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 11AM • For information call 865-497-2753 or email community@narrowridge.org. • FREE Sunday, July 10 THREE RIVERS! EARTH FIRST! • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 7PM • Call (865) 257-4029 for more information. • FREE REFUGE RECOVERY • Losel Shedrup Ling • 8:30PM • Contact David at 865-306-0279 for any further questions. • FREE SKEPTIC BOOK CLUB • Books-A-Million • 2PM • The book club of the Rationalists of East Tennessee meets on the second Sunday of every month. Visit rationalists.org. • FREE Monday, July 11 GAY MEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 7:30PM • We hold facilitated discussions on topics and issues relevant to local gay men in a safe and open environment. Visit gaygroupknoxville.org.

Tuesday, July 12 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.

New Moon Sale July 5th thru July 19th

Two weeks of over the moon deals

Modern Fashion with a Southern Sensibility Featuring: Tory Burch, Milly, Heather, Nicole Miller, DVF, Kendra Scott, AS by DF, Sita Murt, Chan Luu, Shoshanna, and more!

Located in the District in Bearden at 145 S. Forest Park Blvd 865-588-1588 • www.est8te.com • Instagram: est8te_style Open 10am - 6pm Monday - Friday | 10am - 5pm Saturday 32

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 7, 2016

Everyone welcome. • FREE HARVEY BROOME GROUP OF THE SIERRA CLUB • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 7PM • The Sierra Club is a national, member-supported environmental organization that seeks to influence public policy in Washington D.C., in the state capitals, and locally through public education and grass-roots political action. The Harvey Broome Group undertakes important conservation issues, offers year-round outings to enhance appreciation of the outdoors, and presents monthly programs that range from experts in environmental issues to entertaining speakers who have explored our world. • FREE Thursday, July 14 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY LEUKEMIA, LYMPHOMA, AND MYELOMA NETWORKER • Cancer Support Community • 6PM • Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS • The Birdhouse • 6PM • FREE BLACK LIVES MATTER • The Birdhouse • 7:30PM • #BlackLivesMatter is working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. Visit blacklivesmatterknoxville.org. • FREE Saturday, July 16 100 BLACK MEN OF GREATER KNOXVILLE • Beck Cultural Exchange Center • 10AM • The 100 Black Men of Greater Knoxville’s purpose is to serve as a catalyst to empower

African-American and other minority youth to individually and collectively reach their full potential through maximizing their resources that foster and enhance achievement in education and community and economic development.

AL-ANON • Faith Lutheran Church • 11AM • Visit our local website at farragutalanon.org or email us at FindHope@ Farragutalanon.org. • FREE NARROW RIDGE SILENT MEDITATION GATHERING • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 11AM • For information call 865-497-2753 or email community@narrowridge.org. • FREE Sunday, July 17 RATIONALISTS OF EAST TENNESSEE • Pellissippi State Community College • 10:30AM • The Rationalists of East Tennessee focus on the real or natural universe. The group exists so that we can benefit emotionally and intellectually through meeting together to expand our awareness and understanding through shared experience, knowledge, and ideas as well as enrich our lives and the lives of others. Visit rationalists.org. • FREE THREE RIVERS! EARTH FIRST! • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 7PM • Call (865) 257-4029 for more information.

• FREE REFUGE RECOVERY • Losel Shedrup Ling • 8:30PM • Contact David at 865-306-0279 for any further questions.

• FREE

ETC.

Thursday, July 7 - Sunday, July 17

Thursday, July 7 MARBLE SPRINGS SHOPPING AT THE FARM FARMER’S MARKET • Marble Springs State Historic Site • 3PM • FREE KNOXVILLE SOUP • South Knoxville Community Center • 6PM • Soup, salad and a vote—join us for Knoxville’s unique crowdsourcing gathering. How it works: You pay a suggested $5 at the door, enjoy up to 4 brief community project presentations, eat your soup, and then cast your vote for one of them. Winner gets the door money.Last dinner’s winning project, Psalm 91, brought in over $650 in support. This is truly a unique opportunity to connect with community members and learn about projects that are underway to help make Knoxville a more culturally rich place to live. More info at Knoxvillesoup.org • $5 Friday, July 8 LAKESHORE PARK FARMERS MARKET • Lakeshore Park • 3PM • FREE Saturday, July 9 SEYMOUR FARMERS MARKET • First Baptist Church Seymour • 8AM • FREE MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 9AM • Visit marketsquarefarmersmarket.org. • FREE OAK RIDGE FARMERS MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 8AM • FREE CENTRAL COLLECTIVE GOOD SPORTS NIGHT • Central Collective • 7PM • Calling all good sports—here’s the deal.

You purchase a ticket to a mystery event. Show up to the Central Collective at the specified date and time and be ready for anything. These are events for folks who are

curious, adventurous, and like trying new things and meeting new people. • $25 Monday, July 11 DOGWOOD ARTS FESTIVAL CREATIVE COCKTAILS • Dogwood Arts Festival • 5:30PM • Each and every day we come to work at Dogwood Arts thinking about our creative ecosystem. What do artists need to truly thrive in Knoxville? We are asking you to join us for a free brainstorming session at Dogwood Arts’ new office to answer that very question. We promise that the night will be fun, fast paced and important for Dogwood Arts’ future programming. • FREE Tuesday, July 12 EBENEZER ROAD FARMERS MARKET • Ebenezer United Methodist Church • 3PM • The market offers hand-picked produce in season, artisan breads and cheese, grass-fed meat and farm fresh eggs. • FREE Wednesday, July 13 MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 11AM • Visit marketsquarefarmersmarket.org. • FREE OAK RIDGE FARMERS MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 3PM • The market offers seasonal vegetables, herbs, fruits and berries, honey, artisan bread and cheese, grass-fed beef and naturally raised chicken, pork and lamb, farm-based crafts, flowers and potted plants. • FREE UT FARMERS MARKET • University of Tennessee • 4PM • FREE Thursday, July 14

Maori Healers Women’s Retreat

July 29 - August 4, 2016 | Dandridge, TN

(August 5-7 Individual Bodywork Sessions for Men and Women | Knoxville, TN) The Maori Healers have been traveling the world teaching workshops and offering healing bodywork for quite a while now. Because of their special association with Tennessee, seeded when they first presented their work on this stunning land over 15 years ago, Knoxville is one of the two continental US locations where they are holding a women’s retreat. KAWA ARIKI is a ground breaking and deeply necessary workshop that releases the 'wounded woman' from all types of abuse. KAWA ARIKI is about the adornment of a woman who is growing herself, ready to bloom to the full hearted capacity of womanhood, armed with self-knowledge and understanding, thus giving her power. This workshop contains a lot of bodywork that will help you move through many of the things that have held you back, allowed fear to rule your life, and maintained the mediocrity of that life. Spaces are limited.

More at www.maorihealers.com

CALENDAR

MARBLE SPRINGS SHOPPING AT THE FARM FARMER’S MARKET • Marble Springs State Historic Site • 3PM • FREE KNOXVILLE SQUARE DANCE • Laurel Theater • 8PM • Jubilee Community Arts presents Knoxville Square Dance with live old-time music by The Helgramites and calling

by Stan Sharp, Ruth Simmons and Leo Collins. No experience or partner is necessary and the atmosphere is casual. (No taps, please.) • $7

This is a fun and very family friendly event—alcoholic beverages aren’t permitted, and there are lots of games for adults and kids to enjoy. Bring a side dish or desert for people to share and if you are vegetarian, bring something to grill and we will grill it for you. • FREE

Send your events to calendar@knoxmercury.com

Friday, July 15 LAKESHORE PARK FARMERS MARKET • Lakeshore Park • 3PM • FREE Saturday, July 16 DOG WASH FESTIVAL • PetSafe Village • 10AM • Celebrity dog-washers like Holly Warlick and Mark Packer help raise money for At Risk Intervention, a nonprofit organization that provides infrastructure and support to area rescues and other local rescue groups.

SEYMOUR FARMERS MARKET • First Baptist Church Seymour • 8AM • FREE OAK RIDGE FARMERS MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 8AM • FREE MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 9AM • The MSFM, a project of Nourish Knoxville, is an open-air farmers’ market located on historic Market Square in the heart of downtown Knoxville. We are a producer only market – everything is either made, grown or raised by our vendors all within a 150 mile radius of the MSFM. Visit marketsquarefarmersmarket.org. • FREE PRIDEFEST PICNIC • Tyson Park • 1PM • Let’s have one more great event for Knoxville Pridefest with a picnic.

2543 SUTHERLAND AVE. 865-523-9177 • dive@skiscuba.com

Join us July 17th at Loch Low Minn Quarry for a recreational dive and an opportunity to meet other divers.

or

For more information, call 865-313-2048 or email sales@knoxmercury.com For more information or to register visit: www.knoxvillehealingcenter.com or call 865-250-8812.

July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 33

FOOD

Home Palate

with an attractive little basket of rice— don’t be scared, just open the basket, form a small ball of rice, and use it to scoop up some of your food. I suppose you could mix the rice into your entrée.

But why deny yourself such a fun opportunity to experience some culinary authenticity, enhance your foodie cred, and at the same time relive one of the best things about being young—no utensils! The rice is chewy and substantial and will easily stay together long enough for you to dip it in some hot sauce or laab and eat it.

Laab, often called the national dish of Laos (and sometimes spelled larb or laap), makes for a fine introduction to Sticky Rice Café. You can order it with chicken, seafood, or beef, as I did. Thinly sliced beef soars to tasty heights when seasoned with toasted rice powder, scallions, cilantro, mint, lime juice, and chili, and the combination of flavors, complex and refreshing, nearly inspired me to raise my hands and give thanks. But the dish gets a serious surge of distinction from the inclusion of thin little slices of tripe. I know, I know—many of you will want to run screaming. But don’t! You can easily move it aside, but its inclusion gives the dish a remarkably satisfying texture and a lovely bump to the its beefy flavor. This is an extraordinarily edible experience that I guarantee will move you from the fake foodie poser

Family Affair Sticky Rice Cafe stakes out its culinary terrain in West Knoxville

BY DENNIS PERKINS

T

he opening of Sticky Rice Café is something of a triumph for Knoxville—no doubt even more so for the Sikarng family, who own and operate the restaurant, but this is certainly a moment for all serious eaters to celebrate. It’s not that the food is so very unusual, though it has its moments (and they are fantastic)— it is, instead, yet another jewel in Knoxville’s small but growing crown of culinary authenticity.

The cuisine here is Laotian, and the restaurant may be the first of its kind in these parts—at least by name.

When you visit the café, you’ll notice that many of the dishes look and even taste familiar; that’s because they are.

The cuisine of Southeast Asian countries, while certainly distinct, share some similarities, of course; but

for a variety of reasons unrelated to a common appreciation for spice and cilantro, Laotian food is often lumped together with that of Thailand.

So, you may very well have had some Laotian meals and never even known it—Lao dishes mingle freely with those of Thailand in restaurants from Bangkok to Boise. But the Sikarng clan has changed that for us.

So, thanks to them, you can enjoy your laab and sticky rice with a clear appreciation for this much underappreciated cuisine.

Sticky rice is the foundation of the Laotian diet. It’s also called sweet or glutinous rice (even though it has no gluten), and it gets seriously sticky when steamed. Because of that, the only practical way to eat it is to use your fingers. Meals at the café come

Photos by Dennis Perkins

34

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 7, 2016

column to the truly tremendous one.

If you’re inclined to tip-toe into this experience, you might enjoy the green curry pork belly. Flavor-wise, it’s a comfortable walk through your Thai memories with coconut milk and spicy green curry wrapping luxuriously around rich slices of pork and tofu; delicious and fragrant but not particularly adventurous. Despite the warning on the menu, my bowl came with but a mildly spicy personality and a pleasant, gradual heat that never made me uncomfortable. Keep in mind that I’m not a real fire-eater, according to my hot-sauce swilling compatriots, but if you are so inclined, you can easily increase the Scoville rating of your food by request or by manually doctoring it with the addition of a wicked-looking chili concoction available at each table.

Another dish that’s a breeze to enjoy is the appetizer of deep-fried chicken skin. If you like fried chicken, you’ll be in heaven eating this simple, crunchy, and satisfying snack, with or without a quick dunk in the accompanying bowl of hot sauce. The menu indicates that the skins are marinated

STICKY RICE CAFÉ 120 Jack Dance St., 865-249-6273 Monday–Saturday: 10 a.m.–11 p.m.

Home Palate

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Always made fresh. Always made from scratch. in a house seasoning, but on my visit they weren’t so flavored; that’s not a criticism, per se, because I loved the simplicity of the indulgence.

Another simple but satisfying appetizer with a comparatively mild flavor profi le is Laotian sausage. It looks like a brat and is served sliced on a lettuce leaf with some hot sauce for dipping. The link arrives flavored with ginger and garlic, but lemongrass dominates the profi le. Aromatic and unusual, I took part of it home and found that I liked it even better later.

On the other hand, an appetizer of crispy rice with sour pork sausage was far from simple in a portion that was really enough for a lovely light lunch. Balls of sticky rice are deepfried and broken apart, tossed with lime juice, scallions, cilantro, peanuts (do you detect a theme?), and thin slices of sour pork sausage. The flavor of the pork is bright and tangy and lends rays of lightness to the full-bodied texture and taste of the well-seasoned rice. The immediate impact of cilantro flavor might come across as overwhelming, but that fades quickly as the richer notes of the food emerge.

Desserts are not legion—right now you can try fried banana or opt for mango sticky rice, as I did. A straightforward mix of the ubiquitous rice molded into a cake, drenched in sweetened coconut milk, and topped with mango, the dish recalls fond

childhood memories of piling bowls of rice with sugar and whole milk. The mango is really more of an accent to the sweetened rice, but it was delicious if not mind-blowing. But I suspect that dessert isn’t that much of a thing in Laos—and ultimately, who cares: It leaves you with more room to try a Laotian sandwich (not unlike a banh mi), or share a green papaya salad, or the highly regarded Lao beef jerky. The restaurant also serves pho along with Laotian soups like kow pek (rice noodles and chicken broth) and kow poon (a spicy vermicelli soup with curry and chicken).

The best thing about the café is that it’s family owned and operated.

That may make the service a little relaxed at times, but in my experience the family members and employees have been friendly and hospitable enough to make up for any momentary delay in the arrival of my check.

Furthermore, everyone at Sticky Rice is pretty cool with the question “How would you eat this?” The answer I’ve gotten on both times I asked it has been a nicely inviting variation on, “You can eat it whichever way you want, but at home we…”

Of course, what’s truly wonderful about family participation is that the cooking is done by folks who know what it’s all about: the recipes, many of them from Grandma. That’s worth shouting about. ◆

135 S. Gay St. Knoxville, TN (865) 333-5773 sugarmamasknox.com @SugarMamasKnox

July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 35

’BYE

O pen Book

A Maplehurst Memory Shakespeare, hot and steamy, on the Fourth of July

BY JULIE GAUTREAU

T

he house in Maplehurst Court is still there, settling into the earth on a ridge overtop Neyland Drive and partially obscured by wild trees, a kudzu wilderness. You could live in Knoxville your whole life, work downtown and take Neyland to your house in Bearden every day, and never notice the dilapidated Tudor mansion crowning that ridge. To get to it, you have to take a sharp right turn immediately prior to passing from Henley Street onto the bridge.

Somewhere as the crows fly between that intersection and nearby Neyland Stadium, a lane drops off into an early 20th-century boutique neighborhood crammed with architectural paeans to the Tudor era and the Italian Renaissance. Back in time, in layers.

People have written much about the mysteries of Maplehurst, whose residents of long ago included Knoxville’s teaspoon of artists and intellectuals. I am remembering a night in 1999, on the Fourth of July, during a time when the community was transitioning along with the rest of downtown Knoxville, but in the inverse. Downtown was being energized with new development and commercial and residential projects; decades of stagnation and abandonment were finally yielding to a new urban sensibility. Stuck between that and one of the biggest college football stadiums in the country, Maplehurst drew the attention of developers too— as a place to settle a new Bro migration. Football entrepreneurship with an Elizabethan twist.

There was, in fact, Shakespeare that night. We were gathered on the screened-in rear porch of the house,

36

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 7, 2016

with a view of the Henley Bridge and Baptist Hospital across the Tennessee River. We could not see the river for the wild trees, whose hosts of insects filtered noise from Neyland Drive. We were hot. A ceiling fan chopped through humid air overhead, and French doors hung open to the house’s interior. But that house had no air conditioning apart from river breezes. Above the porch stood a second-floor screened-in porch—what they used to call a sleeping porch, a good place for a futon and a cooler full of ice on sweltering nights. “Thou hast described a hot friend cooling,” or in this case, hot friends cooling. I don’t remember the actual quote from Shakespeare, just that somebody started the game that way.

Must have been a theater type.

There were others. I don’t recall how many—maybe 10 or so of us. We had regular jobs—lawyer, journalist, bartender, nanny, dental hygienist, social worker, florist. A legal assistant.

Some of us dabbled in writing. One of us wanted to open a dress shop. There was a bona fide artist whose paintings were well known. Some of us smoked cigarettes, and we all drank. We sat in fold-out chairs and passed a sweaty magnum of white table wine around the porch, waiting to hear fireworks that were supposed to be launched from way over on the old World’s Fair Site. The sun was down, but the sky was not yet dark.

Then somebody quoted Shakespeare, or thought he had. If memory serves, another person corrected him or her. Not in a bitchy way. More like, are you sure that’s how the quote goes? That’s how the parlor game

started. There was a volume of opening lines from great novels. We all thought of ourselves as well read, or at least pretended to be. This would be the test. The volume was passed around the room behind that bottle of wine, and whoever was “it” opened the book to a random page and read opening lines of a designated great novel. Then the rest of us took turns guessing the work and the author. We needed a flashlight.

Some of them were easy, some not so easy. I remember the one I guessed. Here are the first lines of that opening paragraph: “The Bottoms succeeded to ‘Hell Row.’ Hell Row was a block of thatched, bulging cottages that stood by the brookside on Greenhill Lane. There lived the colliers who worked in the little gin-pits two fields a way.”

Each turn was an occasion for pride or embarrassment, and we all laughed. I got more wrong than right.

We had to think of penalties for obvious guessing. We barely noticed the first whistle and pop of a distant firework.

But after a few more, we moved out chairs through the dusty, creaking house to the scarce front yard, and trained our gazes over rooftops in the direction of the Fair Site, and the glitter of the Fourth of July.

I suppose my lazy tomcat was sprawled out on the front walk as he used to do in airless heat, safe from the crows that badgered him all day long. Neighbors walked their dogs or biked past. We were sharing a peaceful experience. There would be

another year before a presidential election and subsequent historical events would change our national character. We had every expectation of continued progress and prosperity.

Some of us had cell phones, but they were just for making and receiving calls then. We did not have—every one of us—a camera ready to capture the poignancy of that night, to record our shared peace.

Later, we parted company and I am sure I remember one of us saying out loud that this had seemed like an extraordinary evening, though none of us thought why that might be. But I think I know now why.

A few years later, I would drive out of Taos, N.M. into a remote desert ranch and feel like I had gotten lost before finding my destination: a concrete shack, or shrine, said to contain the ashes of the writer D.H. Lawrence. There was nobody else around, for what seemed like 100 miles. I stepped inside the little room to sign a guestbook for admiring pilgrims from the world over. I remembered the lines I had recognized from his novel, Sons and Lovers, back on that hot Independence Day in Maplehurst. I read a few lines from the guestbook, and one of them has stayed with me. The visitor had listed his provenance as a town in England. He wrote, “How far we have come, to this new America.” ◆ Have an essay of humorous intent or personal revelation that must be shared with Knoxville? Submit it for consideration to: editor@knoxmercury.com.

Some of us had cell phones, but they were just for making and receiving calls then.

We did not have—every one of us—a camera ready to capture the poignancy of that night, to record our shared peace.

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Open till 3am Wed-Sat Open till 1am Sun, Mon, & Tue 1204 Central St., Knoxville 865.247.0392 flatsandtaps.com July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 37

’BYE

Spir it of the Staircase

BY MATTHEW FOLTZ-GRAY

38

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 7, 2016

’BYE

BY IAN BLACKBURN AND JACK NEELY

CLASSIFIEDS

Support the Knoxville Mercury and sell your stuff by purchasing an ad in our classifieds section.

FOR SALE

ACORN CHAIRLIFT FOR SALE. Less than a year old. Call or text Randy (615-977-1090).

SERVICES

PSYCHIC MEDIUM RANDY FARLEY, i s “ReConnecting Souls and Reaffirming Love” daily at Illuminations Metaphysical Center. Call (865)801-9194 to schedule your reading. Also visit randyfarley.com

WANT TO FIND A COPY OF THE KNOXVILLE MERCURY?

We’ve got a map for that!

It’ll be updated as we add more locations.

If you’ve got suggestions, let us know. knoxmercury.com/find-us

Place your ad at store.knoxmercury.com

SERVICES

DANE KRISTOF, T he popular Nashville psychic and clairvoyant that the tabloids call,” the Seer of Music Row,” is accepting appts. for when he is in Knoxville this month.

One Nashville paper said, “This guy’s the real deal.

He starts by telling you little known things that only you could know not to impress you but to add validation to the reading.” Call (615)4294053 for a Knoxville appt.

– www.DaneKristof.com.

BENNY’S YARD SERVICE, wants yards to mow.

Fresh estimates. Reliable and trustworthy. Please call 865-240-9881 and ask for Benny.

COMMUNITY

HOLLY - is a 4 year old domestic short hair mix who is shy at first, but gives endless kisses once she trusts you.

Visit Young-Williams Animal Center / call 865-215-6599 for more information.

PEANUT - is a 3 month old sweet baby who loves to play! He makes the perfect companion for your lap. Visit Young -Williams Animal Center / call 865-215-6599 for more information.

TIPPER, FIEVEL AND PATTY - are 13 year old Chihuahua / mixes who came in together, and must go home together. They were surrendered because their owner was moving.

Visit Young-Williams Animal Center / call 865-215-6599 for more information.

SELL YOUR STUFF AND HELP SUPPORT THE MERCURY AT THE SAME TIME! Order classified ads online from the comfort of your own home or mobile device.

No need to talk with any humans!

Just $10 for 200-characters or $14 for 400-characters.

Listings will run in print and online for one week.

ORDER NOW:

store.knoxmercury.com!

July 7, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 39

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D E ATHC ABF O RC UTI E•R YANAD AMS•BR AND IC AR L I L E•G AR YC L AR KJ R .

BL AC K BE R R YS MO K E•WAS HE DO UT•F E MIK UTI&P O S I TI VEF O R C E UNK NO WNMO R TALO R C HE S TR A•AL UNAG E O R G E•WHI TED E NI M H E A R T L E S SBA S T A R D S•P A T R I C KWA T S O N•S P E E D YO R T I Z A N D E R S O NE A S T•S T E V EG U N N&T H EO U T L I N E R S•T H ES U F F E R S S A I N T S E N E C A•L O SC O L O G N E S•R I V E RT I B E R•J O A NS H E L L E Y Ti cketsandmorei nfoat

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