Vol. 2, Issue 28 - July 14, 2016

JULY 14, 2016 KNOXMERCURY.COM

SOMEBODY’S GOT TO DO IT V.

2 / N. 28

TH E

e to r Guid

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nty u o C x o n K n 6 o i t c 201 e l al E r e n e G Ou

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E T O V JACK NEELY

Burlington’s Speedway Circle and the Knaffl House Mystery

MUSIC

Local Sideman Greg Horne Steps into the Spotlight With New Album

Q&A

P

LU TH GO S E1 P HO 8TH RA US DIS CE F E S TRIC OR E T

AT

PLUS W VOTER HY IS TURNO UT SO BA D?

Boiling Season Author Christopher Hebert Talks About His New Novel

OUTDOORS

Conservation Fisheries Reintroduces Endangered Species to Local Rivers

“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?�

-Abraham Lincoln

Some lessons are worth revisiting.

Home to one of the most diverse Lincoln and Civil War collections in the country.

Open seven days a week. Tours available. Call 423.869.6235 for info. www.LMUnet.edu/Museum 2

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

July 14, 2016 Volume 02 / Issue 28 knoxmercury.com

CONTENTS

“ Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”

—Martin Luther King Jr.

12 O

ur Guide to the 2016 Knox County General Election COVER STORY

e e to th d i u G ur

unty o C x o n 2016 K al Election Gener O

Early voting for the Aug. 4 Knox County general elections/state and federal primaries kicks off this week, on July 15, and will run through July 30. Locally, the big races are for County Commission seats, pitting Republicans versus Democrats (plus a couple of Independents); meanwhile, there’s one contested race for a Board of Education seat. On the state level, there is but one contested primary, the GOP race for House of Representatives District 18. We asked the candidates lots of questions—here are their answers: 13 Knox County Commission 19 Board of Education (contested candidates) 20 State House 18th District GOP Primary 22 Why Does Voter Turnout for Local Elections Usually Suck?

!

E T O V

PLUS W VOTER HY IS TUR SO BA NOUT D?

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

4 Letters to the Editor 6 Howdy

8 Scruffy Citizen

Start Here: Dumpster Dive, Public Affairs, Quote Factory PLUS: “Photo Recollection: Knoxville Streets,” a photo series

by Holly Rainey.

46 ’Bye

Finish There: Sacred & Profane by Donna Johnson, Crooked Street Crossword by Ian Blackburn and Jack Neely, Spirit of the Staircase

by Matthew Foltz-Gray

Jack Neely considers the Knaffl House mystery, new giant murals, and early police shootings.

10 Much Ado

Catherine Landis urges us to make sure standardized testing pays off for students and not just businesses.

A&E

24 Program Notes: The return of

surf-rock rebels the Mutations, and a review of the CrumbSnatchers’ Big House.

25 Shelf Life: Chris Barrett suggests

some movies about movies, available at the Knox County Public Library.

26 Music: Mike Gibson profiles local sideman Greg Horne as he steps into the spotlight with a new album.

27 Movies: Nathan Smith doesn’t

CALENDAR

28 Spotlights: Garbage, Shakespeare on the Square, and Tall Tall Trees

42 Q&A: Author Christopher Hebert talks about his new novel, Angels of Detroit.

OUTDOORS

44 Voice in the Wilderness

Kim Trevathan attends Whites Creek Palooza, a fundraiser for Conservation Fisheries, which works to preserve endangered species in local rivers.

uncover many answers in The Secret Life of Pets.

July 14, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 3

LETTERS Delivering Fine Journalism Since 2015

MORE HOUSING, MORE PROBLEMS

This is a response to “Millennial Mire” authored by Joe Sullivan and published July 7, 2016.

From the first sentence, Mr Sullivan has managed to ignore the basic fact that if something is unsustainable, then it won’t be. This applies to everything by the way, not just to the idea that more new housing is needed as the means to generate more robust economic growth.

In Sullivan’s example, and perhaps most tragic for many hard-working people, home ownership is often touted as the “American Dream” that everyone is entitled to.

It might be noted that the traditional ‘American Dream’ was the product of a time when one income was enough to support a family of four comfortably. America still had industry that hadn’t been gutted and families could afford a small house with a little garden on one salary. This is no longer true.

We used to be a nation that proudly made things and lived within our means. Yes, we used to make reasonably-sized houses that were built to last, but we also made many goods that were used in the USA and also exported and appreciated as quality worldwide.

In 2015 (latest figures from IMF), exports from America accounted for well under 10 percent of the USA total economic output. This should give us all grave pause for thought.

I’m not sure when we began to accept the title of Consumer as opposed to Citizen, but I find it very unattractive. Between 2007 and 2013, the major USA export was shipping our rubbish to China. When the biggest thing Americans make is trash, I think it says a lot about the current state of the so called “American Dream.”

A simple plea to create more housing to boost the economy seems a wee bit myopic to me. We all need to live within our means, however having half the population endlessly making houses for the other half, but unable to afford one themselves, is not a sustainable model.

No one will want to hear this and I 4

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

imagine it will be extremely unpopular, but I will say it anyway: Building more (and bigger) housing that gobbles-up even more land resulting in even more vast and ugly sprawl that is dependent upon using large amounts of fossil fuels to live and get around is not a sustainable state of affairs.

To understand more than I can convey here, an old book (1982) Overshoot by William Catton Jr, is highly recommended and can be ordered from the library.

What we are doing is stealing the future from our kids—our addiction to endless growth and buying more “stuff” deserves a re-think and our individual choices do matter.

Robyn Cooper Knoxville

WE MISS PAT

I appreciated your moving approach for honoring Coach Pat Summit in the July 7, 2016, issue by printing five testimonials, all written by successful individuals! My eyes started watering while reading the first personal account that continued through all five. You found the right people for this task!

On the flip side, I got a good chuckle while reading the letter to the editor about Devereaux Cannon’s unique response to his UT criminal law professor’s astonishing and disturbing act of firing in class a gun loaded with blanks at the letter’s author! As a fellow attorney in Knoxville, I knew Devereaux a few years in the 1980s before he made a career transfer to Nashville. He was also a devoted Civil War enthusiast who was an early member of the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable.

Norman Shaw Knoxville

PARKING AIN’T EASY

I just read “Parking Payout” [news feature by Clay Duda, July 7, 2016] regarding the new meters and fees downtown. I worked downtown for several years and never had a com-

plaint or issue except during major events. The killer for me is the $550,000 price tag for the 10 PBA employees to casually stroll down the street for a living. Having regular interaction with them, I can attest that most of their day consists of socializing with local merchants or hiding in their office in the State Street Garage.

Whenever the weather is exceptionally cold or rainy I would witness a free-for-all as people parked anywhere they pleased as these “enforcers” were sheltered safely inside. The good employees in the hospitality industry making your downtown experience memorable rarely make half that and work twice as hard. Hell, many of our teachers don’t make that. Ridiculous.

Randall Ceane via Facebook Knoxville

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

HEY, WE’RE MOVING!

That’s right—we’ll be picking up stakes (and all our stuff) to a new office/world headquarters on the week of July 25. That means we will not be publishing an issue for July 28. But we’ll be back on Aug. 4, just in time to launch our Top Knox 2016 ballot.

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

David Luttrell Shawn Poynter Justin Fee Tyler Oxendine CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS

Ben Adams Matthew Foltz-Gray

ADVERTISING

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

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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

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July 14, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 5

Photo by Josh Witt

HOWDY DUMPSTER highlights DIVE Weekly from our blog Read more at knoxmercury.com/blog PAYDAY LENDERS ZONING Knoxville City Council passed on first reading last week an amendment to the city zoning ordinance that would regulate the location and proximity of title and payday lenders. The ordinance will be up for a second reading July 19. City Law Director Charles Swanson noted that the city may not have explicit authority to govern the location of “alternative financial services.”

A friendly wave from Jonathan Woodroof on Central Avenue. PHOTO RECOLLECTION: KNOXVILLE STREETS by Holly Rainey (loveh865.com)

QUOTE FACTORY “ You can be against the killing of police officers and against police brutality.”

—Andre Canty, an organizer with Black Lives Matter-Knoxville, in a News Sentinel article on local reactions to the series of deadline shootings last week.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS

7/14 DONUTS: RICHY KREME’S 69TH ANNIVERSARY THURSDAY

6 a.m.-?, Richy Kreme Donuts (2601 E. Broadway Ave., Maryville). The cost of a donut.

Do we need an excuse to eat a Richy Kreme donut? No we do not—but celebrating 69 years of donut-making is a really good one. Let’s go for the blueberry filled!

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

KC CONTAMINATION Knoxville College officials told Mechanicsville neighbors at a public meeting last Thursday night that the federal Environmental Protection Agency conducted new air and dust testing for mercury last week at the college’s derelict A.K. Stewart Science Building. Public comments seemed balanced between those worried about contamination spreading to the surrounding neighborhood and those who cautioned against listing the site prematurely, damaging its redevelopment chances.

DOWNTOWN GOES BOWLING Gay Street has something new. No, it’s not another restaurant. It’s not another store. It’s a new activity— the Maple Hall bowling alley opened its doors to the public after nearly four years in development.

Beyond its 11 lanes of bowling, it also offers a stage, a bar, a dining area, and plenty of casual seating where you can watch others bowl. Pricing here is unconventional: You pay for lanes, not per person, and the rate is per hour, not per game. For one lane for an hour, it’s $20 on weekdays.

7/15 LECTURE: THE GAPS IN GAY STREET 7/16 SCREENING: TERROR IN THE WOODS 7/17 MEETING: EAST KNOX PLAN FRIDAY

11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Historic Westwood (3425 Kingston Pike).

Free.

In another Knox Heritage Lost & Found Lunch, John Weaver of the Knoxville Lost and Found blog will discuss historic buildings along Gay Street that don’t quite exist anymore. Not only is this a fascinating topic, but Knox Heritage also kicks in a buffet lunch starting at 11:30 a.m.

Score! (Parking is free and is available in the Laurel Church of Christ parking lot next door.)

SATURDAY

7 p.m., Ijams Nature Center (2915 Island Home Ave,). $15.

Two of our favorite local institutions—Ijams Nature Center and the Knoxville Horror Film Fest—are joining forces for this unique way to scare yourself in the middle of the summer. Hike the haunted trails to Dead Man’s Farm for a double feature of Pumpkinhead and Pumpkinhead 2 with a guest appearance from the director of Pumpkinhead 2, Jeff Burr. Plus: food trucks and beer!

SUNDAY

1-3:30 p.m., Carter Senior Center (9036 Asheville Hwy.). Free.

The East Tennessee Community Design Center and the Metropolitan Planning Commission are hosting this ice cream social to gather feedback for the East Knox County Community Plan. Community members can review past plans, consider areas to preserve, and identify challenges and priorities. RSVP: leslie@communitydc.org

The Green Line Tour KAT’s new trolley route offers a free tour of the city.

Knoxville Area Transit now offers the Green Line, a new trolley route that serves the Old City area.

Left on Central, then Right on Summit Hill.

Summit Hill Drive is named for the hill it crosses. The highest spot downtown, it was originally known as Gallows Hill, the site of at It’s free, and so is this paper. If you have least a few executions by hanging in the early about 15 minutes to kill, take a free, air-condi1800s. Since 1855 it has been the site of East tioned tour of historic downtown Knoxville.

Tennessee’s first Catholic church, Immaculate Conception. The current church building was Pick it up going north on Gay Street at completed in 1886, the oldest church building Union. As you ride, you’re following the route downtown. Due to its unique height, its steeple of the first trolley in Knoxville history, a became the location of the city’s town clock, mule-drawn trolley in 1876. visible from both Market Square and the ○ Southern train station. Long maintained by The east side of the 400 block of Gay, the city, the clock is now run by the church. where the Phoenix, Woodruff ’s, and other ○ tall buildings stand today, was the site of the A bit farther, on the right, is the large worst fire in Knoxville history, the Great red-brick complex now used by Lincoln Fire of 1897. Most of these buildings were Memorial University’s law school. The built soon after that. Tailor Lofts and the columned building at front, built in 1848, was Century Building survived it. Everything in originally the Tennessee School for the Deaf, between was decimated. At least four died. the first such school in this region and one of Central to Knoxville’s African-American community from the 1920s ○ the first deaf schools in the United States. to the 1960s, the Gem Theatre was built over First Creek, near the When the trolley turns right, down Between 1925 and 1980, after the school moved southeast corner of what’s now Summit Hill and Central, a site Summit Hill, it’s tracing the course of old Vine to Island Home, the building served as City Hall. visible from the Green Line. Rebuilt after a 1942 lightning fire, the Avenue, which was for almost a century the ○ popular cinema and performance hall was one of hundreds of main commercial and cultural street of the Left on Locust. On the right are Kendrick buildings torn down during Urban Renewal. black community. Almost all of Vine Street Place, a century-old townhouse complex Photo courtesy of Volunteer Voices: was obliterated during urban renewal in the renovated for upscale residences in the early The Growth of Democracy in Tennessee 1950s and ‘60s. Summit Hill and Central is 1980s; the old Masonic Temple, radically volunteervoices.org near the lively urban center once known as remodeled more than a century ago from “Little Harlem.” industrialist Charles McClung McGhee’s large ○ Victorian home; and the 1929 YMCA, emblematic of the Old World styles Left on Central, and we’re in the old Bowery. This 100 block of South evoked by architect Charles Barber.

Central once hosted more than 60 businesses, including, between 1888 and ○ 1907, multiple saloons, as many as 11 on this block at once.

Crossing Clinch, the UT Conference Center was the 1956 Rich’s Department ○ Store, a modernist marvel in its day. In 1960, it was the location of some dramatic Right on East Jackson. Originally known as Hardee Street, it was both workand ultimately successful anti-segregation sit-ins. It was later Miller’s. ing-class residential and industrial by the late 1880s, known for its meat-pack○ ing houses. We’re entering the district once known as Cripple Creek, so named Next block, you’ll see the marble-front 1950s state supreme court building, for the fact that First Creek takes a crooked jag to the east here. in the news recently, and next block, the 1929 Medical Arts Building, recently ○ renovated for residents.

Right on Patton Street. A predominantly black residential street, with a few ○ businesses, including Knoxville’s first known tamale makers, in the late 1800s, Left on Main, and you’ll see the 1934 Post Office building, designed by it hosted the Patton Street Church of God, where blues legend Ida Cox sang in Baumann & Baumann. Some architects call it Knoxville’s finest building. her later years.

Across the street is the 1924 First Baptist Church. The 1991 Whittle Building, ○ a.k.a. Baker Federal Courthouse, designed by maverick architect Peter Marino, is Right on Willow. Willow goes by the site of the old Union Stockyards, a across the street from architect Bruce McCarty’s 1979 City County Building— noisy place before it was forced out by Urban Renewal in 1957. Over on the and the 1886 Knox County Courthouse, with its tree-shaded monuments. left, just out of sight, is First Creek, downtown Knoxville’s original defining ○ principle, now contained in a culvert.

Then back to Gay, where there’s too much to talk about on one page.

Source: 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 14, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 7

SCRUFFY CITIZEN

Let’s Both Be Careful Of the Knaffl House mystery, new giant murals, and early police shootings

BY JACK NEELY

Y

ears ago, I wrote about one of East Knoxville’s oddest curiosities: Burlington’s Speedway Circle, which is a curiosity in itself, a road planted along the track of Cal Johnson’s Victorian-era horse-racing track.

But on the half-mile oval is a house much older than the other, mostly simple suburban-looking small houses with sunny green yards on the quiet street.

It’s a melancholy two-story manse with a heavy marble front, shaded, perhaps shrouded, in tall trees. It looks like a setting for a tragedy, or an otherworldly visitation. It’s just been listed for sale.

You would have to be very old to remark on its resemblance to the downtown home of Joseph Knaffl. The son of an Austrian court physician became Knoxville’s best-known art photographer of the Victorian era. His town home stood at 918 Gay Street until about 1926, until it was forced out to make way for the new Tennessee Terrace Hotel—later to be renamed, inadvisably I think, the Andrew Johnson.

For years, this odd house on Speedway has been a legend among aficionados of Knoxville obscurities, apparent proof of an amazing feat: that someone moved a brick-and-stone Victorian house, intact, 5 miles away, and planted it in a modern neighborhood. Even today, on the rare occasion an old house moves, it moves only across the street or around the corner.

Newly available sources, via the public library’s “From Paper to

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

Pixels” project, make it clear the house wasn’t moved in its entirety. As a March 23, 1926, News-Sentinel article notes, an enterprising fellow named J.R. Stephens “bought materials from the Knaffl house” and used them in the construction of his new house on Speedway Circle. “The stone front of the Knaffl home will be used in the Stephens home, and the front porch will be the same. The wooden paneling in the Knaffl living room and dining room will be used” for similar rooms in the Speedway house.

“Stephens’ home will also have the stairway from the old house.”

Unfortunately, as the current real-estate listing suggests, that interior woodwork has been “harvested” by the landowner, who lives in Greene County. Even Knaffl’s staircase is gone. The house would have to be rebuilt inside to be livable.

I suspect the parts were worth less than the whole, in its extraordinary context.

It’s still a curiosity. The house’s address is 3738 Speedway Circle. The number carved in marble above the door—918—still reflects its pre-1926 address on Gay Street.

Have a look at Visit Knoxville’s big new murals recently installed to cover the nakedness of the aesthetically troublesome Locust Street Garage. They’re three giant photographs of downtown Knoxville: There’s a classic photo of the Market House; a less-known and oddly

melancholy photo of Peter Kern’s bakery, in its final days; and a Gay Street scene of people boarding the Vestal streetcar. A businessman appears to be barging in front of some women and children. Newcomer’s Department Store, now Mast, is visible in the background, as is Szabo’s, the tailor shop only later known as Slomski’s.

The locations are all near the 300 block of Union Avenue, and they’re all from right around 85 years ago.

They’re all interesting pictures. The streetcar’s front-end placard sounds modern in its non-authoritarian plea: “Let’s Both Be Careful.”

You might wonder why this new building’s job is to celebrate a set of old buildings clustered about two and a half blocks away, and from such a specific point in history, about 1930, not necessarily one of Knoxville’s golden age. It was a time when, thanks to streetcars like this one, most people didn’t need parking garages. Despite their narrow context, the photos reflect the city’s life and diversity in a former era. They’re a great improvement over a concrete wall.

Speaking of old photos, I have a plea to my loyal readers. I’m finishing up a years-long book project about the Old City. For all the notoriety of this intersection of neighborhoods once known as Irish Town, the Bowery, Gunters’ Flats, the Flag Pond, Cripple Creek, and the Bottom, photographs are hard to come by, especially concerning South Central Street before the 1970s. I’m especially interested in photographs of all sorts of businesses or residences, including saloons. There were more than 100 saloons along Central over the years, from the railroad tracks to the river.

I’ve seen a good photograph of only one. Even Patrick Sullivan’s, famous in its day, seems to have been rarely if

ever photographed before the preservationist era.

If you know of any good images of the Old City from the time before it was the Old City, please let me know.

Finally, it’s hard to avoid the news. My knowledge of police shootings is mainly anecdotal. I’ve never done a thorough study of police-involved shootings in Knoxville history. But during Knoxville’s most violent era, the era between the Civil War and World War II, I believe policemen were shot more than the other way around.

However, one fatal police shooting of a black man stands out. Late one night in May 1938, Office Guy Vance attempted to arrest Clarence Kennedy, a restaurateur, for illegal liquor. The two shot each other. It happened at the fabled corner of Central and Vine, “Little Harlem,” around what’s now the dog park.

Officer Guy Vance was black, and was seriously wounded in the encounter. Still, he was accused by the victim’s family of use of undue force and faced murder charges in court.

He was exonerated, with the help of witnesses who testified the popular cafe owner drew first.

It was the sixth time I know of that a policeman was shot in the old South Central Bowery, the site of the first three deaths of Knoxville police officers in the line of duty. In fact, all six of those shootings happened along the four blocks of South Central between Church and Vine, now Summit Hill.

I was walking there Sunday afternoon. No longer crowded with hundreds of businesses, legal and illegal, South Central is mainly just a one-way street to Neyland Drive, completely vacant on one side, lots of concrete on the other. There’s hardly anything there to defend. ◆

You would have to be very old to remark on its resemblance to the downtown home of Joseph Knaffl.

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HELP CLEAR THE AIR IN KNOXVILLE.

JOIN FORCES WITH LOCAL HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS & PUBLIC HEALTH PROFESSIONALS TO MAKE MORE OF KNOXVILLE SMOKE-FREE. Meetings are held the second Wednesday of every month at noon at the Knox County Health Department (Community Room in the basement).

All guests must RSVP to attend. Lunch is provided.

For more information, contact Kerri Thompson at kerri.thompson@knoxcounty.org or 865-215-5445.

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July 14, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 9

MUCH ADO

A Tempest Over Testing Let’s make sure standardized testing doesn’t just pay off for businesses rather than students

BY CATHERINE LANDIS

“T

hat was a waste of time,” my friend’s grandson exclaimed after this year’s TNReady test nose-dived into ignominy. He wasn’t talking about the test; he was talking about his entire 7th grade year.

Seventh graders may not be our most reliable school critics, but many educators share his concern about the outsized role standardized testing plays in today’s classrooms, and the TNReady debacle, (starting with the online version crashing followed by the paper version delivery failure), could serve as a metaphorical hand raised and waving.

Governor Haslam and state education leaders propose to “fix” the problem by contracting with Pearson Education to score salvageable tests and by finding a new testing company for next year. I’d prefer they find a pause button to push long enough to answer some questions. Why, exactly, are we doing all this testing? Who is it helping? Who is it hurting? And if the goal of education is to educate, are we sure this high stakes testing regimen is working?

Increasing numbers of educators say no. National critic Alfie Kohn has said, “Invoking such terms as tougher standards, accountability, and raising the bar, people with little understanding of how children learn have imposed a heavy-handed, top-down, test-driven version of school reform that is lowering the quality of education in this country. “ A local teacher is more blunt: “Claims about what

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

these tests will do are just wrong.”

Politically, both left and right oppose high stakes testing but for different reasons. The right rails against federal intrusion. The left questions the validity of the standards.

Critics coming from left, right, and center charge that current testing practices prevent teachers from using their training to develop effective and engaging curriculums, do not accurately measure the progress of students or the effectiveness of teachers, steal valuable instructional time for test preparation, and discriminate against poor and minority students.

Testing supporters say we need standards, and they are right. But standards, says University of Tennessee Associate Professor of English Education Jud Laughter, must correlate with good teaching practices. Speaking for himself, (and not the university) he adds, “Research has shown that using test scores as an incentive does not work. It lowers morale, raises anxiety, and makes the kids crazy.”

The problem with the standards, says former educator Gloria Johnson—now running for state House District 13, partly on a platform to improve education—is they were not teacher-driven. “They are developmentally inappropriate for young children,” she explains, “and, personally, I think the upper-level standards are too low.” Said one of many teachers I spoke to who asked for anonymity for fear of retaliation,

“What planet do people live on where every kid has to be at the same level in every grade?”

Asking good teachers to teach to a test appears to be like expecting a carpenter to do a job with half the tools. So who are the good teachers?

Testing supporters say we need accountability and, again, they are right, but what if these tests are not accurate measurements? Studies show only a small percentage of a student’s score can be attributed to the teacher; the rest is determined by other factors such as poverty. Laughter says he can predict a school’s scores if told the value of neighborhood homes and average parental income and education level. A recent Northwestern University economist’s study showed greater student success attributed to teachers fostering non-cognitive skills than those boosting test scores.

No one wants to defend TNReady, but standardized testing in general has plenty of defenders, including Knox County school board member Karen Carson who qualified her support by saying, “as along as it is aligned with the curriculum.” As a parent, she says, she appreciated an objective way to look at how her kids were doing and believes the movement against high-stakes testing is plagued by a lot of misinformation. “If I want to believe testing is effective, I can find studies that show that,” she says. “And if I want to believe testing is ineffective, I can find studies that show that.”

No doubt she’s right about studies, but that anti-testing movement is growing, with some parents, including one Nashville state representative, opting their children out of taking the tests. Fueling it is suspicion over the amount of money being made by testing companies and investors in the business of privatizing public

education. It’s a story that mirrors the saga of electronic medical records (EMR), another data-mining venture gone awry. On paper, EMR should make it easier for medical professionals to access records, reducing errors and saving time and money. But EMR companies developed expensive software systems that don’t work efficiently in the real world and don’t communicate with other systems, creating more problems than they solve. Like EMR, standardized testing might be a super idea, but both have been hijacked by what I call the “businessification” of America, when market solutions and values are forced onto areas where they don’t fit, like education and health care. Turns out, a whole lot of people who aren’t accountable for how their systems work are making a heck of a lot of money. And in a cynical twist, they make even more when they “fix” problems they create.

Standards and accountability are essential. Data is useful. But we should know whether the money made by testing companies and privatization advocates is preventing us from answering one simple question: Is this working? Maybe it is. But it’s also stirring up a storm of controversy nationwide. I urge parents to dive in.

Learn as much as you can, closely evaluate sources of the information, talk to your school board members and state legislators. Our children are in the middle of a giant experiment.

Let’s make sure the goal is education and not an investment opportunity for people who hope to make money off public schools. ◆ With Much Ado, Catherine Landis examines how political decisions and social trends affect the lives of the people around her. A former newspaper reporter, she has published two novels, Some Days There’s Pie (St. Martin’s Press) and Harvest (Thomas Dunne Books/ St. Martin’s Press). She lives in Knoxville.

A whole lot of people who aren’t accountable for how their systems work are making a heck of a lot of money. And they make even more when they “fix” problems they create.

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* for extremely talented people who shun the inevitable materialism that comes with really large paychecks July 14, 2016

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arly voting for the Aug. 4 Knox County general elections/state and federal primaries kicks off this week, on July 15, and will run through July 30. Locally, the big races are for County Commission seats, pitting Republicans versus Democrats (plus a couple of Independents); meanwhile, there’s one contested race for a Board of Education seat. On the state level, there is but one contested primary, the GOP race for House of Representatives District 18; otherwise, Republican and Democratic primary candidates do not face opponents.

Same goes for the federal level (that means Rep. Jimmy Duncan will be the GOP candidate again, natch.) They will face challengers in the November general election.

Ultimately, voters will decide on fi lling seven positions on County Commission and seating four on the Board of Education. All of these races except the BOE are partisan, which means candidates declare a political party. Only Republicans vied to fi ll openings as law director and property assessor, so the winners of the previous primary are victors now, lacking Democratic challengers: Richard “Bud” Armstrong for law director and John Whitehead as property assessor.

In this voter’s guide, we’ve queried each contested candidate on not only their political philosophies, but also on specific issues. (Go to knoxmercury.com to see the questionnaire answers by non-contested candidates in the Board of Education election.) We hope it provides a clearer idea of what they stand for (or not) as you make your candidate selections.

CANDIDATES FORUM

Want to meet some of these candidates and hear from them in person?

On Monday, July 18 at 7 p.m., the League of Women Voters of Knoxville/Knox County will sponsor a forum for the candidates of contested races in County Commission Districts 4, 5, and 6. The forum will be at the Emporium, 100 S. Gay St. Liza Zenni, executive director of the Arts & Culture Alliance, will moderate.

nt y u o xC o n ion K s s i m Com

1 MICHAEL COVINGTON PARTY: Republican AGE: 56 FAMILY: Wife Beverly; daughter Gabrielle HOW LONG IN KNOX COUNTY? 10 years JOB: Industrial consultant EDUCATION: B.S. in Engineering, North Carolina State University (1984) POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: No response

What stoked your interest in running for this political office?

The need for new and effective leadership in District 1.

What are the two most important issues for you and how will you address them if elected?

(1) Working with fellow commissioners to partner with the city on incentives that allow the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce to work on attracting a supermarket to District 1. Success of this project will create jobs, raise household incomes, and help with the shortage of food sources in East Knoxville. (2) Continue to support the construction of a new coliseum and renovated civic auditorium. This too will create jobs and raise household incomes in District 1.

In two sentences, describe your approach to business and development growth in the county:

We need to partner with the private development community and established residential communities around the county to thoughtfully and effectively put strategies together that will facilitate business growth. In District 1, the partnership with KCDC will foster a new era of development,

with the Five Points development leading the way in providing affordable housing and spurring private investment in the surrounding area.

What degree of involvement in decisions involving public schools do you think is appropriate for the County Commission? What is your position on approving increased public budgets if that entails some property tax increase?

For me it all starts with the relationship that exists between the county commissioner and the school board member representing the district. With a good working relationship, involvement is natural. Increasing property taxes and increasing school budgets must be thoroughly researched.

Do you support the Midway business park? Why or why not?

Yes. It will be a tremendous benefit to the county and to District 1 in particular because of the jobs that’ll be created.

EVELYN GILL PARTY: Democratic AGE: No response FAMILY: Married HOW LONG IN KNOX COUNTY? 19 years JOB: Special education teacher, Knox County School System EDUCATION: Bachelor’s in Political Science; Master’s in Public Administration, Rutgers University; Leadership Class, Hauser Institute for Civil Society at Harvard University POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Candidate for State Senate, District 6, and County Commission, District 1

What stoked your interest in running for this political office?

I am interested in making my community a better place to live.

What are the two most important issues for you and how will you address them if elected?

Blighted properties. Integrated infrastructure improvement for the 1st District along with economic investment.

In two sentences, describe your approach to business and development growth in the county:

The five ways in which government can have the most positive effect are by making capital more accessible, facilitating business education, promoting entrepreneurship, simplifying the regulatory process, and supporting intellectual property innovation.

What degree of involvement in decisions involving public schools do you think is appropriate for the County Commission? What is your position on approving increased public budgets if that entails some property tax increase?

The County Commission approves the budget for the school system. Both entities must have a professional and respectful working relationship. I support a property tax increase if monies are allocated to support teachers, technologies, and classrooms.

Do you support the Midway business park? Why or why not?

I do not support the Midway business park. I support agricultural sustainability in East Knoxville and maintaining a healthy and balanced ecosystem for the French Broad River.

TYRONE LAMAR FINE PARTY: Independent No response.

2 MICHELE CARRINGER PARTY: Republican AGE: 53 FAMILY: Husband, Dr. Michael Carringer, and two adult children HOW LONG IN KNOX COUNTY? Entire life JOB: Homemaker EDUCATION: Central High School (1980); attended University of Tennessee College of Communications (1980-81) POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Knox County Commission, Seat 7B (2009-2010)

What stoked your interest in running for this political office?

I was raised in a family that was always very active in the community and I was taught to seek out opportunities to help and serve others.

Because of this I have had a lifelong passion for service, from being a volunteer mom with two children attending our public schools or serving on numerous civic boards and organizations. I believe that Knox County Commission provides an excellent platform from which to serve July 14, 2016 KNOXVILLE MERCURY 13

the community that I love.

During my two years on the Commission, I was able to provide assistance to numerous individuals with a variety of problems, from zoning issues to trash cleanup. I was proud that I helped push through approval for building a new Carter Elementary School and also sponsored the creation of the Knox County Insurance Committee, which has proven to be one of the most important standing committees in Knox County that has resulted in substantial savings for taxpayers.

What are the two most important issues for you and how will you address them if elected?

The two most important issues we face in Knox County are: (1) to support our schools with the resources they need to provide high-quality education for our children and grandchildren. (Notably, school funding represents over 60 percent of the Knox County budget.) (2) to maintain the kind of business climate in Knox County that encourages growth and expansion so our children have the opportunity to find good-paying jobs right here at home. To accomplish these objectives we have to maintain fiscal discipline in our county government and we have to continue to expand our tax base so that raising taxes is our last resort, not the first.

In two sentences, describe your approach to business and development growth in the county:

We are already experiencing significant economic growth in our county.

To build on this progress we need to continue to invest in the education and training of a skilled workforce, continue to keep taxes low and neighborhoods safe, improve our infrastructure, and encourage responsible development which respects the environment and property rights of others.

What degree of involvement in decisions involving public schools do you think is appropriate for the County Commission? What is your position on approving increased public budgets if that entails some property tax increase?

By law, County Commission’s responsibility is to fund the schools (at least at the level of the prior year’s funding), but they are not allowed to dictate how the funds are spent, which is the job of 14

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

the school board and superintendent of schools. I think this system works, but it requires that each body be held accountable by the voters. In the end, all stakeholders need to focus on what is best for our students, teachers, and parents. As stated above, my preference regarding increases in tax revenues is to increase the tax base, not marginal tax rates.

Do you support the Midway business park?

Why or why not?

I believe the Knox County Commission made the right decision on Dec. 21, 2015, when it voted to approve rezoning the property. This allows the county to take the next steps toward determining the best utilization of the property. However, it is imperative that the Commission maintain close scrutiny of the situation to assure that the final use of the property is consistent with the best interest of the taxpayers of Knox County.

LAURA K. KILDARE PARTY: Democratic AGE: No response FAMILY: Single with a mother and multiple cousins HOW LONG IN KNOX COUNTY? 40+ years JOB: Special education teacher, Career Magnet Academy at Pellissippi State Community College EDUCATION: B.S. in History, Political Science (2000); M.S. in special education (2007); Ph.D in special education (2016) POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: None

What stoked your interest in running for this political office?

I am running for County Commission because I want to be of service to my community. That is the main reason, but I also want to be in a position where I can actively work to ensure that all members of the district have a representative who will listen to their concerns and work to support their endeavors. As an individual who has had to work hard, I understand how important it is to have jobs where people can make a living wage. We need to recruit businesses into our county that will keep our talented people here and provide a good standard of living for the hard work provided by our workers. Knoxville and Knox County are noted for having a relatively low cost of living, but for

people who are not making a living wage, it is not enough.

revenue could be found. The first place to look is in other programs.

What are the two most important issues for you and how will you address them if elected?

Do you support the Midway business park?

Why or why not?

First and foremost, I am a champion of public education. In order to ensure that Knoxville and Knox County continue to thrive, we have to make sure that Knox County Schools receives the funding necessary to continue growing and educating the future workers of our area.

Secondly, but closely aligned with the first issue, is the problem of gangs that has recently come to the public’s attention. This is not a new problem and affects every area of our community. Gang activity is not just a problem in the 1st District, but in every district and we, as a community, need to work to ensure that children and young people have the resources they need so that they do not feel that they have to join a gang to find the feeling of family and support they need. We have to figure out ways to provide choices. This also affects law enforcement and ensuring that the Sheriff’s Office has the resources they need to enforce the law, but also to serve and protect.

In two sentences, describe your approach to business and development growth in the county:

I am in favor of development and growth as long as we look at the different angles of impact on neighborhoods, displacement of people from their homes, and the long-term benefits to the county. That being said, I also believe it is important to preserve our heritage by protecting and rehabbing, if possible, historic buildings and repurposing areas that may have been left by other businesses.

What degree of involvement in decisions involving public schools do you think is appropriate for the County Commission? What is your position on approving increased public budgets if that entails some property tax increase?

The County Commission is charged with approving the operating budget for the county schools. Any other involvement is purely symbolic without a change in the law. As far as increasing taxes, that should be a last resort. With the stagnation of salaries for most middle class people, this is not a time to consider raising property taxes, especially if other sources of

I am not an expert on the Midway business park project. I would like to know more of the particulars before commenting one way or another. I am very interested in finding out what the residents of the area want, as well as looking at how utilized other business parks in our county are.

4 HUGH NYSTROM PARTY: Republican AGE: 48 FAMILY: Wife, Angelia, and one son HOW LONG IN KNOX COUNTY? 34 years JOB: Director, Childhelp Tennessee EDUCATION: Webb School of Knoxville (1985); B.S. in Finance, University of Tennessee (1989) POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: None

What stoked your interest in running for this political office?

In my job at Childhelp, I have had the opportunity to be “all in!” on serving our community for the past 10 years. The important work of protecting abused children and finding adoptive homes for children in the foster care system has shaped my view of our community and has provided insight into the importance of protecting our most vulnerable citizens. I have also been fortunate to have served our community through Leadership Knoxville, as well as service on a diverse group of boards (Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking, The Muse Children’s Museum, Knox County’s Sheriff’s Department Community Alternative to Prison Program, TN Alliance for Children and Families, Junior League Advisory Board, and the Executive Committee for the 2014 Congressional Medal of Honor Society Convention). Frankly, the time I have devoted to serving our community (and its most vulnerable citizens) has inspired me to give back even more by serving in an elected capacity, specifically representing the 4th District on our County Commission.

What are the two most important issues for you and how will you address them if elected?

Many residents in the 4th District have discussed with me the importance of communication between the school board and Knox County Commission.

As our County Commissioner, I will meet frequently with my counterpart on the school board so we each have a first-hand idea of the current challenges and opportunities facing each body.

I dislike surprises, and I anticipate that frequent communication will help ensure that we are each representing the views and values of the 4th District in a cohesive manner.

Secondly, a vital business community is key to our community’s continued success. I will work hard to be sure that Knox County continues to be a great place to own a business and grow jobs for our community.

In two sentences, describe your approach to business and development growth in the county: Be pro-growth so we can bring new quality employers to our community.

Be proactive in helping our existing employers grow and add additional jobs.

What degree of involvement in decisions involving public schools do you think is appropriate for the County Commission? What is your position on approving increased public budgets if that entails some property tax increase?

I would prefer for the Knox County school board to handle all management issues related to Knox County Schools. Knox County Commission’s role is to appropriate the budget for Knox County Schools. I would like to keep County Commission limited to that capacity. By meeting frequently with my counterpart on the school board, my goal will be to avoid any surprises when budget time comes.

At this time, our state senators and state representatives are reviewing a current Basic Education Program funding model. My hope is that changes to the formula, or an increase in state funding for schools, will result in additional funds for the Knox County School System. Increased funding at the state level combined with local growth in tax revenue should increase our funding for schools. This combination of revenue growth should prevent the immediate need for a tax increase.

Do you support the Midway business park? Why or why not?

I support the Midway business park

100 percent. The Midway business park’s location and amenities will be a driver of new jobs in our community for the next 20 years. The reliable TVA power station and connection to KUB waste system will be major selling points for future employers.

The plans also include extensive areas of preserved natural land and wildlife corridors that will be enjoyed by both people and wildlife. Additionally, the Employment Center Zoning that has been proposed for the park will provide specific permitted uses and standards for the property.

To ensure the Midway business park is a win-win, I would advocate for Knox County to invest in the natural amenities that are in the nearby community. The Seven Islands State Birding Park and the French Broad River are beautiful. Our county should plan to promote these areas for tourism. There will be new growth and development in the area immediately surrounding the Midway exit. However, with proper planning, we can keep the natural character of the overall area. We have the Urban Wilderness adjacent to downtown Knoxville. I think we can do it on a similar scale in the Midway Community.

MARLEEN KAY DAVIS PARTY: Democratic AGE: 62 FAMILY: Married with two grown sons HOW LONG IN KNOX COUNTY? 22 years JOB: ACSA Distinguished Professor, College of Architecture and Design at the University of Tennessee EDUCATION: Masters in Architecture, Harvard University (1979); Bachelors in Architecture, Cornell University (1976) POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: None

What stoked your interest in running for this political office?

Since I arrived in Knoxville in 1994 I have been involved in planning issues related to the downtown. I’m interested in continuing the success of the downtown at the level of the county with its many neighborhoods and districts. Additionally, I feel a sense of public service in giving back to Knoxville.

What are the two most important issues for you and how will you address them if elected?

As a career educator and as an architect I am passionately interested in education and in our natural and built environment–our parks, greenways, neighborhoods, commercial districts, and the infrastructure that makes this work.

Education: We have an elected school board and they will soon be searching for a new superintendent of schools. I am excited to be part of this new chapter and I am committed to increasing a cooperative spirit between the Commission and school board. Beyond the basic K-12 school system, we can advance education through imaginative programming in our libraries, parks, senior centers, and partnerships with others. As the business environment changes, job training can help people of all ages acquire new skills. Everyone, from toddlers to seniors, needs access to the arts, music, and sports activities.

The concept of “community schools” can transform a school into a genuine neighborhood center, with programs and opportunities beyond the basic school day.

Neighborhoods: Knox County’s population will be growing in the next decades and we need to accommodate much of that growth with diverse residential choices in neighborhoods, not with more sprawl. In addition, we have to invest in infrastructure that will support this inevitable population growth. We want to enjoy our many safe parks, greenways, and neighborhoods.

In two sentences, describe your approach to business and development growth in the county:

While the economic climate in Knox County is positive, we want to assure continued business energy in decisions that benefit employers and employees alike. Educational opportunities, neighborhoods, parks, and a diversity of cultural activities all contribute to a high quality of life in Knoxville, which also helps us to recruit and retain businesses.

What degree of involvement in decisions involving public schools do you think is appropriate for the County Commission? What is your position on approving increased public budgets if that entails some property tax increase?

We have an elected school board, and they will soon be searching for a new superintendent of schools. I am excited to be part of this new chapter

and I am committed to working in a cooperative way with the Commission and school board.

Raising taxes for any priority in the county is a tactic of last resort when there is no willingness to make strategic cuts or raise funds in other ways. The county must balance its budget with many competing priorities. We should also anticipate expanding the tax base with quality development and jobs.

Do you support the Midway business park? Why or why not?

A Midway development has already been approved by the County Commission in 2015 as a way to expand the county’s tax base and as a way to attract quality jobs to Knoxville.

Midway should not be another highway interchange with fast food, gas stations, motels, and an isolated business park. Public input, the understanding of best practices nationwide, and a careful planning process could make Midway an example of high-quality development.

5 JOHN SCHOONMAKER PARTY: Republican AGE: 61 FAMILY: Married to Heather for 37 years; daughter Laura; and son Justin HOW LONG IN KNOX COUNTY? 30 years in the 5th District JOB: Owner, Schoonmaker Sales EDUCATION: Hillsborough Community College (1980) POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Current Knox County Commissioner for the 5th District

What stoked your interest in running for this political office?

In January 2015, I was appointed to the Knox County Commission to represent the 5th District as a replacement for Dr. Richard Briggs. I consider it an honor and privilege to represent the citizens of the 5th District and want to continue to serve our community.

What are the two most important issues for you and how will you address them if elected?

We have an incredible need for the

July 14, 2016 KNOXVILLE MERCURY 15

Safety Center. Let’s stop talking about it and get going on building it. The roads in our neighborhoods and commercial zones are only going to get worse. We need to allocate more dollars to the road repair budget. Then we need to address safety issues like Northshore Drive with TDOT.

In two sentences, describe your approach to business and development growth in the county: We need to continue to promote our community to attract new jobs and new business opportunities, like Lifetime Products. Once we attract them, we need to keep them.

What degree of involvement in decisions involving public schools do you think is appropriate for the County Commission? What is your position on approving increased public budgets if that entails some property tax increase?

The County Commission should serve in an advisory capacity, as the school board is responsible for making all school decisions. The County Commission should continue to work on improving communication with all school board members. Eventually we will have to have a tax increase. When that happens, the increase should include dollars for schools, roads, libraries, parks, and law enforcement.

It should be a one-time tax increase to cover county expenses for the next 10 years.

Do you support the Midway business park? Why or why not?

I voted for the Midway Business Park.

It is unfortunate that we have recently lost new companies with good jobs to surrounding counties because of not enough available space.

SHERI RIDGEWAY PARTY: Democratic No response.

6 BRAD ANDERS PARTY: Republican AGE: 43 FAMILY: Wife, Jennifer, and one daughter HOW LONG IN KNOX COUNTY? 32 years 16

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

JOB: Lieutenant, Knoxville Police Department EDUCATION: Holston High School (1991); B.S. in Organizational Management, Tusculum College (2007) POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Elected to County Commission for a partial term and then reelected in 2010

What stoked your interest in running for this political office?

I had been observing local government for some time and had grown tired of the way Knox County was moving. I have been on Commission since 2008 and served in leadership for four years. I feel we are now viewed as much more professional and have made progress in several areas. I would like to continue to represent our district as we continue to grow and prosper.

What are the two most important issues for you and how will you address them if elected?

I think the two most important issues we face are school budget and infrastructure needs. I have been addressing capital needs in our district and have been successful in getting several projects either started or in the queue that will make our area much safer. We have constructed a sidewalk on Steele Road, placed traffic circles in high-accident intersections on Bob Gray, funded Karns Valley extension and Schaad Road extension.

The schools continue to be a work in progress. As the school board chooses a new leader, the focus will need to be on setting a course of success in the classroom. We need to prepare our students to be successful no matter what career path they choose. We will continue to make sure more money is focused on classroom instruction.

In two sentences, describe your approach to business and development growth in the county:

I have been very active with the Knoxville Chamber, participating in the economic development process to recruit and grow businesses. I have also worked with local businesses, helping them navigate county government in order to get their businesses started.

What degree of involvement in decisions involving public schools do you think is appropriate for the County Commission? What is your position on approving increased public budgets if that entails some property tax increase?

I think a commissioner should have a good working relationship with the school board and a good understanding of school programs. I do not think a commissioner should be over-reaching in handling board matters to the point he or she is focusing on day-today operations of the schools. That is the role of the school board.

I am not opposed to raising the budget of the school board. We have increased the schools’ budget almost $80 million since I came into office. If we have to raise taxes, I do not favor only raising them for education. We must have a plan to meet the needs of all the departments and hopefully sustain us like the last increase in 1999.

Do you support the Midway business park? Why or why not?

name was an “R” for the Republican Party. There were no Democrats, Independents, or other entries on the ballot to provide a choice for our constituency in the 6th District of Knox County. I find this to be unacceptable in a Democratic process.

What are the two most important issues for you and how will you address them if elected?

My main issue, to start, is providing a choice for our voters, pure and simple!

My other issues are revising term limits, neighborhood safety as in providing passage of the proposed updates to our E-911 system, and working with Sheriff Jones on implementing the Safety Center for our county. Also of interest is fully funding the school system.

I did support Midway and I think it will pay benefits in the future for job growth in the east part of the county. Being as engaged as I am with economic development, I have seen the effects of being land-deficient, and the negative impact it has making the short lists for relocating or expanding companies.

In two sentences, describe your approach to business and development growth in the county:

DONNA G. LUCAS

What degree of involvement in decisions involving public schools do you think is appropriate for the County Commission? What is your position on approving increased public budgets if that entails some property tax increase?

PARTY: Democratic AGE: 69 FAMILY: Daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren HOW LONG IN KNOX COUNTY? Since August 2012 JOB: Retired EDUCATION: Certification in X-ray technology, Rex Hospital (1966); Certification in Ultrasonics, Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University (1976) POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: No response

What stoked your interest in running for this political office?

I have always been interested in the political arena, starting with the Watergate scandal in the ‘70s. It was very disheartening to see what government is capable of doing in the hands of participants who are lacking integrity in the process. I have been a follower since that investigation, participating as my former professional field allowed, time-wise. When I arrived in Knoxville, I noticed, all too often, there was only a single name for most positions on the ballot. There was a name, and right beside that

Our district is fast growing at present, and we must work together in the community to provide adequate conditions for infrastructure, growth plans, zoning, etc. to maintain a balance moving forward.

I believe the County Commission should act as a supporter of the Knox County school board as they are the professionals in their positions.

County Commission should provide funding for the schools as they deem necessary. I think a property tax increase should be implemented as improvements must be funded.

Do you support the Midway business park? Why or why not?

No response.

8 DAVE WRIGHT PARTY: Republican AGE: 70 FAMILY: Married more than 50 years. One son and 12-year-old granddaughter HOW LONG IN KNOX COUNTY?

Born and raised in Gibbs JOB: Retired supervisor for AT&T EDUCATION: Bachelor’s Degree, University of Tennessee (1987); Gibbs High School (1963) POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Knox County Commissioner for District 8 since 2008

What stoked your interest in running for this political office?

The reason to run again was to make sure we continue on some of the things that I’ve looked at, like the continuing of the process that’s in place as far as education goes. I want to make sure the development of Midway Road is followed up on, as it has been discussed and made it through the Commission about a year ago. I want to make sure that Gibbs Middle School says on track. And then we need to get a little deeper into infrastructure like roads and business parks and jobs and things like that.

I’m stealing an idea here, but Brad Anders pointed out that on Sept.

1, when Commission is reorganized, that if I’m reelected and Brad is reelected, there will be no one else on County Commission with more than two years experience. I view it to be important that both Brad and I be reelected for the sole purpose of organizational knowledge if nothing else, to make sure Knox County stays on track.

What are the two most important issues for you and how will you address them if elected?

To continue to make sure Knox County stays on budget and stays in budget. The other would be as it relates to transportation, roads and part of that is whenever you go to the Transportation Planning Organization. It’s not just roads but trails and bike lanes and then what it would be like for public transportation like mass transit. That we continue to stay on the path of getting roads rebuilt and resurfaced where required, to pay attention to crash data and safety.

In two sentences, describe your approach to business and development growth in the county:

We need to make sure the world knows that Knox County is a great place to live, and that there’s an educated workforce here that can focus on being a part of doing business. If that happens we’ll have good developmental growth.

What degree of involvement in decisions involving public schools do you think is appropriate for the County Commission? What is your position on approving increased public budgets if that entails some property tax increase?

We’ve got to stay within cash flow and stay within the existing revenue streams for the foreseeable future. I do not think the Commission plays much of a part in things like curriculum. There are lots of things even the Knox County Board of Education doesn’t play a part in. It’s given to us by the state. The state Department of Education tells how many hours and this is the test we’re going to use and they send about two-thirds of the money, so they are sort of driving the ship. I believe that the questions for commissioners should be how much money is going where. I think it’s an appropriate question to ask where you are spending your money so it’s public information and citizens can fuss at the Board of Education if they don’t like where it’s being spent. The one other thing County Commission can be involved in is brick-and-mortar, where a school will be located or matters of real estate. Those can be addressed in conjunction with the Board of Education, and all of these things are really Board of Education issues.

Do you support the Midway business park? Why or why not?

I’m the one that made the motion that it be rezoned, so I support it. I did have four or five conditions, but the Midway business park was done in the dead of night and was a disservice to some of the people in the east county. But here 10 years later the majority of questions have involved waste water treatment, which will not precipitate on the French Broad. KUB now has the capacity to take the waste water from this site, up over the ridge a couple thousand feet, and then it will go into their existing network near Carter High School and be treated on the Holston. Another issue is what it’s going to look like. Is it going to look like what’s out west and is what’s out west going to be good enough to be out east? It’s not going to be a truck stop. There has to be a pay scale and there’s a lot of stuff that rides with this now that makes it acceptable to the majority of people. If we can create good jobs there that would be great, but if we can’t we

need to divest it. They’ve got the answers I think and it looks like Midway Road is something that’s going to be done.

DONALD M. WISER PARTY: Democratic AGE: 69 FAMILY: No response HOW LONG IN KNOX COUNTY? Entire life JOB: Retired homicide investigator, Knoxville Police Department; retired counselor, Tennessee Department of Children’s Services EDUCATION: Bachelor’s Degree, East Tennessee State University (1978); Master’s Degree, University of Tennessee-Knoxville; 40 hours post-graduate, UTK; Two years, Nashville School of Law; Currently pursuing Master’s and Ph.D in Counseling, UTK POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: None

What stoked your interest in running for this political office?

I want to bring proper representation back to Knox County Commission. I want to work hard to improve the road infrastructure through representation and by enforcing the federal and state constitutions, and the Knox County Charter—unlike the current 8th District incumbent.

What are the two most important issues for you and how will you address them if elected?

Improving road infrastructure in the 8th District is paramount. Currently— because of the absentee-representation of the current, term-limited incumbent—while the people of Gibbs are glad to get their own middle school, no thought or discussion occurred as to how to safely provide access to the new school currently under construction.

In two sentences, describe your approach to business and development growth in the county:

Fomenting mutual respect between business and economic development between the economy and neighborhoods; maintaining safety and improving road infrastructure will allow businesses to grow and thereby improve 8th District residents’ access to good-paying jobs; quiet neighborhoods, and safe schools in our community. None of these are mutually exclusive in open dialogue.

What degree of involvement in decisions involving public schools do you think is appropriate for the County Commission? What is your position on approving increased public budgets if that entails some property tax increase?

The Board of Education and their employee, the superintendent, need to have their focus on serving who has elected them, not bickering about what the state and County Charter dictate as the purview of the Board of Education. I believe in properly funding schools, if needs outstrip resources, I would gladly open up dialog with the Board of Education and the residents to best address any budget shortfalls. I have long been concerned with the disparity between the way boys sports are funded when girls sports are left to their own devices to fund their sports.

Do you support the Midway business park? Why or why not?

No, I do not. I support and respect the will of the people of that community and it is my understanding that those who live and have lived for a long time in that area [do not] want or feel the need to drastically increase traffic and permanently alter the rural milieu of that community when there remains such a great deal of available industrial space in other, nearby business and industrial parks.

9 CARSON DAILEY PARTY: Republican AGE: 56 FAMILY: Wife Tammy, son Jeremy, daughter-inlaw Elizabeth, and granddaughter Victoria HOW LONG IN KNOX COUNTY? Over 50 years in the Bonny Kate community JOB: Account Manager, Applied Industrial Technologies (38 years) EDUCATION: Pellissippi Community College; various business classes POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Knox County Board of Zoning Appeals (Nov. 2008-present); Knox County Blighted Properties Commission (Nov. 2008-present); Knox County Ethics Committee (Nov. 2008-Oct. July 14, 2016 KNOXVILLE MERCURY 17

2010); office holder in the South Knox Republican Party

I love South Knoxville and will keep working to improve neighborhoods and commercial growth. Quality growth working with everyone in South Knoxville.

ist (insurance agent), Sitel EDUCATION: Union County High School (2008); A.A., Pellissippi State Community College (2013); B.A. in political science, University of Tennessee (Expected Fall 2016) POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: KCDP 9th District Representative (2015present); campaign consultant, Leland Price for Criminal Court Judge (2014)

What are the two most important issues for you and how will you address them if elected?

What stoked your interest in running for this political office?

What stoked your interest in running for this political office?

Conservative steward of our tax dollars. Keeping taxes low while increasing our tax base. Economic growth to reduce the debt for Knox County of around $600 million.

In two sentences, describe your approach to business and development growth in the county: Economic growth to create jobs with quality pay in Knox County. Anytime commercial or industrial growth comes to Knox County, jobs created will generate more tax revenue and lower tax rates. This will help take care of the city/county infrastructure.

What degree of involvement in decisions involving public schools do you think is appropriate for the County Commission? What is your position on approving increased public budgets if that entails some property tax increase?

County Commission can only approve the school budget that is presented.

This is state law. The Knox County school budget has been fully funded by the Commission and the mayor. With growth in our private-sector jobs, tax revenue will increase and the school budget will be funded through growth.

Do you support the Midway business park? Why or why not?

Yes. Midway business park will bring high-paying jobs to Knox County.

Quality private partners will only increase Knox County as one of the area’s economic leaders.

JAMES “BRANDON” HAMILTON PARTY: Democratic AGE: 26 FAMILY: Single HOW LONG IN KNOX COUNTY? 15 years (11 years in the middle were spent in neighboring Union County) JOB: Financial Foundations Special18

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

I’ve always been interested in politics.

Dad was always talking politics growing up. I volunteered as a kid for the Union County Democrats in middle and high school.

My family—my whole family pretty much, including myself, my father, aunt, and cousin—moved to Lakemoor Hills on Alcoa Highway in South Knoxville in early 2014. I hit the ground running. I was already very active in Knox County Democratic politics when I lived in Bearden.

Knox County Democratic party chair Cameron Brooks has been working tirelessly to build up local Democrats. I thought about it for a long while. No one wanted to run in the district. It ultimately came down to this: “Why shouldn’t I?” I’m young, I’m energetic, I know how campaigns work, and I feel very supported by my family, campaign cabinet, and local Democrats. I understand the importance of truly balancing vying interests and there needs to be an alternative to Knox County GOP candidates. I’m willing to step up to the plate and offer a different perspective.

What are the two most important issues for you and how will you address them if elected?

South Knoxville is an incredible place, but it could be better! South Knox County’s historical structures could be revitalized to offer space to small business, artists spaces, and lofts. Chapman Highway could stand a few cafes, and it needs an unbroken sidewalk down both sides. There’s a lot going on there with the relocation of Regal, the Urban Wilderness, and waterfront development. I’d like to kindle that flame and see good jobs come south of the river. I’d like the waterfront to look sparkling and inviting from Volunteer Landing.

Official politics have become a little stale in the county. The Commission has been reamed for ignoring the voters who elected them. That’s

unacceptable. I would serve the interests of Knox County’s hard-working people. I wouldn’t shut them out.

Again, it’s about little ‘d’ democracy: giving folks an option.

In two sentences, describe your approach to business and development growth in the county:

Basic infrastructure has to be kept in good repair and periodically improved for the businesses fixed along them to thrive. You’ve also got to be careful to attract the best businesses for residents to work and shop at.

What degree of involvement in decisions involving public schools do you think is appropriate for the County Commission? What is your position on approving increased public budgets if that entails some property tax increase?

I think transparency and dialogue are paramount. Knox County’s students aren’t served if there isn’t good communication between the school board and Commission. Allocations for classroom resources are very different, for example, from approvals for administrative payroll increases I think a very minimal property tax hike—like an additional $80 for every $100,000 in assessed value— would make all the difference in the world for Knox County Schools. I’d want to see an exception carved out for the poor, seniors, handicapped individuals, etc.

Do you support the Midway business park? Why or why not?

I do, but there’s a caveat: It has to be agreeable to nearby residents. There is a lot of opposition right now. The people around Midway don’t want it.

TOM PIERCE PARTY: Independent AGE: 30 FAMILY: Wife and daughter HOW LONG IN KNOX COUNTY? 30 years JOB: Transportation specialist EDUCATION: Berean Christian Academy (2003); BCT & AIT Certification from Fort Sill, Oklahoma (2007); Commandant’s List at WLC in Kuwait (2010) POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: None

What stoked your interest in running for this political office?

Moral decline in Tennessee and global

desecration of western civilization and the traditional Christian culture.

What are the two most important issues for you and how will you address them if elected?

Tradition and identity. Mohammedans have an entire region of the earth that they are established and from which they can propagate, populate, and expand their culture. Jews have an entire country from which they can do the same and so do every other religion and peoples except the white Christian. Appalachia is one of the last bastions, demographically speaking, of western civilization. We must act rapidly to preserve our identity and traditions of Appalachia and Christendom. Starting from the grassroots, we must act rapidly to secure our region as a place that traditional Christian and Appalachian identity can thrive and dominate so that we too may survive as a people.

In two sentences, describe your approach to business and development growth in the county:

Businesses and developments that are not contradictory to ancient Christian morality should prosper and receive tax breaks, etc. Any business or development that promotes anti-Christ or anti-Western ideals (i.e. pornography stores, strip clubs, churches that perform homosexual weddings, abortion clinics) or is highly unpopular with the majority of the local, native-born population must be closed, outlawed, and erased from our soil.

What degree of involvement in decisions involving public schools do you think is appropriate for the County Commission? What is your position on approving increased public budgets if that entails some property tax increase?

Decisions regarding curriculum and practices in our public schools falls squarely within the realm of the duly elected County Commission. I would never support increasing property taxes, which are unlawful and opposed to the principles of “private property,” to fund public education. By making hard cuts and responsible adjustments we can raise monies for public school budgets.

Do you support the Midway business park? Why or why not?

No, simply because it is highly unpopular with the local people who would be affected the most by it.

What are the two most important issues for you and how will you address them if elected?

of d r a Bo tion a TES c u Ed D CANDIDA

TE TES CON

5 SUSAN HORN AGE: 44 FAMILY: Husband, Brad, two daughters HOW LONG IN KNOX COUNTY? 22 years JOB: Elementary education coordinator, Christ Covenant Church EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree, University of Tennessee (1993) POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: None

What stoked your interest in running for this political office?

In 2006, my older daughter began kindergarten at Farragut Primary School and I discovered a love for serving as a PTA volunteer. Since then, I have held various positions in the Farragut PTAs and PTSOs. I served as PTA president at both Farragut Primary and Farragut Intermediate, and I currently serve on the PTSO Board of Managers at Farragut Middle and Farragut High schools. I served on the Knox County Schools District Advisory Council 2011-2013.

Having been in these positions, parents often come to me when school policies or situations arise that concern them. Over the last several months, some of these same parents have encouraged me to run for the school board. Like them, I believe in public education and want to see the viewpoints of the 5th District’s students, teachers, and taxpayers represented on the Board. My desire has always been to support teachers and administrators so that they have the needed resources to provide the high-quality education our children deserve.

At the top of my list is the environment of testing and the negative impact of an assessment-driven school system. Quality instructional time is being exchanged for test prep, practice testing, and changes made to schedules during the testing window.

I will recommend students be given the minimal number of state-mandated tests and advocate that the current TNReady test be replaced.

Another issue facing our schools is the perception of a lack of a cohesive agenda between the school board, the superintendent, and the community.

The Board of Education and the superintendent must work together to set goals for the district that are always student-focused. For every decision I will ask the question, “How does this impact and help our students and teachers in the classroom?”

Are you thumbs up or thumbs down on Superintendent Jim McIntyre’s departure?

I think Dr. McIntyre made the right decision by stepping down. Our focus needs to be on educational excellence for every student. My hope is that a new Board and new superintendent will bring about an atmosphere of harmony and partnership that has been missing for some time now.

What are the three characteristics you believe are most important in the next superintendent?

A superintendent must possess strong leadership and communication skills.

He or she must have the ability to collaborate with and satisfy the demands of the school board, central office staff, administrators, teachers, parents, and community stakeholders.

I believe we need someone with vast classroom and administrative experience who has a vision of providing students with a stimulating, engaging education that encompasses all areas of a child’s learning experience, from academics to art, music, and athletics.

Testing, and relationships between teachers and the administration, have been a source of local controversy over the last few years. What, if anything, would you change about the district’s approach on either of these topics?

As I stated earlier, I’m very concerned about the environment of testing and the effect it has had on our students and teachers. It is a shame that teaching has become so demanding that talented teachers have chosen to leave Knox

County Schools over the last few years.

A highly qualified, happy teacher in every classroom is key to student success! To attract and keep top teachers, Knox County must increase the teacher pay scale, provide for autonomy in the classroom, and respect teachers as the professionals they are.

REUBEN “BUDDY” PELOT AGE: 52 FAMILY: Wife, Judith Pelot, three daughters HOW LONG IN KNOX COUNTY? Entire life (lived about five years in Chattanooga and moved back in 1996) JOB: Attorney and shareholder, Egerton, McAfee, Armistead & Davis, P.S. EDUCATION: Bearden High School (1982); B.A., University of Tennessee (1986); M. Ed. in Policy Development and Program Evaluation, Vanderbilt University (1987); J.D., University of Tennessee College of Law (1991) POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: None

What stoked your interest in running for this political office?

I am a firm believer in the importance of a good public education system to all facets of our society. My wife and I have been very active participants with our three daughters’ schools. My wife has been president of the parent/teacher organizations at each of our kids’ schools multiple years, currently on her third year leading Bearden’s PTSO. I have spent the last seven years on Bearden’s Foundation Board as vice president and chair of the Grant Committee. With our children beginning to leave the nest, and with the recent contentious atmosphere surrounding our schools, I felt I had the temperament and professional background to be a positive influence on the deliberation of the important issues facing our schools.

Offering to serve on the school board is a logical next step for serving our community in a meaningful way.

What are the two most important issues for you and how will you address them if elected?

Obviously, a high priority for the next school board will be selecting a new superintendent while also working with an interim superintendent to provide the best leadership possible to continue the progress being made in the Knox County Schools. If elected, I

plan to listen to the input from parents, teachers, administrators, and students in the 5th District and advocate those interests in the search and selection process. Improving student proficiency across the board.

Are you thumbs up or thumbs down on Superintendent Jim McIntyre’s departure?

I prefer to look forward and not back, except for the purpose of learn from where we have been. While I do not have a thumbs up or down on Superintendent McIntyre’s decision to resign, I believe Knox County has a great opportunity to take the lessons learned over the last few years and continue to improve Knox County Schools as it selects new leadership going forward.

What are the three characteristics you believe are most important in the next superintendent?

A passion and vision for achieving excellence in public education based on significant experience in education.

Proven experience of the ability to effectively lead a large, complex group of teaching professionals and administrators in a way that enables Knox County to recruit and retain the best educators and administrators. The ability to balance and administer a budget the size and complexity of Knox County Schools’.

Testing, and relationships between teachers and the administration, have been a source of local controversy over the last few years. What, if anything, would you change about the district’s approach on either of these topics?

While the local system has to work within state-mandated testing and evaluation requirements, Knox County has the opportunity going forward to address the issues that have led to much contention. If elected, while working with the interim superintendent, I would work to meet with all stakeholders to listen to the issues being raised on all sides to ensure those concerns are communicated and addressed at the board level. In the search for a permanent superintendent, I would look for an applicant with a vision and plan for affirmatively addressing and resolving those issues in a way that empowers Knox County to recruit and retain the best educators and administrators and serves the best interests of Knox County students.

@KNOXMERCURY.COM

See questionnaires for the noncontested school board candidates: District 2’s Jennifer Owen and District 3’s Tony Norman.

July 14, 2016 KNOXVILLE MERCURY 19

th 8 1

IC T DISTR WN DO SHOW

M

artin Daniel says he’s learned at least one lesson during his fi rst term in the state House of Representatives: Sometimes he should keep his mouth shut, or choose his words more carefully.

The freshman legislator, representing the 18th District and facing three opponents in the Aug. 4 GOP primary, has garnered plenty of local, state, and national attention with controversial comments he has made.

Challengers Steve Hall, James Corcoran, and Bryan Dodson hope the series of high-profi le missteps may offer an opening for them to edge into the race, particularly Hall—considered a top contender—who had spent two terms representing the 18th District and narrowly lost his seat to Daniels in 2014.

Aside from Corcoran, who supports a state-level expansion of Medicaid and opposes school vouchers, there is little that separates the candidates, all of whom stick to fairly routine conservative talking points: They are for limited government and reduced taxes and are pro-life and support gun rights. They all agree with the repeal of the state Hall tax on interest and dividends.

Perhaps in the absence of marked policy differences, this is why Daniel’s indelicate remarks have provided the richest target for his opponents.

‘MISCONSTRUED’

Among Daniel’s feather-ruffl ing actions was his widely distributed complaint to Knox County Schools condemning a “social justice” writing assignment at Sequoyah Elementary.

There was his statement to a Democratic legislator that was cast as support for ISIS recruitment on the campus of the University of Tennessee. And then there were his tweeted 20

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

The outspoken state Rep. Martin Daniel tangles with three challengers in the GOP primary

BY THOMAS FRASER

comments upon the death of Muhammad Ali, referring to the Champ by his Christian name and essentially calling him a draft-dodger.

“As a new legislator, I failed to understand how my personal comments could be misconstrued,” and not separated from his legislative philosophies, Daniel says during an interview at his campaign headquarters on East Executive Park Drive in West Knoxville. He concedes, however, “I made a mistake in making that comment” about Ali. As for the ISIS comment, made during a debate in Nashville on his “Tennessee Free Speech Protection Act” bill related to UT, he later followed up with a text saying: “I could have answered the question better. Of course I don’t support a terror organization on campus.”

And about that criticism of a lesson plan that basically offered a scenario in which black students had fewer resources than their white counterparts, he says: “We teach our kids to not see color in people. Most of my constituents were fi ne with it.”

He is defensive, though, saying in the interview at his headquarters: “People are trying to make issues about things that don’t really matter.”

Not exactly, say Hall and Corcoran, who are joined by Dodson in efforts to claim the 18th District GOP mantle. The winner will face Democrat Brandi Price, a Knox County Juvenile Court attorney, in the November general election.

“This is a very unusual election,” Hall says of the primary during a sit-down at a McDonald’s on Western Avenue.

Typically, there are the usual concerns—such as education, drug abuse, law enforcement, and transportation—voiced by the electorate or possible constituents, says Hall, who served eight years on Knoxville City

Council and two terms in the House and was defeated by Daniel by 162 votes in the 2014 primary.

But this cycle, Hall says, as he goes about his campaign, people are “talking about Martin Daniel and the comments he has made. That’s predominantly the conversation. They just can’t believe that he made these kinds of comments.”

He hopes the ire generated by Daniel in some circles propels him over the top on Aug. 4.

“I really underestimated Martin Daniel,” Hall says of the 2014 primary, and says he was at a distinct financial advantage. Daniel spent about $150,000 on that race, which Hall says, “for around here, that’s an absurd amount to spend on a House seat.”

But other candidates, as well as former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe, now a political commentator, point to a couple of things that might have sealed Hall’s fate in that primary, if only to the tune of 165 votes. For instance, there was Hall’s endorsement of controversial state Sen. Stacey Campfield, who also lost his primary race in 2014—by a landslide. Ashe also says the infamous Senate Bill 1243, which called for the sale of Lakeshore Park and was carried in the 2013-2014 session by Hall in the House and Campfield in the Senate, contributed to Hall’s defeat.

Daniel has made that a talking point in this year’s campaign, and Corcoran says he voted for Daniel in 2014 because of Hall’s endorsement of Campfield. But Daniel’s luster has faded dramatically, he says.

Corcoran says that when he points out Daniel’s less-tempered comments, “the reaction I get most frequently is, ‘That’s my representative?’”

‘VENDETTA’

Hall says Daniel’s support of successful efforts to defund UT’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion and other

legislative fiats related to the state’s land-grant university suggest he “seems to have a vendetta against the University of Tennessee.”

Not so, says Daniel, who received undergraduate and graduate degrees at UT before getting his JD at the University of Memphis. He says he merely represents the will of the people of the 18th District, citing town-hall meetings and constituent surveys that consistently raised concerns about UT diversity efforts.

He also says that he is “big on oversight of government agencies,” and that would be again reflected in his next term, should he prevail in the primary.

“I’d like to prevent them from making mistakes,” he says of UT, and plans to push for an independent audit of the university system if reelected.

Misty Anderson, the UT professor who recently took Daniel to task in a Huffi ngton Post column, says the legislator’s disdain for government oversight—blasted on billboards across the county—doesn’t jibe with his actions regarding the university.

“It was my 14-year-old son who fi rst noticed the ‘Lesser Government’ billboard and said, ‘Mom, that is just wrong!’” Anderson wrote in an email after a request for comment.

“Grammatically, it is wrong, but I also fi nd it misleading. Daniel has pushed legislation to overturn UT regulations that banned guns in classrooms and offices on campus, legislation that is against the will of the vast majority of faculty, the UTPD, and the KPD. “He’s voted for new laws that micromanage the university’s business in ways I haven’t seen in my 20 years there. He’s even suggested that the Legislature might override UT’s traditional governance structure by dismissing the Board of Trustees.

That seems like a whole lot more government to me.”

“It was my 14-year-old son who first noticed the ‘Lesser Government’ billboard and said, ‘Mom, that is just wrong!’”

—MISTY ANDERSON, UT professor and Huffington Post columnist

Hall says UT is a “tremendous asset to us in Knoxville and to the state,” and Daniel’s pushback and “all the negative publicity” hurts recruiting and student retention.

Hall paints himself as more approachable than Daniel and able to help navigate constituents through the maze of state agencies. He cites a law making it a misdemeanor to knowingly infect someone with hepatitis and revisions to annexation law as his main legislative successes.

EXTREMES RULE THE DAY

Corcoran says Daniel’s hard-right crusades could ultimately reflect negatively on the state. But the back-and-forth between Daniel and the media and accompanying liberal condemnation reflects the state of American politics as a whole.

“Everyone just sits around telling each other how right they are,” says Corcoran, a juvenile court attorney, during an interview at his Central Avenue law office.

Extremes rule the day, he says. “I’d like to be considered as someone who can at least respect all viewpoints.”

Indeed, Corcoran played a little rope-a-dope with Daniel’s comments on Ali. He posted the entirety of Ali’s famous “handcuffed lightning and thrown thunder in jail” quote on his Facebook page following Daniel’s comments.

“West Knoxville, in particular, is very weary of that manner of politics,” Corcoran says.

But Dodson, a political consultant, describes the 18th “as a very conservative district,” though he doesn’t want to weigh in on Daniel’s seemingly inflammatory rhetoric.

“The rank and fi le there who vote are very conservative people,” he says during an interview at his apartment off Lonas Drive in West Knoxville.

Dodson, who freely cites his fight against the alcoholism that led to a restraining order fi led by his estranged wife in 2009, garnered headlines for his dismissal from Campfield’s legislative team.

“I’m not running from my past,” says Dodson, a pro-life evangelical Christian. He advocates “limited federal powers,” and such conservative chestnuts as gun rights, eliminating the federal education departments, and cutting corporate taxes.

Dodson says he considers Hall and Daniel the top contenders, and

Daniel feels the heat of “the sparks that have flown in that direction.”

Ashe says Corcoran is a “dark horse” who could dilute the vote for his opponents and pull off a win, especially if he can raise money and stays “above the fray” of hard-hitting attacks between Hall and Daniel.

“Frankly, Martin Daniel’s Twitter account gave me plenty of free advertising,” Corcoran says in a follow-up message after his interview.

“For example, my Facebook page had 5,000 views on the day of his Ali comments. With the base of my pre-existing network from my law practice, and now that I’m focusing on paid advertising in the West Knox area, I’m looking at averaging about 17,000 post views per week.”

HEALTH-CARE REFORM

While Corcoran appears the more moderate of the four candidates, he still offers conservative bona fides. He describes himself as an “’80s Republican,” and is pro-life. But unlike his opponents, Corcoran supports wide-ranging health-care reform along the lines of the now-defunct Insure Tennessee, which would have expanded Medicaid within the state.

Corcoran, in fact, says he was motivated to run by the opioid abuse that has become prevalent in East Tennessee. Its impact on families “is something I see every day” in his role as a juvenile court attorney, he says.

He says this led to his endorsement by the Knox County Political Action Committee for Education, though he also opposes vouchers, anathema to public educators.

Hall agrees with the need to expand the health-care safety net, but for now defers to the proposal from the GOP-empaneled “3-Star Healthy Project” task force, which in late June proposed a priority on expanding Tenncare to veterans and those with behavioral health issues.

“The task-force recommendations seem like a step in the right direction, and given the overall climate in the Legislature, it may be the plan with the most realistic chance of success,” Corcoran says. “It does seem to still leave a significant coverage gap, which concerns me.”

Dodson also deferred to the findings of the task force, but says options for improving health coverage include allowing the purchase of health insurance across state lines, as did Hall.

Daniel says expanding TennCare was distasteful as it was “an integral part of Obamacare,” and could have placed a “fi nancial burden on the state.” He says he would examine the fi ndings of the legislative task force, but agreed with its emphasis on preventative care and providing a “fiscally sound, conservative solution to providing health care to those people in that gap.”

He says citizens should be leery of expansive government policies, and cites the Social Security Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs as examples of government mismanagement.

‘TURN OUT THEIR VOTERS’

Daniel says his priorities if reelected would include additional efforts to limit civil forfeitures and a review of state transportation funding and an examination of the current state fuel tax, though he adds that he’s “philosophically against any kind of tax increase.”

Knox County Democratic Chairman Cameron Brooks says Daniel’s indelicate statements don’t necessarily put the county and city in a poor light, rather, “I think it reflects poorly on him.” It will be up to an expected light turnout of some 4,500 GOP primary voters to repudiate him, he says.

Despite the slings and arrows of this campaign cycle, Daniel points to his successes in the Legislature: He was the primary sponsor of 14 pieces of legislation passed in the two sessions he has held the seat.

The Tennessee chapter of the National Federation of Small Businesses, typically a conservative stalwart, awarded Daniel its Guardian of Small Business award for his work during the last legislative session. He was also deemed a “taxpayer” hero by the Tennessee chapter of Americans for Prosperity, founded by the conservative Koch brothers, and described by the Center for Media and Democracy as being opposed to “labor unions, health care reform, stimulus spending, and any effort to combat climate change including President Obama’s 2015 Clean Power Plan.”

But Knox County voters will be the final arbiters of this race on Aug. 4, with the winner going on to the Nov. 8 general election. ◆

@KNOXMERCURY.COM

See our sidebar on the candidates’ most recent financial disclosure statements.

1 8t h D

ist

rict GOP C AN D I D ATES

JAMES CORCORAN JOB: Juvenile court attorney AGE: 36 EDUCATION: J.D., University of Tennessee PRIOR POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: None FAMILY: Wife, Anya; two children

MARTIN DANIEL JOB: 18th District state House representative; majority owner, Elevation Outdoor Advertising AGE: 59 EDUCATION: University of Tennessee; J.D., University of Memphis PRIOR POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Incumbent one-term 18th district House representative.

FAMILY: Wife, Melissa; two children

BRYAN DODSON JOB: Political consultant AGE: 55 EDUCATION: B.A. in History and Political Science, Union College PRIOR POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Political consultant; aide to former state Sen. Stacey Campfield FAMILY: Single

STEVE HALL JOB: Former owner, Interior Finishing Corporation AGE: 60 EDUCATION: Associates degree in Construction Engineering Technology, State Technical Institute (now Pellissippi State) PRIOR POLITICAL EXPERIENCE: Eight years on Knoxville City Council; two terms as 18th District representative (2010-2014) FAMILY: Wife, Janet; five children July 14, 2016 KNOXVILLE MERCURY 21

R E T O V AGEMENT G

RE-EN

V

ery few people are expected to turn up to exercise their citizen’s right to cast a vote in the August local election, bookended as it is by the presidential primary and November general election. Although key decisions will be made about Knox County Commission and school board seats, there are no high-profile contested state races, and many voters are likely to be preoccupied with the email scandals and xenophobic zingers playing out on the national stage.

“This is the election that very few people participate in,” says Cliff Rodgers, Knox County administrator of elections. He says his staff is planning for a turnout of 40,000—and hoping for 30,000.

The Knox County general election during the last presidential election year, 2012, saw abysmal turnout: Just 24,476 voters, or 9 percent of those registered—less than half the number that turned out in Shelby (22.7 percent) and Hamilton (23.4 percent) counties. But Chris Acuff, a doctoral student in political science at the University of Tennessee, says the difference among cities often has to do with which have competitive races on the ballot.

In general, Knox County has no worse voter turnout than other major metropolitan counties. In the March primary election, Knox and Hamilton counties both had 42 percent turnout, better than Shelby County (which had 28 percent) and Davidson (with 32 percent). And local turnout in the last presidential election was 64.6 percent, within a few percentage points of every other major metropolitan county in Tennessee.

Local election-watchers including Rynn Dupes, President of League of Women Voters in Knox County, say the causes of low voter turnout fall

22

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

Why does voter turnout for local elections usually suck?

And what can be done about it?

BY S. HEATHER DUNCAN

into two major categories: personal reasons, and obstacles related to the way voter registration and elections are run in Tennessee.

A CRISIS OF FAITH

A big psychological factor is people believing their vote doesn’t make a difference. This sentiment is especially common among the poor and among urban blacks, as well as—in red-state Tennessee—Democrats, says Allan Mark Wilford, a graduate teaching associate at UT who’s researching international elections and comparative forms of government.

Deossie Dingus, executive director of Alliance House Community of Knoxville —a nonprofit that tackles social issues such as improving literacy and health in underserved communities—says poor voters and black voters have often felt local candidates abandoned them and their concerns once the votes were cast.

They are more likely to vote in federal elections because historically the federal government has been more likely to protect their rights.

“There’s definitely a learned behavior that has taken place in our (black) community about voting, and it has been passed down from the kitchen table from generation to generation,” Dingus says. Yet, “when you look at older generation, they say, ‘All these barriers put into place to keep us from voting only motivated us to vote.’ The younger generation says, “All these barriers were put in place to keep us from voting. I just won’t vote.’”

The daily pressures of poverty and the high rate of incarceration of blacks are inherent barriers to voting, says Dingus, whose group co-sponsored a candidate forum last week and holds voter registration events at the Alliance House.

Knox County had 225,621 registered voters as of June 23. Given

that the voting age population in 2015 (presumably somewhat similar to today) was 355,192, more than a third of adults still aren’t registered at all.

Among those who are, “The typical voter is wealthy, highly educated, and generally a guy,” Wilford says, although women are almost achieving parity. “The thinking on why that is is that if you have a lot of resources you want to protect them.”

Regardless of their income, potential voters have to make time to decide how to cast their vote, where to do it and when. Dupes says friends often tell her they feel overwhelmed by the number of different elections and candidates.

Coral Getino, a Spanish language translator and interpreter who has lived in Knoxville 25 years, says many Spanish-speaking immigrants come from countries where voting happens only every four years, and where politicians are so corrupt that voters lose faith in the entire system.

She says the sheer number of elections as well as lack of access to Spanish-language (or simple English) information about the candidates are stumbling blocks for Latino voters.

Although many native Spanish-speakers know enough English to function in their daily lives, political debate involves much more complicated words and concepts.

“Providing information about the candidates in simple language would help not only immigrants, but the larger population,” Getino says.

Knoxville and other East Tennessee cities have more elections per year than some in other states. Many try to roll local elections in with national and state votes to save money, but this also drives up turnout for local races.

The March primary cost $394,174, Rodgers says. In fact, Knox County could have chosen to have four elections this year—the local primary is usually held in May—but the state offered to foot the bill if the county would move up the local elections to coincide with the primary, Rodgers says. The August election

will probably run closer to $200,000, while Rodgers estimates a $400,000 price tag for the November vote.

Acuff, who is studying electoral turnout, says Tennessee is among states where separate local elections became the norm as much as a century ago, to shield them from national party politics. The practice continued partly because those who win office under the current system have little incentive to change it, he says. Local elections with lower turnout require less broad campaigning and less expense for candidates, who rely on the people they know through church and social clubs to carry the day when apathy waters down the voting pool.

But Rodgers says, “I don’t see any way around having less than three elections a year,” especially when the ballots are already so long. “I think we have a good system.”

The inconvenience of long lines can also be an issue, which is why early voting has been such a boon, says Rodgers. In the March primary, some West Knox County precincts nevertheless had hours-long waits.

Precincts such as Ball Camp are being split to avoid a repeat of the problem, Rodgers says.

YOUNG VOTERS

Wilford says the biggest key to increasing turnout is getting young adults in the habit of voting. “If you get somebody to vote in the fi rst one or two elections they’re eligible to vote in, they’ll probably vote for rest of their life,” he says.

Anne Strange of the Knox County League of Women Voters says the group is targeting voter registration among students, among other underrepresented groups. Dupes says the league is trying to help start a chapter on the UT campus.

Strange says the requirement that college students present a Tennessee or federal identification is an unnecessary stumbling block, arguing more would vote if they could use a student ID or out-of-state ID rather than having to acquire a special

“If you get somebody to vote in the first one or two elections they’re eligible to vote in, they’ll probably vote for rest of their life.”

—ALLAN MARK WILFORD, UT researcher

Tennessee ID just for the purpose.

According to the nonpartisan Nonprofit VOTE organization, young people are also more likely to vote if they can register online, which the Tennessee General Assembly approved this spring. Starting next July, Tennessee will join a majority of other states in offering this option.

In Arizona, registration rates increased from 29 percent to 53 percent among voters aged 18 to 24 with the adoption of online registration, according to Nonprofit VOTE’s “America Goes to the Polls 2014” report.

And those of any age who register online are more likely to actually vote than those who do so on paper, the report indicates. To use Arizona as an example again, 94 percent of online registrants voted in 2008 compared to 85 percent of those who registered by paper.

RULES OF THE GAME

Some countries also automatically register citizens to vote when they turn 18, says Wilford, who studies international elections. Oregon has gone to an approach similar to this, making voter registration automatic as part of the application for a driver’s license or state ID. But most states, including Tennessee, require citizens to take the extra step of getting and staying registered.

In fact, in Knox County, if you don’t vote in four consecutive November elections, your registration is stripped and you are removed from the voter rolls. This is to avoid inflation of the rolls, Rodgers says, since a certain number of people die or move each year and—presumably—stop voting locally. (He says some states purge voters from the rolls after they fail to vote in just one November election.)

A small but growing number of states are also allowing voters to register on election day at the same time they vote. According to Nonprofit VOTE, the 13 states that did so in 2014 averaged a 48 percent turnout, 12 percent higher than the average of states that required earlier registration.

The American system of voting at a certain polling place on election day is also rather unusual. Dupes says Rutherford County is experimenting with allowing registered voters to vote either in their precinct or at voting centers where anyone in the county can cast their ballot, just like during early voting.

“I think that would really help,” Dupes says. “I talk to people I know who forgot to look up where their polling place was on election day. If you already feel like your vote isn’t going to make that big of a difference, if you have a couple little roadblocks, it’s less likely you’ll get there.”

Wilford says studies have shown voter turnout increases if people can vote near where they work (as opposed to near where they live, which is our current system).

A barrier for Latino voters may be the lack of any voting information in Spanish, says Strange. (Rodgers says he’s never heard a complaint about it.)

Strange and Dupes say the League has applied for a grant to provide this.

Strange says easier access to absentee ballot applications would also help. These can be fi lled out online or mailed directly to the voter by the elections commission, but cannot be picked up by the League or another nonprofit to deliver to voters.

“The reason, I think, the law is like that is there’s no way to know if somebody’s is pre-marking it for a particular primary,” Rodgers says.

Currently, absentee ballots are available for people who won’t be in town for the election, those who are physically unable to vote in person, and anyone over the age of 60. Nonprofit VOTE recommends states allow all voters to sign up for automatic absentee ballots to be mailed to them at every election, something only allowed in Tennessee with a doctor’s note.

Dingus says these structural changes may help, but to really get more black voters to the polls, local leaders need to find creative ways to meet people where they are. That means holding registration drives in schools and community centers—not just churches—in rough neighborhoods and keeping convenient East Knoxville neighborhood precincts open even if turnout is low. For felons who want their voting rights restored, all the relevant officials could come to a neighborhood community center for a day to tackle the process all at once instead of felons having to take multiple bus rides for interviews at different offices.

“Those are the type of things where the city has to say: There are more creative ideas coming from the community, not just the usual people sitting around the table nodding their heads,” he says. ◆

Vote for Evelyn Gill (D) County Commission, District 1

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July 14, 2016 KNOXVILLE MERCURY 23

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P rogram Notes

Mutant Music K

Surf-rock quartet the Mutations returns from sabbatical noxville surf rock champions the Mutations were last heard from in April 2015, when the band members suddenly announced that their next show would be their last before going on an extended hiatus. The bad news had a silver lining in the accompanying pay-what-you-like release of the band’s first full-length album, High Tide (available at the Mutations Bandcamp page), but that somehow made it more bittersweet; anyone whose summer playlists were littered with “Lucy and This Guy With Dimebags” or the majestic double entendres of “The Swell” felt the loss all the deeper as the weather got hotter.

If the songs sound funny, it’s because they absolutely are—the four-piece’s wit had been on full display since the EP You Talk Too Much in 2012. But what made the band a real treasure was its skill in

running surf rock’s broad gamut, from the woozy instrumental “Island Home” to the girl-group indebted “I Wonder What It’s Like.” (The group’s skill with vocal harmonies made the Mutations a highlight of recent Pilot Light Halloween shows, beginning with their 2012 set as the Beach Boys.) And as deep as the pastiche runs, the Mutations were never anything less than sincere in their ransacking.

The good news, then: This summer has been sufficiently sunny to rouse the Mutations—guitarists Harold Heffner and Tommy Goss, bassist Joel Thompson, and drummer Scott Kapuscinski— from their year-plus nap. The group will return to Pilot Light on Tuesday, July 19, rounding out a warm-weather showcase of San Francisco-based Sonny and the Sunsets’ loose garage rock and the bedroom pop of Fred Thomas, best

The CrumbSnatchers O Big House

n its long-delayed and much anticipated debut album, Knoxville’s premier indie/punk/art pop party band show that it takes more than a lot of energy and a goofy sense of humor to establish a reputation for unbridled, reckless, full-throttle fun. Big House showcases the band in all its multidimensional glory, with bursts of furious hardcore aggression, dense instrumental workouts, passages of laid-back cocktail rock and Zappa-esque fusion jams, and plenty of sunny summertime sing-along pop choruses. (There’s even an acoustic love song, though the CrumbSnatchers, in typically unpredictable fashion, don’t play it by the book.)

It would be misleading, though, to suggest that the band takes all those

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Shelf Life Movies About Movies

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

divergent influences and sews them together into a seamless whole on Big House. For all the smarts and hard work that are evident here, it’s the CrumbSnatchers’ sheer exuberance that really wins out—it’s the band’s defining characteristic. Big House doesn’t so much sound like a bunch of disparate source material thrown into a blender and mixed up together; it actually sounds like a blender, on high speed, maybe with a knife and fork jammed in there.

Rangy frontman Sam “Guetts” Guetterman has one of the most convincing impassioned howls in local rock, used to full effect on the punchy punk detonations “Damage” and “A Short Leash.” But he’s got more than

26

Music: Greg Horne

known for his work in the Michigan indie band Saturday Looks Good to Me. Heffner says the band members plans to resume playing regularly afterward—for themselves as much as anyone else.

“I’m just excited to be hanging out with these guys again,” says Heffner,

who’s spent the meantime playing rougher throwback rock with Psychic Baos and Roach Eaters. “We’ve all been busy with family and job stuff and Joel has been in Memphis, so it feels good to just get back in the swing of it.

Feels like it was longer than a year since we’ve done it.” (Nick Huinker)

just a heroic yawp, even if he doesn’t have conventional singing chops. His rough-edged keening on “Queen of My World,” the acoustic love song mentioned above, lends the performance an intimacy and vulnerability and elevates the song above sentimentality. And on the album’s scattered pop anthems, like “Declaration” and “Swimming Upstream,” it’s hard to imagine anyone else singing those hooks as effectively as Guetterman does.

Meanwhile, guitarist Philip Mosteller, drummer Rylan Bledsoe, and bassist Sam Burchfield operate almost telepathically—the trio’s parts wind around, underneath, and over each other, never lining up exactly but always heading in the same direction.

It’s a technique that requires control but suggests chaos.

For all its visceral joy, though, Big House is bittersweet. Burchfield abruptly left the band this winter, after

recording was finished. Since then, local jam-band journeyman J. Niles Haury has filled in on bass, ably. But there’s a chance that Big House is already a relic; the album’s spirited and distinctive sound is so clearly the product of a particular chemistry that it’s hard to imagine a different lineup replicating it. (Matthew Everett)

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Movie: The Secret Life of Pets

Shelf Life

Movies about Movies Some choice glimpses behind the camera, available at Knox County Public Library

BY CHRIS BARRETT

THE PLAYER (1992)

New to the collection on Blu-ray, Robert Altman’s peek into the snake pit that is Hollywood holds up nicely.

Studio executive Griffi n Mill (Tim Robbins) gets paid to say no to the writers who pitch him scripts. One of those thousands of writers he’s rebuffed begins making anonymous death threats, and we can marvel at the fact that being reminded that some unknown person plans to kill you is rarely the worst part of your day in Tinseltown. As you watch, make lists of the dozens of cameos by stars seemingly happy to sign this loathe letter to the epicenter of their industry, and the classic fi lms recommended by mention, mimic, quote, or poster.

CASTING BY (2012)

You have perhaps noticed that golden-era Hollywood talent—say, Jimmy Stewart, Bette Davis, John Wayne, William Powell, Dick Powell, and their peers—cranked out theatrical features at a pace that would embarrass cast members of modern-day cable series.

Actors were under contract, and studios wanted to wring their money’s worth out of them before the lifestyle depleted them or their clout rose to a point that outweighed the contract. An actor’s interest in or suitability for a role was rarely of primary concern.

According to this documentary by Tom

Donahue, it was the advent of television that prompted the shift to considering individuals for roles, rather than simply pulling personnel from the pool.

New Yorker Marion Dougherty had an eye for talent plus access to the sundry acting schools and Off Broadway playhouses around the city. First for NBC and later for favorite directors, Dougherty recruited future luminaries Jon Voight, Al Pacino, Warren Beatty, Jeff Bridges, and others for career-launching early roles. It’s a humanizing view of this work, which typically breeds outsized egos.

Celebrities are humbled by memories of first being noticed by these unassuming members of a film project’s administrative staff.

BURDEN OF DREAMS (1982) HEARTS OF DARKNESS; A FILMMAKER’S APOCALYPSE (1991)

Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning debut novel, The Sympathizer, is, to oversimplify, about how the film Apocalypse Now and the misguided sentiment behind it all but ruined his life. It is neither consoling nor surprising to learn by watching Hearts of Darkness (directed by Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper, and Eleanor Coppola) that the making of the film didn’t do any favors for filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola or his family either. Dogged by script, budget,

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cast, location, and diplomatic-relations problems, Coppola persists in spite of overwhelming evidence that his film is simply a bad idea.

Apocalypse Now, a fi lm that did not need to be made, was apparently completed only so that the fi lmmaker could avoid saying that he stopped making it before it was fi nished.

Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo belongs to the same category. Based on a number of real personalities in real situations, impresario Fitzcarraldo endeavors to build an opera house in the South American jungle and one day host Enrico Caruso. Things go terribly for Fitz (as my nephew and others who enjoy rewatching this train wreck of a fi lm refer to him) and worse for Herzog. Ace documentarian Les Blank watches and fi lms as Herzog braces against warfare among the local tribes who supply both his extras and his skilled labor (workers including earth-movers, shipwrights, and prostitutes), natural disasters, a fickle cast with schedule confl icts, uneasy investors, and the dawning realization that his fi lm is unnecessary. Neither fi lm is what you’d call fun to watch. But both Hearts and Burden are more captivating than the fi lms that they are ostensibly about.

WHO’S CAMUS ANYWAY (2005)

A college class in Japan makes a film.

The effect is exaggerated, but you may have seen this happen among people you know: The students can’t refer to any memorable film scene without having it change their behavior or take over the conversation. And anytime a director is mentioned, the camera begins to capture the action in his style. On a certain level, Who’s Camus is a tribute to The Player. More than once they refer to a film’s reference in Altman’s movie. There’s some violence that may catch you off guard if you’re focusing on one layer of narrative more than another, but for the most part it’s light-hearted and sweet. This is the only film on this short list in which everyone’s fondness for film seems to survive the project. ◆

Live Music | Dancing | Spirits | Food & Fun! 865-525-6101 • KNOXART.ORG

SELECTED FRIDAYS @ 6:00 - 8:30pm

July 15th

Soul Connection

July 22nd

Tee Dee Young

July 29th

Tennessee Sheiks

August 5th

The Streamliners Swing Orchestra

865-525-6101 KNOXART.ORG LIKE US ON c

ALIVE AFTER FIVE KNOXVILLE MUSEUM OF @RT

Shelf Life explores new and timely entries from the Knox County Public Library’s collection of movies and music.

July 14, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 25

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Music

Ace in the Hole Local sideman Greg Horne steps into the spotlight with new album

BY MIKE GIBSON

O

n one level, it makes sense that local guitar ace Greg Horne has only racked up a couple of solo releases to his name. Affable, unassuming, self-deprecating almost to a fault, it’s easy to see why he’s a sideman of choice for local luminaries like Jay Clark, R.B. Morris, and Tim Lee, yet uncomfortable with the notion of stepping into the spotlight himself.

But Horne is also a first-class player, a versatile stringman who can pick up a fiddle or a mandolin or even a ukulele without thinking twice, or who can craft the kind of guitar solo— marked by facile chops and impeccable taste—that only a truly mature, accomplished player can deliver.

It was long overdue, then, that Horne should roll out his new record, Working on Engines, an Americana-tinged full-band project featuring fellow guitarist Barry Hannah, bassist Chris Zuhr, and drummer Nate Barrett. In this new release under Horne’s name, the band works through a 12-song set of Horne original songs.

“I’m calling it a rock album, with some other stuff on and off,” Horne says with an easy chuckle. “There are about four rockers, a couple of Cajun-sounding things, a couple country ballad-sounding things. If you’ve come out to hear our band before, you’ve probably heard most of the material.

“But it’s my chance to do my songs and be the singer and play a lot of electric guitar. The bands I’m working with right now, a lot of them are based around the acoustic guitar.

I also love working with Barry Hannah. I like being in a band where the lead and rhythm guitars are not

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

clear-cut, where they’re weaving all around. That’s fun for me.”

Horne has impressive credentials as both a player and a teacher. A music major in college, with a dual emphasis on performance and musicology, he has built an excellent rapport with artists like Morris, Clark, and Kevin Abernathy, playing guitar and fiddle and mandolin and banjo in a variety of contexts. He’s co-authored a number of music texts and videos, including a ukulele instructional; his own Complete Acoustic Guitar Method has been in print since 2001.

Horne was also a faculty member of the National Guitar Workshop for some 20 years.

Still, Horne is loathe to consider himself a Guitarist, with a capital ‘G,’ rather than simply a working songwriter and musician who likes to play the guitar.

“I’ve been called ‘tasteful,’” he says, with another, louder chuckle. “Well, it’s good to be known as someone with taste, but a lot of ‘having taste’ is just me trying to avoid disasters. There are things I can do because I’ve been playing for decades. But I’ve never been a particularly flashy or fast player. And I’m ultimately more interested in how the guitar interacts with the singer, and with the songs.”

As a multi-instrumentalist, Horne claims to love all of his children equally.

“You don’t play the fiddle unless you love it, because it kind of punishes you,” he says. “When you do something wrong, you hear about it fi rst, because it pummels your ear.”

But he admits, perhaps a little grudgingly, to having a special affi nity for the six-string electric guitar, aka his primary axe whenever the Greg

Horne Band takes the stage.

“Guitar is defi nitely the language I have to think about the least, the easiest car for me to drive,” Horne says.

“Sometimes people get a little strange about guitars, but I like them, so I hang around with other people who like them.

“I’ve often said that playing other instruments allows me to weasel into jobs with other artists. And then, eventually, I end up getting to play some guitar with them. That works for me.” ◆

WHO

The Greg Horne Band

WHERE

Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (200 E. Jackson Ave.)

WHEN

Sunday, July 17, at 8 p.m.

HOW MUCH Free

INFO

barleysknoxville.com greghornemusic.com

Movies

Pet Peeves The Secret Life of Pets is just okay, whatever standard you use

BY NATHAN SMITH

I

may be young, but I’m too old to claim membership at the children’s table anymore. So I tend to be apprehensive about reviewing kids’ movies. As an ex-child, I have some familiarity with what children like, but my recollections of juvenile taste are fairly faint now—and besides, I was the kind of kid who woke up at 6 a.m. every Saturday for reruns of the Westminster dog show, not cartoons.

So I’m approaching The Secret Life of Pets with caution and careful consideration.

I like to be entertained, but I also like let my brain break things open.

The Secret Life of Pets, however, is built to resist unpacking. It’s not superficial, but as an animated movie, it is inherently preoccupied with its own surface. That’s not to say that children’s movies can’t be emotionally resonant or thematically potent; most of Pixar’s films and Disney’s Zootopia, the season’s other animated animal entry, provide strong counterarguments to that idea. It’s just that The Secret Life of Pets doesn’t seem to

aspire to be like those movies.

The title of The Secret Life of Pets provides a better plot summary than I could ever whip up. As others have noted, it’s Toy Story with animals, a glimpse into what our pets presumably do when we are not around. Max (Louis C.K.), our protagonist pup, spends his alone time dreaming about his beloved owner, Katie. His ideal living situation becomes complicated by a large mutt named Duke (Eric Stonestreet), whose cluelessness lands the two in the middle of New York City, desperately searching for a way back home.

A solid roster of comedic talent (Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate, Lake Bell, and Albert Brooks, among others) gives voice to all manner of side rabbits, cats, birds, pigs, lizards, and dogs.

There seem to be a few important criteria to consider when determining if a movie is kid friendly: there’s scariness, its emotional core, the complexity and pace of its plotting, and its sense of humor. When it comes to children’s movies, The

Secret Life of Pets is solid. It lacks the scares and sadness that sometimes make Pixar’s movies more appropriate for parents than younger audiences. Its 90-minute run time trots along at a breezy, uncomplicated pace, which feels like an appropriate enough length to keep kids focused.

I’m not sure what exactly kids find funny, though my assessment of recent animated movies concludes that many of them enjoy colorful characters shrieking the same few words over and over again in a frantic, high-pitched voice. The Secret Life of Pets contains plenty of shrieked, high-pitched catchphrases that parents can expect to hear repeated on the drive home.

It’s not just me, though—The Secret Life of Pets has specific shortcomings. Though it remains preferable to Illumination’s most famous offering, the Despicable Me franchise (which, thanks to meme culture and brand fetishization, is now more

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accurately described as the Minions franchise), The Secret Life of Pets feels surprisingly empty. It’s full of good feelings that are as warm and fuzzy as the pups on screen, but for some reason, all those feelings fade fast. In any other year, The Secret Life of Pets might look better, but it’s impossible to avoid comparison to Zootopia, whose depth and attention to detail make The Secret Life of Pets look a little shallow.

Like a good domesticated animal, The Secret Life of Pets is familiar and comfortable. Unlike the family dog, though, it’s doubtful that The Secret Life of Pets will develop a long-lasting relationship with audiences on the level of Zootopia or even Minions, as regrettable as that might be to those who have trouble looking at bananas and fire hydrants without going into shock. But then again, maybe we need fewer animated movies that serve as conduits for branding and more afternoon distractions. ◆

The title of The Secret Life of Pets provides a better plot summary than I could ever whip up. As others have noted, it’s Toy Story with animals.

July 14, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 27

CALENDAR MUSIC

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 CHARLOTTE BERG • Preservation Pub • 8PM • Charlotte Berg began her music career in Melbourne, Australia, where she wrote, recorded and performed her first songs in local pubs and bars, quickly gaining a following. She was classically trained on piano from the age of eight. In 2014, she moved to Nashville to further her career. After less than a year in Nashville, she has written and recorded her first official album, It’s the Damsel Who Decides. She is currently promoting the album around the country. 21 and up. • FREE RICHIE OWENS AND THE FARM BUREAU • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $3 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 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 ( Maryville) • 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 THE NOUVEAUX HONKIES • Sugarlands Distilling Co. 28

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

Thursday, July 14 - Sunday, July 24

( 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 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 MELLIFLUX • Wild Wing Cafe • 6PM • FREE MATT A. FOSTER • Jimmy’s Place • 7PM • Classic and original bluegrass, country, and folk. • FREE THE PEA PICKIN’ HEARTS • Sugar Mama’s • 7:30PM • Americana/rockabilly/folk duo out of Gatlinburg.

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 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 STONE KOLE’D • Jimmy’s Place • 7PM • Southern rock, blues and country. • FREE NATTY’S COMMON ROOTS • Sugar Mama’s • 8PM • Get ready to get irie with Natty’s Common Roots—the boys will bring out the acoustics for some reggae, indie, and surf rock jams will get you moving.

Swingbooty • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM • A night of gypsy jazz. • $5 Sunday, July 17 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 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 •

GARBAGE The Mill and Mine (227 W. Depot Ave.) • Tuesday, July 19 • 7 p.m. • $39.50/$45 day of the show • themillandmine.com or garbage.com

Garbage’s career has been defined by both successes and silences, with multiplatinum albums followed by hiatuses and acclaimed comebacks. Last month, the Scottish-American quartet released Strange Little Birds, which continues their resurgence in the new decade, following 2012’s Not Your Kind of People.

With Birds, as usual, the band hasn’t deviated much from its classic electro-rock style—the same blend of Butch Vig’s processed drums, Shirley Manson’s bewitching vocal angst, and layered, post-grunge guitars that propelled mid-’90s hits like “Stupid Girl” and “Only Happy When It Rains.” Spanning industrial throb (“Sometimes”), surging electronic pop (“If I Lost You”), and anthemic alt-rock (“Blackout”), Strange Little Birds nails the band’s trademark balance of sweetness and darkness, while never dating itself with Alternative Nation-era production.

Garbage will be supported by Kristin Welchez, formerly of the acclaimed garage-pop outfit Dum Dum Girls, who recently plunged into synth-pop with her new project, Kristin Kontrol. (Ryan Reed)

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Spotlight: Shakespeare on the Square

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Spotlight: Tall Tall Trees

CALENDAR 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. • See Music story on page 26.

NAAN VIOLENCE WITH DEATH PANELS • Pilot Light • 9PM • 18 and up. • $5 THE GROOVE ORIENT • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $3 RICKY MITCHELL • Sugar Mama’s • 6PM Monday, July 18 STEVE D’ANGELO WITH MISS ROSIE • 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 BRIAN HODGES • Sugar Mama’s • 6:30PM STAR AND MICEY • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Star and Micey’s self titled debut album features a revolving door of fantastic musicians including Luther Dickinson (The Black Crowes, North Mississippi Allstars), Jody Stephens (Big Star) and Rick Steff (Cat Power, Lucero), just to name a few.

THE GROOVE ORIENT • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $3 BEN SHUSTER • Wild Wing Cafe • 10PM • FREE Tuesday, July 19 SHAWN TAYLOR WITH THE HUMMINGBIRDS • 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 PUBLIC APOLOGY • Wild Wing Cafe • 5:30PM • FREE SMILE EMPTY SOUL WITH ROMANTIC REBEL, BEITTHEMEANS, AND THE EVERYDAY LOSERS • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 7PM • After taking more than a year and a half off, Smile Empty Soul will be hitting the road extensively this year in support of their new EP/DVD release, “Shapeshifter” on April 1st 2016. All ages. • $15-$18 REED TURCHI AND THE CATERWAULS • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • Raised in the Swannanoa Valley just outside of Asheville, North Carolina, Reed Turchi grew up playing piano, focusing on boogie woogie and New Orleans styles before becoming infatuated with slide guitar. While learning Hill Country Blues (RL Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Mississippi Fred McDowell) firsthand in North Mississippi, he founded his blues-rock trio “TURCHI,” which released its debut album Road Ends in Water in 2012. Called “everything a blues fan could want” (LA Examiner), the album featured guest Luther Dickinson on three tracks. • FREE SHIMMY AND THE BURNS • Sugar Mama’s • 7PM GARBAGE WITH KRISTY KONTROL • The Mill and Mine • 8PM • $39.50-$45 • See Spotlight on page 28.

MELISSA ETHERIDGE • Tennessee Theatre • 8PM • Melissa Etheridge stormed onto the American rock scene in 1988 with the release of her critically acclaimed self-titled debut album, which led to an appearance on the 1989 Grammy Awards show. For several years, her popularity grew around such memorable originals as “Bring Me Some Water,” “No Souvenirs” and “Ain’t It Heavy,” for which she won a Grammy in 1992. • $44.50-$99.50 MARBLE CITY 5 • Market Square • 8PM • Live jazz every Tuesday from May 3-Aug. 30. • FREE

SONNY AND THE SUNSETS WITH FRED THOMAS AND THE MUTATIONS • Pilot Light • 9PM • 18 and up. • $8 • See Program Notes on page 24.

TALL TALL TREES • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Mike Savino is not your grandaddy’s banjo player, and Tall Tall Trees is definitely not your average indie-folk outfit from NYC. • See Spotlight on page 39.

SPACETRAIN • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $3 Wednesday, July 20 THE LEXI LEN BAND WITH ME FROM ADAM • 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 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 TENNESSEE SHINES: NIKKI TALLEY • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7PM • Singer-songwriter Nikki Talley’s 2015 record Out From the Harbor features lilting and haunting country songs, highlighted by rich guitar work by Jason Sharp.

Nikki is a finalist in the Telluride Troubadour Contest at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. • $10 THE CASEY GREEN TRIO • The Bistro at the Bijou • 7PM • Live jazz. • FREE SECRET CITY CYPHERS • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Who’s ready to get their art out to the world? This is Knoxville’s premier Open Mic-style event that allows mcs, poets, singers, musicians, dancers, comedians, visual artists, and others to not only have a place to showcase their talent, but a place to network with other artists, and build their fan base. So if you, or someone you know is interested in performing, then come to Open Chord / All Things Music Wed. July 20. You can choose to perform either with a backing track or with our live band.

Signups start at 7:30, and are first come, first serve. All ages. • $5 JOE THE SHOW • Wild Wing Cafe • 8:30PM • FREE GARDENER WITH MANAS • Pilot Light • 9PM • 18 and up. • $6 JONNY MONSTER • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $3 Thursday, July 21 KAREN JONES WITH WESTWEND • 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 SHANE WITH MAE BETH HARRIS • New Harvest Park • 6:30PM • Part of Knox County’s Third Thursday concert series. • FREE THE HUMMINGBIRDS • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • Southern charm and rustbelt grit is the essence of this Americana duo. Their music grips both southern and midwest Americana roots, blending grit and self reliance with hospitality and charm. Their recordings (most recently 2015’s release, 13 Days) along with their live stage chemistry has garnered them the favorable attention of fans and music critics alike. • FREE KEVIN ABERNATHY WITH TODD MAY AND JEFF GERMAN • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • All ages. • $5 MATT HUTCHISON WITH THE WILL CARTER BAND, KAREN JONAS, AND ROMAN REESE • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM JULIE LEE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM STONE KOLE’D • Wild Wing Cafe • 8:30PM • FREE DAY AND AGE • Pilot Light • 9PM • 18 and up. • $5 ANCIENT CITIES • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Formed by creative songster, DJ, and former actor July 14, 2016

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CALENDAR Stephen Warwick, Ancient Cities melds well-crafted lyrics with synth-laden psychedelia and cinematic moodiness.

SHANE SMITH AND THE SAINTS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $3 Friday, July 22 JEFF GERMAN • 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 ALIVE AFTER FIVE: TEE DEE YOUNG • Knoxville Museum of Art • 6PM • A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Tee Dee Young is an internationally touring Blues artist with a dynamic stage presence and unique guitar style. His playing and singing are authentic to the Blues genre and oblivious to current industry trends, and he also includes some R&B classics to his repertoire for a change of pace and to spice up the show. His tight 5-piece band (with keyboards, saxophone, bass, drums, and guitar) puts on a stunning, high energy show guaranteed to stir up the dance floor and keep the ladies smiling. • $15 CHARLIE KATT • Wild Wing Cafe • 6PM • FREE THE DEADBEAT SCOUNDRELS • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • From the mountains of east Tennessee come a new band set to blaze a musical trail across the country. The Deadbeat Scoundrels combine punk, folk, bluegrass, and rock to create a sound that is on the rise in popular music. The band is known for its energetic live show, which includes foot stomping originals, high energy, and cover songs in the band’s

Thursday, July 14 - Sunday, July 24

original style. • FREE BIG VALLEY MUSTANGS • Vienna Coffee House (Maryville) • 7PM • FREE LARRY GOODWIN • Jimmy’s Place • 7PM • Buffet covers and beach tunes. • FREE SARAH JAROSZ • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Sarah Jarosz’s new album, Undercurrent, features a newfound confidence and a more minimalist production, focused on Jarosz’s upfront vocals and most personal songwriting to date. Undercurrent reflects the unique way Sarah Jarosz combines her early roots-based background with new influences stemming from living in NYC, and her diverse group of musical friends and colleagues, many of whom are reflected in her 2016 tour collaborations. • $19.50 FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 8PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE THE HARAKIRIS WITH THE FILTHY LOW DOWN, FINAL FIGHT, AND DOMESTIC DISPUTE • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • All ages. • $7 W. JAMES TAYLOR • Sugar Mama’s • 8PM THE HALFWAYS • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM • Psych rock from Austin, Texas.

THE JEFF JOPLING BAND • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM KITTY WAMPUS • Spicy’s • 9PM • Classic rock, blues, and R&B. THE PAT BEASLEY BAND • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 9PM JOBS WITH WHITE GREGG AND CROWMEAT BOB • Pilot Light

WELCOME BACK BASH! UST 19 Your friends G U A , AY D I R at WUTK are F throwing a party on a riverboat to welcome the students back to town!

FEATURING Three Star Revival PLUS Josiah & The Greater Good, WUTK The Rock presents a night of music and dancing on the beautiful Tennessee River aboard the riverboat Star of Knoxville.

Party starts at 10pm! Don’t be left on shore!

Tickets: $10 Advance, $15 Day of Event You must be 21 or over with valid ID.

Streaming 24.7.365 at WUTKRADIO.COM 30

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

• 9PM • A typical White Gregg song, if there is such a thing, has multiple parts and changes—lots of twists and turns. If that makes them sound proggy, it would be an abrasive post-punk prog. And it’s nowhere near neat or nerdy enough to be called math rock. Antecedents might be Captain Beefheart, U.S. Maple, This Heat, and The Flowers of Romance-era P.I.L. 18 and up. • $6 THE BUDDY HONEYCUTT TRIO • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE PISTOL CREEK • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM DIRTY BOURBON RIVER SHOW • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM THE COVERALLS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • Knoxville’s long-running bar/wedding/special event favorites are masters of mood—they know what an audience wants, whether it’s Top 40 hits, Motown, classic rock, or jazz standards, and they deliver, on time, every time. 21 and up. • $5 FRAZIERBAND • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE THE VIBRASLAPS • Wild Wing Cafe • 10PM • FREE Saturday, July 23 LOOSE HINGES WITH RAVEN AND THE WREN • 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 JAMES MCMURTRY • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 6PM • “June could be hot in Austin what with the unexpected acceleration in climate change,” McMurtry says. “Time to tour, I say. Back before

Napster and Spotify, we toured to promote record sales.

Now we make records to promote tour dates.” • $15 JACKSON EMMER AND BRITTANY ANN • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 7PM • Jackson Emmer and Brittany Ann are two lighthearted songwriters based in Asheville, NC. Their songs are rooted in the Folk and Country music traditions, but gracefully re-invented for the modern day. • FREE ALICIA HARVEY • Vienna Coffee House (Maryville) • 7PM • FREE KUKULY AND THE GYPSY FUEGO • Casual Pint (Fountain City) • 7PM • Kukuly Uriarte leads the multifaceted jazz ensemble Kukuly and the Gypsy Fuego. Numerous titles from the Fuego’s long and varied set list are associated with—or performed in the style of—the late Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt. • FREE THE TRENT JAMES BAND • Jimmy’s Place • 7PM • Southern rock, outlaw country, and Americana. • FREE VALENTINE SALOON WITH THE TIP • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • $10-$15 THE NIGHT SHIFT • Preservation Pub • 8PM • 21 and up. • FREE KITTY WAMPUS • Roger’s Place • 8PM • Classic rock, blues, and R&B. JEANINE FULLER • Sugar Mama’s • 8:30PM KELSEY’S WOODS • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 9PM • The new album from Kelsey’s Woods, When the Morning Comes Around, has the full complement of roots-rock signifiers, from pedal-steel guitar, Hammond organ, and mandolin to songs about the open highway and references to Merle Haggard. And, of course, there’s more

CALENDAR than one drinking song. Its country roots are evident, but there’s plenty of heartland rock—think Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, and John Mellencamp—in the mix, too, as well as echoes of everything from Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones to the Black Crowes.

SHAUN ABBOT • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 9PM FAUN FABLES • Pilot Light • 9PM • $6 MARK BOLING • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE SHORT TERM MEMORY • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM SMOOTH SAILOR • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Smooth Sailor charts a course for pure listening pleasure.

Presenting timeless 70s and 80s “yacht rock” at its finest.

All aboard. • $5 BRENDON JAMES WRIGHT AND THE WRONGS • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE C2 AND THE BROTHERS REED WITH CHEW • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $5 THROTTLE 21 • Wild Wing Cafe • 10PM • FREE

Hosted by Sarah Pirkle. • FREE

Sunday, July 24 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 J. LUKE • Wild Wing Cafe • 6PM • FREE THE ROCK CANDIES • Sugar Mama’s • 6PM THE DANBERRYS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM • Drawing deep from the traditions of bluegrass, old-time country, blues, and funk/soul, the Danberrys offer inspired songwriting delivered with raw emotion, distinct vocal harmonies, and dynamic, top-notch musicianship.

ANGELA PERLEY AND THE HOWLIN’ MOONS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up. • $3

Friday, July 22 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

OPEN MIC AND SONGWRITER NIGHTS

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 Tuesday, July 19 PRESERVATION PUB SINGER/SONGWRITER NIGHT • Preservation Pub • 7PM OLD-TIME JAM SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM •

Wednesday, July 20 ILLUMINATIONS DRUM CIRCLE • Illuminations Metaphysical Center • 6:30PM • With Randy Farley.

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 21 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 IRISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the first and third Thursdays of each month. • FREE

Saturday, July 23 NARROW RIDGE OPEN MUSIC JAM • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 7PM • Guests are invited to share their talents in a forum that provides equal time to all who wish to participate. Our music gatherings are always a great way to get to know our neighbors and to witness first hand the amazing talent that exists here in our beautiful valley home. This is a non-alcoholic event that is free and open to all ages. Bring your friends, family, blanket or lawn chair, and good cheer. Contributions to the snack table are appreciated but not required (finger foods only, please). For more information call 865-497-2753 or email community@narrowridge. • FREE

DJ AND DANCE NIGHTS

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 Saturday, July 23 DJ EARL GRAE • Scruffy City Hall • 10PM Sunday, July 24 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

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

July 14, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 31

CALENDAR 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

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

Thursday, July 14 - Sunday, July 24

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

SHAKESPEARE ON THE SQUARE Market Square • July 14-Aug. 14 • 7 p.m. • Free ($15 for VIP seating) • tennesseestage.com

The Tennessee Stage Company brings the Bard to the people starting Thursday with its annual free Shakespeare on the Square performances, a generally fast-paced take on two rotating plays by the master of comedy and tragedy. Performances run Thursday through Sunday at 7 p.m. through August 14. Join what often amounts to hundreds of spectators with your lawn chair or blanket or splurge on VIP seating, complete with a bottle of water and goodie bag from local merchants, for $15. The Tennessee Stage Company’s stated “core values” are “Faster! Louder!

Funnier!” and it’s safe to say you won’t have to worry about stodgy productions with too many neck ruffles.

This year the lighter side is provided by The Merry Wives of Windsor, which the company bills as “the original situational comedy,” about a knight courting two women at the same time behind their husband’s’ backs (July 14, 16, 22, 24, 28, and 30 and Aug. 5, 7, 11, and 13). King Lear brings the tears as the titular monarch is betrayed by two greedy daughters, only to learn too late that love is more than words (July 15, 17, 21, 23, 29, and 31 and Aug. 4, 6, 12, and 14).

If you can’t stand the heat or like to be home before dark, exercise your air-conditioned indoor matinee options, also for $15. These are at 2 p.m. at Scruffy City Hall on July 24 (The Merry Wives of Windsor) and July 31 (King Lear). (S. Heather Duncan)

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

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 • See Spotlight on page 32.

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.

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 • See Spotlight on page 32.

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.

KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘LEGALLY BLONDE: THE MUSICAL JR.’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • Harvard’s beloved blonde takes the stage by glittery pink storm. “Legally Blonde: The Musical, Jr.” follows Elle Woods as she tackles stereotypes, snobbery and scandal in pursuit of her dreams. When Elle’s high school boyfriend, Warner, dumps her and heads to Harvard, claiming she’s not “serious” enough, Elle takes matters into her own hands. As Elle begins outsmarting her peers, she realizes that law may be her natural calling after all.

Songs from the junior version include “Serious,” “Bend And Snap,” “Daughter of Delta Nu,” “Chip On My Shoulder,” “Omigod You Guys,” and “Legally Blonde.” July 15-31. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 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 • See Spotlight on page 32.

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

KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘LEGALLY BLONDE: THE MUSICAL JR.’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM a nd 5PM • July 15-31. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 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 • See Spotlight on page 32.

KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘LEGALLY BLONDE: THE MUSICAL JR.’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 3PM • July 15-31. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 Thursday, July 21 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘LEGALLY BLONDE: THE MUSICAL JR.’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • July 15-31. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 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 • See Spotlight on page 32.

Friday, July 22 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘LEGALLY BLONDE: THE MUSICAL JR.’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • July 15-31. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 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 • See Spotlight on page 32.

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

Saturday, July 23 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘LEGALLY BLONDE: THE MUSICAL JR.’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM a nd 5PM • July 15-31. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 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 • See Spotlight on page 32.

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

Sunday, July 24 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘LEGALLY BLONDE: THE MUSICAL JR.’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 3PM • July 15-31. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 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 • See Spotlight on page 32.

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

COMEDY AND SPOKEN WORD

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.

Thursday, July 14 - Sunday, July 24

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.

Monday, July 18 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 19 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 Wednesday, July 20 SMOKY MOUNTAIN STORYTELLERS • Vienna Coffee House • 1:30PM • FREE Thursday, July 21 THIRD THURSDAY COMEDY OPEN MIC • Big Fatty’s Catering Kitchen • 7:30PM • We will showcase local and touring talent in a curated open mic of 6 to 8 comics. The event starts at 7:30, and there is no charge for admission. The kitchen will be open as well as their full bar. • FREE Sunday, July 24 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic.

DAVE LOSSO WITH MAX FINE AND JEFF BLANK • Pilot Light • 8PM • 18 and up. • $5

FESTIVALS Sunday, July 17

CALENDAR

WATER FOR LIFE • World’s Fair Park • 2PM • This inspirational event dedicated to water quality will teach guests about water issues and conservation through interactive exhibits, activities and other learning opportunities. Water for Life will feature more than 35 educational booths, games, an inflatable slide, an aquarium featuring Tennessee River fish species, the People’s Choice Water Tasting Competition and much more. • FREE Friday, July 22 NARROW RIDGE FUNDRAISING CONCERT • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 7PM • 81-year old internet sensation and guitar virtuoso Bob Wood will share original and favorite tunes. Bard College Conservatory of Music student pianist and composer Luke Haaksma will share original piano compositions, and Knoxville’s own Emancipators will perform a set of folk, blues, pop, traditional & original songs of peace & freedom. A $10 donation is suggested which will benefit Narrow Ridge’s work to promote sustainable living and Earth literacy. For more information call865-497-2753 or email community@narrowridge. • $10 Saturday, July 23 PARTY FOR THE PUPS PUB CRAWL • The Old City • 8PM • Party for the pups—we’re hosting an Old City-wide “pup” crawl to raise money and support for the Smoky Mountain Animal Care Foundation. There will be great Yazoo Brewing Company drink specials and raffle tickets available for purchase where you can win prizes such as dog houses, collars, leashes, coolers, and more. All

proceeds from wristband sales and raffle tickets plus a percentage of drink special sales go to SMACF.

FILM SCREENINGS

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. 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 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

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CALENDAR 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 • 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 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

Thursday, July 14 - Sunday, July 24

Monday, July 18 THE BIRDHOUSE WALK-IN THEATER • The Birdhouse • 8:15PM • A weekly free movie screening. • FREE FANTASTICK! FILM SERIES: ‘FRAME BY FRAME’ • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 7PM • Frame by Frame follows four Afghan photojournalists as they navigate an emerging and dangerous media landscape reframing Afghanistan for the world, and for themselves. Through cinema vérité, intimate interviews, powerful photojournalism, and never-before-seen archival footage shot in secret during the Taliban regime, the film connects audiences with four humans in the pursuit of the truth.

Tuesday, July 19 TWIN PEAKS VIEWING PARTY • The Birdhouse • 7PM • Bi-weekly viewing parties for every single episode of the cult TV series. Attendees encouraged to dress as their favorite characters. Trivia, Twin Peaks-themed giveaways, donuts and coffee, plus some surprises. Trivia begins at 7:00pm with viewing to follow at 8:00pm. • FREE

SPORTS AND RECREATION

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

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

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 YMCA SOCIAL RUN • Lindsay Young Downtown YMCA • 6:30PM • Weekly social run meeting in the lobby of the downtown YMCA. We will be running through downtown and greenways, ending at Sugar Mama’s with $2 off of the first craft beer for runners. • 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

Thursday, July 14 - Sunday, July 24

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.

Monday, July 18 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 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 19 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 20 KTC GROUP RUN • Runner’s Market • 5:30PM • Visit ktc.org.

• FREE TVB EASY RIDER MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDE • Ijams Nature 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 21 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

CALENDAR

Friday, July 22 RIVER SPORTS FRIDAY NIGHT GREENWAY RUN • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • riversportsoutfitters.com. • FREE YMCA SOCIAL RUN • Lindsay Young Downtown YMCA • 6:30PM • Weekly social run meeting in the lobby of the downtown YMCA. We will be running through downtown and greenways, ending at Sugar Mama’s with $2 off of the first craft beer for runners. • FREE Saturday, July 23 SUP 101 • Outdoor Knoxville Adventure Center • 10AM • $45 BIKE ZOO SATURDAY MORNING RIDE • The Bike Zoo • 9AM • Visit bikezoo.com. • FREE KTC CADES COVE RUN AND POTLUCK BRUNCH • Unnamed Venue • 7AM • We’ll start at 7 a.m., meeting at the bicycle rental area. Run any of the loops—4, 7, or 11 miles. Potluck brunch in the picnic area to follow. Dates are May 21, June 25, July 23, and Aug. 20. • FREE PADDLE THE RIVER • Riverside Landing Park • 9:30AM • Come paddle with us every fourth Saturday of the month.

We will be paddling from Holston River Park to Ned McWherter Dock. We will meet at 9:30 a.m. at McWherter Landing and set up our shuttle system. We will put in at Holston River Park and paddle down and take out at Ned McWherter. Come on out and paddle with us. Cost is $20 per person. Boat/paddle/PFD will be provided. Show up with your water attire and bring something to drink and sunscreen for those sunny days. Visit riversportsoutfitters.com.

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.

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

Broadway Studios and Gallery 1127 N. Broadway July 1-30: Paintings and drawings by Beverly Duncan Gleason.

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.

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.

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. JULY 12-OCT. 19: Land, Sea, and Spirit: Alaska Native Art From the 19th and 20th Centuries. 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

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 • 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 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@

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 14 • 8pm A March Through May w/ my crimson wish & more $5 • all ages ( rock )

fri july 15 • 8pm

Ricky Mitchell Cd Release Party w/ The Yak Pack, Freequency, Marshall Elgin free • all ages ( singer songwriter )

sat JUly 16 • 8pm

Big Valley Mustangs w/ Classic Q Band, Is That A Hawk? free • All Ages ( Americana )

sun july 17 • 7pm

BLACKFOOT W/ Matt Wright & the Leftovers, Josiah & The Greater Good $15 ADV | $20 Day of all ages ( southern/classic 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 14, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 35

CALENDAR 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 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 • For grades K-5. Every week will be a different adventure, from science experiments to art projects and everything in between. Materials will be limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. • 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

Thursday, July 14 - Sunday, July 24

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 Monday, July 18 MCCLUNG MUSEUM STROLLER TOUR: A TRIP TO ANCIENT ROME • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 10AM • Join us for a morning out as our museum educator leads engaging gallery tours for parents and caregivers and their young ones. Crying and wiggly babies welcome!

This month we investigate ancient Rome with a tour and craft. The event is free, but limited, and all attendees must register to attend online. Registration opens a month in advance and closes the day before the tour.

Eventbrite registration page: http://www.eventbrite. com/e/mcclung-museum-free-stroller-tours-2016-17-registration-20728646941. • FREE Tuesday, July 19 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 UT ARBORETUM GEOCACHING WORKSHOP • University of

Tennessee Arboretum • 9AM • The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society (UTAS) is sponsoring an Introduction to Geocaching Workshop for rising fifth through eighth grade students. Advance registration is required, with a limit of 16 participants. Students are asked to bring a sack lunch and a refrigerator is available. UTAS will supply drinks and snacks.Students will learn the basics of using a GPS device, determining location, inputting waypoints, following a short course, hiding a cache and finding caches hidden by others. The Arboretum Society will provide the GPS devices for the class to use. To register, email Janet Bigelow at janet_bigelow@tds.net or call 865-675-3822 for more details. • $20 Wednesday, July 20 BABY AND ME • Blount County Public Library • 10:30AM • Recommended for ages 2 and under. These lapsit sessions for baby and caregiver feature short stories, action rhymes, music and pre-literacy tips and tricks for caregivers. It is also a great time for caregivers and babies to socialize. • FREE CRUSADING 4 CHESS • St. Luke’s Episcopal Church • 9AM • Chess camp at St. Luke’s is a safe place for your child to develop an appreciation for chess through the history, hands on demonstration, and old world tactics that date back hundreds of years. Your child will meet new friends and dutifully continue the study of the game. Space is limited to 20 children, so register by contacting Michael Moore at mmoore4ube@gmail.com or call 865-360-6706.

Ages 6-18. July 20-22.

Thursday, July 21 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 • FREE CRUSADING 4 CHESS • St. Luke’s Episcopal Church • 9AM • Chess camp at St. Luke’s is a safe place for your child to develop an appreciation for chess through the history, hands on demonstration, and old world tactics that date back hundreds of years. Your child will meet new friends and dutifully continue the study of the game. Space is limited to 20 children, so r Register by contacting Michael Moore at mmoore4ube@gmail.com or call 865-360-6706.

Ages 6-18. July 20-22.

Friday, July 22 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

“Wine and Shine” presented by: Sugarlands Distilling Company and The Crowne Plaza Knoxville

Have you been thinking about going to college but wonder how you’ll afford it?

Scholarships and financial aid are still available for the fall semester.

Call today!

Moonshine & Wine

Tastings begin at 7:00pm

Food & Music Live & Silent Auction

July 22nd - 6:30pm at the Crowne Plaza

Tickets $60 / each online at www.vmcinc.org or call Nancy at 865-524-3926 ext. 223 Member of

KNOXVILLE

36

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

Thursday, July 14 - Sunday, July 24

grades K-5. Every week will be a different adventure, from science experiments to art projects and everything in between. Materials will be limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. • FREE CRUSADING 4 CHESS • St. Luke’s Episcopal Church • 9AM • Chess camp at St. Luke’s is a safe place for your child to develop an appreciation for chess through the history, hands on demonstration, and old world tactics that date back hundreds of years. Your child will meet new friends and dutifully continue the study of the game. Space is limited to 20 children, so r Register by contacting Michael Moore at mmoore4ube@gmail.com or call 865-360-6706.

Ages 6-18. July 20-22.

Saturday, July 23 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 • 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. • FREE DANCE THROUGH THE DECADES • Blount County Public Library • 5PM • To finish off the Summer Reading program for teens, you are invited to a library party where you can dress your fanciest and learn a few dances from past decades including the Charleston, Swing dancing, plus more. This isn’t just a dance instruction, though. There will be masquerade mask making, a photo booth, and more! The Bookmark Café will be catering fancy treats and Italian sodas. The grand prize winner of the Teen Summer Reading program will be announced at this event, so be sure to have all of your reading logs turned in. This event will take place in the Sharon Lawson Room. • FREE

LECTURES, READINGS, AND BOOK SIGNINGS

Thursday, July 14 “ROANE IS BETTER TOGETHER” • Princess Theatre (Harriman) • 5:30PM • District Public Defender of the 9th Judicial District Kim Nelson and District Attorney General Russell Johnson will be co sponsoring a special community storytelling event. National Public Radio (NPR) has been covering Roane County Recovery Court which launched in January of this year and featured several video and audio clips to their listening audience. NPR will emcee this event along with a panel including Senator Ken Yager and others as we celebrate how we are building a stronger community. • FREE Sunday, July 17 CHRISTOPHER HEBERT: ‘ANGELS OF DETROIT’ • Union Ave Books • 2PM • Book signing and reading with Knoxvillian and UT Writer-in-Residence Christopher Hebert, author of Angels of Detroit. • FREE • See Q&A on page 42.

Monday, July 18 ANTHONY CAVENDER: “THE USE OF MEDICINAL PLANTS IN SOUTHERN APPALACHIA” • Blount County Public Library • 7PM • Anthony Cavender, professor of anthropology at ETSU, will focus on the use of medicinal plants in the late nineteenth century up through the 1940s. • FREE

CALENDAR

Sunday, July 24 BIRDHOUSE SUNDAY DINNER POTLUCK AND PRESENTATION • The Birdhouse • 6PM • Every month, the Birdhouse hosts a Sunday dinner program. It begins with a potluck dinner, followed by a speaker and presentation on a wide range of timely topics. Sunday dinner is always free and open to the public. Please bring a dish to share—but if you are for some reason unable to contribute food, please just bring yourself, and share in our feast. Children are especially welcome here. • FREE

CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS

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 • This class is an hour of student-led training and review of Capoeira skills and exercises.

Come prepared to sweat. 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 • Yoga on a SUP board?

Come join us every Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Cove. We will meet at the River Sports Outfitters building. Cost is $25 and includes board, paddle and PFD. Register at barrebelleyoga.com/class-schedule. • $25 SUP YOGA • Ijams Nature Center • 6PM • Yoga on a paddleboard! Meet us at the Meads Quarry every Thursday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 9 a.m. Cost is $25 and includes board and PFD. Personal boards are not permitted on the quarry. Get a great core workout and expand your flexibility. 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 • So many books, so little time. We know you want to, but you can’t read them all.

Whether you just want to stay up-to-date for your own bedside selection or you’re a professional who needs to advise little readers on great books, the Best of the Best is for you. 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. You will come away with an annotated bibliography so you will be up-to-date on your reading recommendations. Presented by the Center for Children’s and Young Adult Literature at UTK and KCPL. • $25-$50 KALEIDOSCOPE-MAKING CLASS • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Make your own kaleidoscope with instructor Bob Grimac. For adults and children age nine and older. Cost $26, or $49 for two people in the same family. To register, contact bobgrimac@gmail.com, or call 865-546-5643.

Saturday, July 16 YOGA AT NARROW RIDGE • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 9:30AM • Narrow Ridge invites you to join us every Saturday morning for yoga instruction from Angela Gibson. This class can be tailored to each individual’s ability level. 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. No previous writing or publishing experience is needed. To register for the workshop, visit http:// knoxvillewritersguild.org/events/writing-your-stories-workshop. • $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 • We might be in the middle of summer, but now is the time to start seeds for another planting of cool weather crops.

Join Master Gardener Barb O’Neil to learn how you can start seeds now without needing grow lights. Call 865-215-2340. • FREE SUP YOGA • Ijams Nature Center • 9AM • Yoga on a paddleboard! Meet us at the Meads Quarry every Thursday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 9 a.m. Cost is $25 and includes board and PFD. Personal boards are not permitted on the quarry. Get a great core workout and expand your flexibility. Register at barrebelleyoga.com/ class-schedule. • $25 SUP 101 • Outdoor Knoxville Adventure Center • 10AM • We cover all the basics of standup paddleboarding in this introductory class. No experience required. We will teach you: equipment overview, safety and awareness of the conditions, balancing, correct stance, four different paddle strokes, steering and turning, proper paddling form and more. All instructors are PaddleFit and WPA (World Paddle Association) certified. Classes are offered every Saturday at 10 a.m. through September. • $45 Sunday, July 17 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE BALLET BARRE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 1PM • This open-level barre class is designed to help students build and maintain strength, flexibility, and coordination for ballet technique.

This is a great class for beginning and experienced students alike. Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE OPEN LEVEL MODERN TECHNIQUE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 2PM • This class is open to all. Teachers cover basic technique and vocabulary for modern and contemporary dance. The class includes floor and standing work to build proficiency in alignment, balance, initiation and articulation of movement, weight shift, elevation and July 14, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 37

CALENDAR landing, and fall and recovery. Instruction is adjusted to meet the experience and ability of those in attendance.

Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10 CIRCLE MODERN DANCE IMPROVISATION CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 3:30PM • Our improv classes offer an introduction to dance improvisation as a movement practice, performance technique, and a tool for creating choreography. Class involves both structured and free improvisations aimed at developing creativity, spontaneous decision-making, freedom of movement, and confidence in performance.

No dance experience is necessary—only the desire to move. 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. Taught by certified instructors, these lessons are a fun and informative way to learn the basics of modern bridge. The cost is $5 per lesson (the first 2 lessons are free).Two class sessions are offered. 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 SUN ILLUMINATED SPIRIT COMMUNITY • Illuminations Metaphysical Center • 11:15AM • With Victoria Farley.

Monday, July 18 KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: STARTING FALL VEGETABLES • Davis Family YMCA • 1PM • We might be in

Thursday, July 14 - Sunday, July 24

the middle of summer, but now is the time to start seeds for another planting of cool weather crops. Join Master Gardener Barb O’Neil to learn how you can start seeds now without needing grow lights. Call 865-777-9622. • FREE 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.

Tuesday, July 19 KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: LAWN IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD • Cansler YMCA • 11AM • Join Master Gardener Ron Pearman for a discussion of proper summer lawn care and the typical problems experienced during the hot and humid east Tennessee summertime.

Call 865-637-9622. • FREE GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted.

GENERATIONS GENEALOGY RESEARCH GROUP • Beck Cultural Exchange Center • 5:30PM • Generations Genealogy Research Group is open to people of all ages interested in genealogy and family history.

KNOXVILLE CAPOEIRA CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • Capoeira originated in Brazil and is a dynamic expression of Afro-Brazilian culture. It is an art

form that encompasses martial arts, dance, and acrobatic movements as well as its own philosophy, history, culture, music, and songs. Visit capoeiraknoxville.org. • $10 ACROYOGA • Dragonfly Aerial Arts Studio • 6PM • Fly with us! Each class is beginner friendly, incorporating intermediate options for more experienced fliers. New content is explored each week while reviewing components taught in previous classes, providing a space for students to form strong foundational skills in flying, basing, and spotting. Each session ends with therapeutics or Thai massage. Please bring a mat, close fitting long pants, and water. No partner needed. • $15 KUNDALINI YOGA • Illuminations Metaphysical Center • 6:30PM • With Michael Lott. • $15 BEGINNING BRIDGE LESSONS • Knoxville Bridge Center • 6PM • 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. Contact Jo Anne Newby at (865} 539-4150 or email KnoxvilleBridge@gmail.com. • $5 Wednesday, July 20 AARP SMART DRIVER DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • John T. O’Connor Senior Center • 12PM • Call 382-5822.

CIRCLE MODERN DANCE INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED MODERN TECHNIQUE CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • A rotation of core members and guest artists of Circle Modern Dance teach this class. They present a variety of modern and contemporary styles, including Bartenieff and release-based techniques. This

class is primarily designed for students with a basic knowledge of modern dance technique and vocabulary, but is open to any mover who is willing to be challenged.

Visit circlemoderndance.com.

CIRCLE MODERN DANCE OPEN LEVEL BALLET CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 7:30PM • This is a basic ballet class open to students of all levels of experience and ability. Students will learn new steps, build coordination and flexibility, and learn choreography.

Visit circlemoderndance.com. • $10 NIA CARDIO-DANCE WORKOUT TECHNIQUE • Broadway Academy of Performing Arts • 6PM • Blending dance arts, martial arts, yoga and healing arts in a 55-minute mindful fitness fusion. Email emilybryant24@yahoo.com.

Thursday, July 21 GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted.

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

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: 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

Enjoy Our Spectacular

Brunch Menu! bistro DOWNTOWN Saturday 11AM – 2PM Sunday 10AM – 2PM

TURKEY CREEK Sunday 11AM – 2PM ■

$3 BLOODY MARYS

■

$3 MIMOSAS

■

Filet and Eggs

½ PRICE SELECT WINE BOTTLES 4PM–10PM

(SUNDAY ONLY)

French Toast Breakfast Sandwich

TURKEY CREEK 11383 Parkside Dr. ■ 865-671-6612 DOWNTOWN 141 S. Gay St. ■ 865-544-1491 www.crubistroandwinebar.com 38

KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

Thursday, July 14 - Sunday, July 24

Saturday, July 23 YOGA AT NARROW RIDGE • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 9:30AM • Narrow Ridge invites you to join us every Saturday morning for yoga instruction from Angela Gibson. This class can be tailored to each individual’s ability level. For information call 865-497-2753 or email community@narrowridge.org. • FREE IMPROV COMEDY CLASS • The Birdhouse • 10:30AM • A weekly improv comedy class. • FREE KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: PRUNING HYDRANGEAS • Cedar Bluff Branch Library • 10:30AM • Hydrangeas: when to prune these bloomin’ shrubs? If you have hydrangeas, then you need to know that there are two distinct types—which are pruned very differently.

Join Master Gardener Carolyn Kiser to learn the difference between “old wood” and “new wood” bloomers, as well as when and how to prune each of these types. Call 865-470-7033. • FREE BEARDSLEY COMMUNITY FARM WORKDAYS AND GARDEN CLASSES • Beardsley Community Farm • 9AM • CAC Beardsley Community Farm Saturday Workdays are from 9 a.m.-noon, followed by a garden class from 12:15-1:30 p.m. The upcoming schedule includes “Beat the Bugs …

With Bugs” (July 23); “organic Disease Control” (Aug. 13); “Preserving the Harvest” (Sept. 10); and “Green Manure: Build Your Soil With Cover Crops” (Oct. 8). For more information visit beardsleyfarm.org, email beardsleyfarm@gmail.com or call 865-546-8446. • FREE SUP YOGA • Ijams Nature Center • 9AM • Yoga on a paddleboard! Meet us at the Meads Quarry every

Thursday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 9 a.m. Cost is $25 and includes board and PFD. Personal boards are not permitted on the quarry. Get a great core workout and expand your flexibility. Register at barrebelleyoga.com/ class-schedule. • $25 SUP 101 • Outdoor Knoxville Adventure Center • 10AM • We cover all the basics of standup paddleboarding in this introductory class. No experience required. We will teach you: equipment overview, safety and awareness of the conditions, balancing, correct stance, four different paddle strokes, steering and turning, proper paddling form and more. All instructors are PaddleFit and WPA (World Paddle Association) certified. Classes are offered every Saturday at 10 a.m. through September. • $45 WEST BICYCLES MONTHLY BIKE CLINIC • West Bicycles • 11AM • Free monthly bicycle service clinic, including flat tire repair, gear and brake adjustment, pre-ride check list, and custom emergency tool/convenience kit recommendations. Every fourth Saturday of the month through August. Call (865) 671-7591 or visit westbikes.com. • FREE Sunday, July 24 SUN ILLUMINATED SPIRIT COMMUNITY • Illuminations

Metaphysical Center • 11:15AM • With Victoria Farley.

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. Taught by certified instructors, these lessons are a fun and informative way to learn the basics of modern bridge. The cost is $5 per lesson (the first 2 lessons are free).Two class sessions are offered. 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

Photo by Ben Rouse/Riot Act Media

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.

KNOXVILLE CAPOEIRA CLASS • Emporium Center for Arts and Culture • 6PM • This class is an hour of student-led training and review of Capoeira skills and exercises.

Come prepared to sweat. 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 VICTORIA FARLEY: A COURSE IN MIRACLES • Illuminations Metaphysical Center • 6:30PM • $10 BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 STANDUP PADDLEBOARDING 101 • Sequoyah Park • 6PM • Have you been wondering where you can get a few tips on how to stay standing on one of those “surf board things”? We have you covered. Come learn to paddle with us every other Thursday at 6 p.m. We meet at Sequoyah Hills Boat Ramp. Cost is $35. Paddle board is included.

Just show up and learn. You’ll be paddling around in no time. You must register for this event so we know to bring you a board. Visit riversportsoutfitters.com. • $35 SUP YOGA • Concord Park • 6PM • Yoga on a SUP board?

Come join us every Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Cove. We will meet at the River Sports Outfitters building. Cost is $25 and includes board, paddle and PFD. Register at barrebelleyoga.com/class-schedule. • $25 SUP YOGA • Ijams Nature Center • 6PM • Yoga on a paddleboard! Meet us at the Meads Quarry every Thursday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 9 a.m. Cost is $25 and includes board and PFD. Personal boards are not permitted on the quarry. Get a great core workout and expand your flexibility. Register at barrebelleyoga.com/ class-schedule. • $25

CALENDAR

TALL TALL TREES Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (200 E. Jackson Ave.) • Tuesday, July 19 • 10 p.m. • barleysknoxville.com or talltalltrees.com

Tall Tall Trees often gets lumped in the “psychedelic” music category because it’s hard to put a finger on exactly what one-man-band musician Mike Savino is doing. Banjos aren’t supposed to make those sorts of sounds, after all. But the bearded NYC performer has seemingly mastered a number of experimental techniques, taking the range of the traditionally acoustic instrument into uncharted territories. Salvino doesn’t even claim his sonic creations come from a banjo proper; he’s dubbed his instrument the Banjotron 5000. He finger-picks many tunes but also bangs on the contraption with an assortment of things like a cello bow, drumsticks, and even a toy cap gun to produce a variety of mind-numbing and ear-pleasing sonic vibrations that fill out his catchy songs. Many of his creations are layered and complex, looped back and distorted with a hefty dose of foot-pedal trickery. The end result is a surprising array of mostly laid-back, folky tunes that range from indie-pop to ambient drone—something that could be described as rather psychedelic, but to sum up the music with just one word falls short of capturing its depth and appeal. (Clay Duda)

July 14, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 39

CALENDAR MEETINGS

Thursday, July 14 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY LEUKEMIA, LYMPHOMA, AND MYELOMA NETWORKER • Cancer Support Community • 6PM • This drop-in group is open for those with leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and myeloproliferative disorders and their support persons. Participants will be able to exchange information, discuss concerns and share experiences. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

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 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

Thursday, July 14 - Sunday, July 24

maximizing their resources that foster and enhance achievement in education and community and economic development. To accomplish this objective, we partner with primary and secondary schools and community organizations engaged in similar activities.

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 NARROW RIDGE SILENT MEDITATION GATHERING • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 11AM • Narrow Ridge invites you to join us for our Silent Meditation Gathering. The gatherings are intended to be inclusive of people of all faiths as well as those who do not align themselves with a particular religious denomination. For 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. The Rationalists do not endorse or condemn members’ thoughts or actions.

Rather it hopefully encourages honest dialogue, analytic

Happy Hour 3-5pm Daily

HANDCRAFTED PIZZA Enjoy delicious & unique pizza selections daily with one of our fine craft beers.

Breakfast / Brunch Everyday starting at 7am

Great Selection Of Craft Beer on tap and in stock

Live Music, Team Trivia, & Nightly Events

check out our facebook page for upcoming events and specials

Always made fresh. Always made from scratch.

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

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

discussion, and responsible action based on reason, compassion, and factual accuracy. Visit rationalists.org. • FREE THREE RIVERS! EARTH FIRST! • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 7PM • Three Rivers! Earth First! is the local dirt worshiping, tree hugging, anarchist collective that meets every Sunday night on the second floor of Barley’s in the back room (when its available) to organize against strip mining, counter protest the KKK and Nazis, to clean up Third Creek and to fight evil corporations in general. Open meeting, rotating facilitation, collective model. Y’all come. Call (865) 257-4029 for more information. • FREE REFUGE RECOVERY • Losel Shedrup Ling • 8:30PM • A peerled weekly group gathering to supplement your dedicated practice (AA, NA, Smart Recovery, etc.) for recovery from addictions of all kinds. Buddhism recognizes a non-theistic approach to spiritual practice. The Refuge Recovery program does not ask anyone to believe anything, only to trust the process and do the hard work of recovery. All are welcome to join us in investigating the practices of mindfulness, compassion, forgiveness, and generosity to heal the pain addiction has caused in our lives and the lives of others. Contact David at 865-306-0279 for any further questions. • FREE Monday, July 18 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 19 ATHEISTS SOCIETY OF KNOXVILLE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 5:30PM • Weekly atheists meetup and happy hour. Come join us for food, drink and great conversation.

Everyone welcome. • FREE Wednesday, July 20 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY WOMEN WITH ADVANCED CANCER NETWORKER • Cancer Support Community • 1:30PM • Join other women who are living with cancer as a chronic illness to discuss feelings and experiences that are unique to women with advanced cancer. Please call before your first visit. Call 865-546- 4661 for more info.

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

THE SOUTHERN LITERATURE BOOK CLUB • Union Ave Books • 6PM • Union Ave Books’ monthly discussion group about Southern books and writers. Visit unionavebooks.com. • FREE ORION ASTRONOMY CLUB • The Grove Theater (Oak Ridge) • 7PM • ORION is an amateur science and astronomy club centered in Oak Ridge that was founded in April 1974 by a group of scientists at the United States Department of Energy facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. We serve Oak Ridge, Knoxville, and the counties of Anderson, Knox, and Roane.We meet on the third Wednesday of each month for coffee and conversation, and our program begins 15 minutes thereafter. • FREE Thursday, July 21 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY FAMILY BEREAVEMENT

Thursday, July 14 - Sunday, July 24

GROUP • Cancer Support Community • 4:30PM • 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.

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 Saturday, July 23 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 NARROW RIDGE SILENT MEDITATION GATHERING • Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center • 11AM • Narrow Ridge invites you to join us for our Silent Meditation Gathering. The gatherings are intended to be inclusive of people of all faiths as well as those who do not align themselves with a particular religious denomination. For information call 865-497-2753 or email community@narrowridge.org. • FREE Sunday, July 24 SUNDAY ASSEMBLY • The Concourse • 10:30AM • Sunday Assembly is a secular congregation without deity, dogma, or doctrine. Our motto: Live Better, Help Often, Wonder More. Our monthly celebrations feature a different theme every month, with inspiring speakers and lively sing-alongs. Our community is also involved in rewarding service projects, with various discussion groups and events planned throughout the month. Sunday Assembly Knoxville is part of the international movement of people who want to celebrate the one life we know we have. We meet the fourth Sunday of every month. Assemblies are attended by around 50 people, are family-friendly, and children are welcome. We always follow up with a potluck, so please bring your appetite and a dish to share.

To find out more, visit our web page (http://knoxville-tn. sundayassembly.com) or email saknoxville.info@gmail. com. • FREE THREE RIVERS! EARTH FIRST! • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 7PM • Three Rivers! Earth First! is the local dirt worshipping, tree hugging, anarchist collective that meets every Sunday night on the second floor of Barley’s in the back room (when its available) to organize against strip mining, counter protest the KKK and Nazis, to clean up Third Creek and to fight evil corporations in general.

Open meeting, rotating facilitation, collective model. Y’all come. Call (865) 257-4029 for more information. • FREE REFUGE RECOVERY • Losel Shedrup Ling • 8:30PM • A peerled weekly group gathering to supplement your dedicated practice (AA, NA, Smart Recovery, etc.) for recovery from addictions of all kinds. Buddhism recognizes a non-theistic approach to spiritual practice. The Refuge Recovery program does not ask anyone to believe anything, only to trust the process and do the hard work

CALENDAR

of recovery. All are welcome to join us in investigating the practices of mindfulness, compassion, forgiveness, and generosity to heal the pain addiction has caused in our lives and the lives of others.Contact David at 865-306-0279 for any further questions. • FREE

ETC.

Thursday, July 14 MARBLE SPRINGS SHOPPING AT THE FARM FARMER’S MARKET • Marble Springs State Historic Site • 3PM • Marble Springs State Historic Site is proud to present the sixtth season of Shopping at the Farm, the Marble Springs Farmer’s Market for our South Knoxville community. The market will be held Thursdays from 3-6 p.m. beginning on May 19 and continuing weekly through Sept. 22. All vendors will be selling fresh, locally-produced products, and artisan crafts. This year we will be allowing the addition of antiques vendors. • 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 Friday, July 15 LAKESHORE PARK FARMERS MARKET • Lakeshore Park • 3PM • Offering a wide variety of hand-picked produce, artisan breads, grass-fed beef, natural pork and chicken, farm fresh eggs and farm-based crafts. • 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 • Open from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday from June to the second Saturday in October.

Locally grown fruits, vegetables, eggs, honey, baked goods and crafts sold by the person who produced it. • FREE OAK RIDGE FARMERS MARKET • Historic Jackson Square • 8AM • 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 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.

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 Tuesday, July 19 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 20 MARKET SQUARE FARMERS’ MARKET • Market Square • 11AM • 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. Products vary by the season and include ornamental plants, vegetable and herb starts, produce, dairy, eggs, honey, meats, baked goods, jams/jellies, coffee, and artisan crafts. Every Wednesday from 11a.m. to 2p.m. and Saturday from 9a.m. to 2p.m., May 4-Nov. 19.

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 • Since 2010, the UT Farmers Market has provided a venue for area producers to sell healthful, local food to the greater Knoxville area. This year the market is expanding its community offerings. The UT Farmers Market is free and open to the public every Wednesday from 4-7 p.m. in the UT Gardens off Neyland Drive. Market activities will be scheduled through Oct. 19. For more information about the UT Farmers’ Market you can visit the market website: vegetables.tennessee.edu/utfm.html. • FREE Thursday, July 21 MARBLE SPRINGS SHOPPING AT THE FARM FARMER’S MARKET • Marble Springs State Historic Site • 3PM • FREE Friday, July 22 LAKESHORE PARK FARMERS MARKET • Lakeshore Park • 3PM • FREE Saturday, July 23 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

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July 14, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 41

CALENDAR

Thursday, July 14 - Sunday, July 24

You can’t sum it up but you can describe it.

out where to go. History doesn’t just stop because the auto industry is gone and everyone has fled the city. It goes on somehow. I think that’s how I ended up with all these different perspectives, because it wasn’t a story—no one had an answer. Who are the people who are here? What are they doing?

Yeah. That’s what fiction-writing is— asking questions and then not answering them.

When did you move to Michigan?

Chris Hebert ponders the future of Detroit in his new novel

BY MATTHEW EVERETT

T

here are dozens of characters in Chris Hebert’s new novel, Angels of Detroit (Bloomsbury): activists, executives, the working poor, the dispossessed. Ultimately, though, the city itself—its crumbling civic infrastructure, its faded industrial glory, its uncertain future—is the central character of the novel.

Hebert’s first book, The Boiling Season, published in 2012, was set in Haiti, a country Hebert didn’t set foot in until after his novel was finished.

Angels of Detroit is closer to his own personal experience. Hebert, an assistant professor of English at the University of Tennessee, has spent most of his life in the Rust Belt—he grew up in Syracuse, N.Y., graduated from Antioch College in Ohio, and earned a master’s degree from the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, just outside Detroit.

Hebert will read from Angels of Detroit at Union Ave Books (517 Union Ave.) on Sunday, July 17, at 2

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

p.m. Admission is free. Visit unionavebooks.com for details.

In some ways, this seems like the exact opposite of your first book.

It was complicated, because I didn’t know what the story was going to be.

It was a very personal story, even though it may not seem like that, because there’s nobody who looks like me in it. But it was me trying to reckon with what it means to grow up in places like this, to be from places like this. It was a big thing to wrap your mind around what that means, exactly.

Because you can’t just say it in a paragraph.

It’s not something that can be easily summed up—to live in cities that are crumbling and in some ways stuck in their past and don’t have a clear path forward. There’s no real answer to what that means or what you do or how you get past that.

You have mostly sympathetic perspectives that are at odds with each other, or at least divergent.

No one has any idea what you do. On the one hand you’ve got millionaires who want to buy up thousands of acres and turn it into farmland. And then the city is reluctant to sell to them. And then most people are neither one nor the other. For whatever reason, they’ve got nowhere to go, or they love it there, of they feel like their lives are there. Basically, somehow it exists.

You worked on The Boiling Season and Angels of Detroit simultaneously, for several years. But they ended up being very different.

The Boiling Season was much more of a research project, and more complicated in that way. I became aware, now that both books are finished, how similar they are in certain ways. As far apart as Haiti and Detroit are, they share some interesting sensibilities. ◆

1999—that’s way before the rest of America recognized Detroit as the symbol of urban collapse.

It’s become more prominent—all the events leading up to the bankruptcy, and the bankruptcy. At that point I was imagining readers who had no idea, who just couldn’t conceive of it.

It still boggles the mind.

The description in the first half dozen chapters, of the acres and acres and blocks and blocks of empty lots—

The tourist part of town has remained pretty consistently populated, but you don’t have to take many wrong turns to find yourself facing a prairie. Back then there were no street signs in all of Detroit, so you’d make a wrong turn and end up in what looked like Kansas. It’s hard for anyone to grasp what this really looks like.

And it’s easy to look at it and fall into despair. But I grew up in a city like this, so I think my first reaction was, what do you do? People are still living here and still trying to figure

Photo by John Black

Motor City Madness

In 1999. That was for graduate school. … I grew up in Syracuse, N.Y., a Rust Belt city that’s like Detroit, but smaller. It’s a shrinking city, its industry is fading and leaving, the population is dropping, the economy is disappearing. Ann Arbor is like the Berkeley of the Midwest, this college town with fancy restaurants where people read The New York Times. And that place felt weird to me. But I went into Detroit and thought, this is what I’m used to, but it was on a scale I’d never seen before.

Before I went to Michigan, I’d been living in St. Louis. Before that I’d been in school in central Ohio.

Without really meaning to I had just done this weird Rust Belt tour. I hit Detroit and I felt like, well, this is the epicenter of whatever all of this means. Something will begin to make sense if I just keep going.

e w t ’ Don u o y w o n k from ? e r e h w e m so

nce It’s been a while si re we talked. So we’ reader running our first survey in a year. ets We’ll give you tick . Spend for your thoughts ng a few minutes taki tered our survey to be en ur info in the drawing. Yo t helps us learn wha t ha stories you like, w , and markets to pursue te. where to distribu you Let us hear from at the link below.

y e v r u s / m o c . y r u c knoxmer

July 14, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 43

Photos by Kim Trevathan

OUTDOORS

Voice in the Wilder ness

Fishmongers Conservation Fisheries reintroduces endangered species to local rivers

BY KIM TREVATHAN

S

teve Scarborough showed me the exact spot on his property where I could take a step from the Tennessee Valley onto the Cumberland Plateau. On one side of us was a slanting upthrust of sandstone, and below us, on the other side, lay Whites Creek, where the sun glittered off the riffles and illuminated the rock solid bottom of long pools ideal for swimming, fishing, paddling or lounging on a hot July afternoon. People were gathered at Scarborough’s place beside a pool called the Blue Hole to support a nonprofit organization— Conservation Fisheries, Incorporated (CFI)—at the eighth annual Whites Creek Palooza.

Causes, local or global, often seem abstract, couched in mission statements and strategic plans that seem remote from our experience. But on this day, at Whites Creek, a tributary of the Tennessee River (Watts Bar Lake), supporters of CFI could put on a snorkeling mask and see the aquatic

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

diversity that makes the clean, clear waters of Tennessee Valley streams “the hotbed of temperate aquatic diversity,” as J.R. Shute, one of the co-directors of CFI, describes it. What you can see here is so “stunning,” says Scarborough, “that it makes aquarium stores look dull.”

Shute and Pat Rakes, the founders and co-directors of CFI, would like to keep it that way, and they’ve dedicated the last 30-odd years to this work. As graduate students at UT, Shute and Rakes began helping Shute’s wife Peggy (also a grad student) in her research on Citico Creek in Monroe County, where they snorkeled at night to collect and monitor yellowfin madtom, a species of catfish 2 or 3 inches long.

Starting in 1986, Shute and Rakes began to reintroduce the smoky and yellowfin madtoms and the Citico darter into Abrams Creek, where they had been eliminated in the 1950s as part of a trout reclamation project.

This reintroduction project involved harvesting nests from Citico Creek and rearing the fish in hatcheries until they were juveniles, when they were released. After more than five years of trial and error of stocking and monitoring Abrams Creek, in the Smokies, Rakes finally spotted a yellowfin madtom that had been spawned in the creek and got so excited he called Shute, who was on vacation at the beach.

Since then, they’ve worked on rearing, reintroducing, and monitoring endangered and threatened species in the Tellico River (yellowfin madtom), Shoal Creek near Lawrenceburg (spotfin chub and boulder darter), and the Powell River (yellowfin madtom), among other places.

Rakes and Shute and their staff have done groundbreaking work at their hatchery, located on Division Street in Knoxville. As the CFI website states, “we have developed techniques to propagate more than 65 nongame fish, including some of the most imperiled species in the southeastern United States. We were the first facility in the Southeast to propagate rare, non-game fishes for recovery work.”

Regardless of these achievements, one might wonder why the average person should care about these tiny fish that most wouldn’t even be aware of if it weren’t for researchers like Rakes and Shute.

“Water is going to become more and more important with population growth and increasing drought as a result of climate change,” says Shute.

“When we lose sensitive species like the darters, it brings into question the health of the entire ecosystem and may end up affecting sport fishing and eventually drinking water.”

Rakes likens darters and the other species CFI researches to “canaries in the coal mine,” the mine being our streams.

Shute says that siltation from farming/construction, pollution and runoff from coal mining are some of the threats faced by the fish his organization monitors and propagates.

The pool was a perfect temperature—cool but not shocking cold like some mountain streams. At first, looking through the mask, I saw only the bolts of sunlight shooting through a brownish haze, and I was a bit disappointed. That’s when I realized I was staring into the void—a hole that Scarborough said measured 27 feet, give or take. Farther toward the upper edge of the pool, the details of the bottom began to emerge: jumbles of rock, limbs, shadows, a darting movement here and there, an entire landscape, invisible unless you had a mask. I was in a staring contest with a couple of cruising bream until some kids bumped me with a kayak.

Around 85 people showed up for

OUTDOORS town to trail

20% OFF ONE FULL RETAIL ITEM Photo byJ.R. Schute

the event, and at one time or another it seemed like everyone was in the water. Many spotted tangerine darters just below the riffle at the upstream border of the Blue Hole.

Rakes called the tangerine darter a visually spectacular non-game native fish, and said it would be great if it were the state fish. “After all, they are orange,” he said.

At the Beach, another of Scarborough’s swimming holes about 150 yards upstream, a smaller group told me about seeing redhorse and catching spotted bass. Scarborough, one of the founders of Dagger Canoe and Kayaks, and his wife Annie, purchased 54 acres on Whites Creek in 1992. He has since expanded his holdings to 1,500 acres.

He says he’s interested in protecting Whites Creek above and below and supporting those organizations that do that kind of work.

Around 6 p.m., we all climbed the hill from the swimming hole to eat barbecue and listen to the music of R.B. Morris, Greg Horne, and Daniel Kimbro. A blue tarp was rigged over Scarborough’s bottom deck to supplement the shade from a trellis of jasmine and a nearby peach tree. I sat near the stage near a potted tomato plant heavy with fruit. Beyond the band arose a mountain that formed the far side of Whites Creek Gorge. People were scattered in outdoor nooks and crannies, dozens of chairs set up on

Far left: Greg Horne, R.B. Morris, and Daniel Kimbro perform at Whites Creek Palooza. Middle: auctioneer Steve Scarborough raises money. Left: the yellowfin madtom. the “stage” where the musicians played just a few feet away. You could also sit on higher tiers of the deck structure or on the periphery, at a picnic table in the garden area.

Shute says that the funds generated at the event go to overhead and general maintenance of items essential to research, such as kayak trailers and vehicles. Otherwise, he says, their funding is project driven, coming from sources such as Fish and Wildlife and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, and this doesn’t always cover everything.

When Scarborough told me over the phone that his place “should be a state park,” I was anxious to see it, though a bit skeptical. It exceeded my expectations in its inspiring and isolated majesty, a perfect place to celebrate the preservation and protection of clean water and diverse aquatic species. ◆ CFI has another benefit, the Fish Fest, at River John’s Outfitters on July 30. Info: conservationfisheries.org.

A writing instructor at Maryville College, Kim Trevathan is the author of Paddling the Tennessee River: A Voyage on East Water and Coldhearted River: A Canoe Odyssey Down the Cumberland.

UNCLE LEM’S MOUNTAIN OUTFITTERS 9715 Kingston Pike Knoxville, TN 37922 865-357-8566 - unclelems.com

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For More Information: volunteer.visitknoxville.com

July 14, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 45

’BYE

Sacred & P rofane

Resurrecting Ophelia The death of a friend, but this time with a happy ending

BY DONNA JOHNSON

I

learned of Ophelia’s death at the Family Dollar Store on Broadway from her friend, Maggie. “She died three months ago,” said Maggie, not without pleasure, for she and Ophelia had had a parting of the ways a few years ago. Her eyes gleamed with malice as she told me.

Though I hadn’t seen Ophelia for years, her loss still sent me reeling, for Ophelia and I had at one time been close friends and kindred spirits. I felt an enormous sense of regret that I had let this remarkable friendship slip away without so much as a fond farewell, and now I would never see her again.

“Sad isn’t it?” Maggie said with such an evil smile that I wanted to slap her, but instead I got on my bike and pedaled away towards 4th and Gill, and home, but not before I noticed with some pleasure myself that Maggie was growing bald.

I couldn’t stop thinking of Ophelia, whom I had met more than 15 years ago when I lived in North Hills. One evening when I was walking toward home on Kenilworth Lane under the tall, swaying pines, I spied a beautiful woman with pale blonde hair that fell in waves to her shoulders.

Wearing a navy gabardine suit from the 1940s, high-heels, seamed stockings, and a large straw hat, she was gardening under the moonlight for all the world like it was a hot mid-summer afternoon instead of 3 o’clock in the morning under the magical light of the moon. I could hardly believe she was real, so ethereal was her appearance. She suddenly looked up and saw me watching her.

Walking up to her I put out my hand and told her my name.

“I’m Ophelia,” she replied, looking me with a directness one rarely sees, her eyes of such a deep green that I felt I was looking straight into the divine. We chatted for a few minutes, discovering we had many things in common. We loved Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, and Laura Nyro.

We adored animals. We hated museums, beer, and men who cheated.

“Would you like to come in?” she asked graciously.

The first thing I did when I entered her house was to sit at the upright piano and play Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” while Ophelia sang in a clear,

BY MATTHEW FOLTZ-GRAY

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KNOXVILLE MERCURY July 14, 2016

www.thespiritofthestaircase.com

strong voice. After a few minutes Ophelia disappeared into the kitchen and came back with a large bottle of Robitussin DM, along with two crystal champagne glasses.

“Would you care to share this with me?” she asked, as though she were offering me a glass of good, red wine.

“Why yes,” I answered, and she poured the thick, syrupy cough medicine in the glasses. We toasted, as if sealing the pact of friendship, which in a way we were. Robitussin DM is a poor man’s version of psychedelic mushrooms and within an hour everything became as magical as Ophelia herself.

I looked around the room. In an oversized chair in the corner was a life-sized doll with blonde, wavy hair dressed in a vintage dress. Bookshelves held works by Carson McCullers, Truman Capote, Evelyn Waugh.

Drawings by Ophelia decorated the walls. Atop the shiny black piano was a vase of dried flowers and a photograph of Ophelia and her husband,

David, whom I would meet later.

A black cat named Oscar sat in Ophelia’s lap, staring at me with gray, somber eyes. A tall, thin cat of the purest white wound his way in and out of my ankles. Three or four other cats sat perched at various places in the room with eyes that spoke of mysteries from beyond the beyond. She put a recording of Gregorian chants on the turntable and we traveled back in time thousands of years. It was an evening of pure enchantment, like being in a dream one never wanted to wake up from. We sat without speaking for some time.

All at once Ophelia stood up.

“Let’s go into the kitchen and I’ll make tea,” she said.

Walking into her kitchen was like walking straight into the 1950s. A red Formica table with four chairs sat in the middle of the room. Betty Crocker cookbooks lay on the table, and embroidered aprons lay folded across the backs of the chairs. I half expected to see my very own mother manifest herself and pull a pan of cornbread

Ophelia disappeared into the kitchen and came back with a large bottle of Robitussin DM, along with two crystal champagne glasses.

’BYE out of the oven. A gentle breeze blew the filmy curtains back and the smell of wet earth and rain entered the room.

We spent many happy hours together after that, until I moved to another neighborhood and I lost contact with her.

But now, a nagging thought kept entering my mind at all hours of the day and night. It was the thought and sure feeling that my friend was not dead. Finally, I decided to check it out for myself. Arriving at her house at approximately 2 in the morning, I tapped on the window the way I had in the past. I wandered into the back yard, where beautiful, ornate rocking horses sat waiting as for children who never arrived. I half expected Ophelia herself to appear by the side of a horse—and, in fact, that’s exactly what

BY IAN BLACKBURN AND JACK NEELY

happened. Wearing a beautiful, lavender skirt and white satin blouse, she walked up to me.

“You’re not dead!” I exclaimed.

She pinched herself.

“Why, no,” she replied, staring at me with that direct gaze. “I don’t believe I am.”

We laughed.

“I have been deathly though,” she said. “I’m not as pretty as I used to be.

I’ve gained weight.”

I didn’t notice the weight gain, nor any new wrinkles—only those pure, intelligent eyes that made me feel that she was ageless and immortal, like all fairy creatures. As we held hands and walked into her house, back into the 1950s room, I swear I could hear Joni Mitchell singing “Blue” from the house next door. And why not? ◆

CLASSIFIEDS

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

FOR SALE

FUN AND FESTIVE JEWELRY, local and handmade, unique and modern, repurposed vintage beads, hand-painted geometric necklaces, and more. etsy.com/shop/triciabee

HOUSING

NEWLY RENOVATED LOFT-STYLE CONDO, in Historic Park Place (Park Ridge Community).

3 bedrooms, 15 ft. ceilings, 9 ft. windows, tennis court, pool, basketball gym, gated community, pet friendly. Minutes from downtown. Plenty of free parking. $1650/month.

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.

SELL YOUR STUFF

COMMUNITY

BABA - is a very talkative 3-month-old male kitten looking for a loving home.

Whoever gets to take this sweet boy home will be a very lucky family! Visit Young-Williams Animal Center / call 865-215-6599 for more information.

CHERRY - is a happy-golucky 4 year old Pit Bull Terrier mix who has been with us for almost two months. She loves playing with her toys, going on walks, and giving kisses.

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

SAGE - is a shy 1-year-old female Hound mix looking for her forever home.

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

PATCHES - is a 2 year old female domestic shorthair mix and she has a personality as colorful as her face. Visit YoungWilliams Animal Center / call 865-215-6599 for more information.

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July 14, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 47

We’re moving!

We’re taking a week off to move our stuff and set up shop the week of July 25.

That means we won’t have a new issue on July 28. We’ll be back on August 4 refreshed and ready for Top Knox 2016!

New Address:

618 South Gay St., Suite L2 Knoxville, TN 37902 Please make a note of it!