Vol. 2, Issue 3 - Jan. 21, 2016

JAN. 21, 2016 KNOXMERCURY.COM

THAT WAS A LOT OF WORK V.

2 / N.3

PART 3 OF A 3-PART SERIES

PARC’s mission is to investigate KPD complaints on behalf of the community— but many feel it’s not effective enough

BY S. HEATHER DUNCAN

NEWS

Activists Form Local Branch of Showing Up for Racial Justice

JACK NEELY

A Personal History of the Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum

MUSIC

Regina Carter Brings a New Voice to the Art of Jazz Violin

FOOD

Beardsley Farm’s Soupy Snow Day Fundraiser Grows Seeds—and Beards

The Frank H. McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture The University of Tennessee’s scholarly museum is an amenity like none other in the region. project as a memorial for Mrs. Green’s father, Frank H. McClung, a 19th-century Knoxville merchant.

The elderly Greens both died within two years of their gift, and never saw the museum they made possible.

Long known for its permanent exhibits about geology, paleontology, evolution, ancient Egypt, and Native American culture, the McClung Museum likes to surprise.

The museum’s new exhibit, opening this weekend, is “Maya: Lords of Time,” surveys that Native American culture’s impressive advances in measuring time, through stone calendars. The exhibit will offer a combination of replicas and Central American artifacts for view.

On Saturday, Jan. 30, the museum will host a “Family Fun Day: The Maya and their Texts,” at 1:00 p.m.

In recent years the museum has developed new emphases on local history. A compact permanent exhibit now highlights Knoxville’s role in the Civil War, with an unparalleled display of artifacts from the 1863 Battle of Fort Sanders.

A bronze cast of an Edmontosaurus, a duckbilled dinosaur who once roamed North America, greets visitors to McClung Museum on UT’s Circle Park. He’s affectionately known as “Monty.” The actual fossilized bones of the skeleton, owned by the museum, are sometimes on display.

Designed in a modernist style by UT architect Malcolm Rice and the local firm of Barber McMurry, the museum was completed and opened to the public in 1961, but more formally dedicated, with regular hours, in 1963. It was the first UT building established on Circle Park, which later became home to the College of Communication and Information as well as UT’s main administration offices.

The McClung name was once prominent in Knoxville, but McClung Photo courtesy of Frank H. McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture Museum, which is administered by the university, is not associated with the McClung Collection (formally the Calvin M. McClung Collection) which is located in the East Tennessee History Center downtown, and is administered by the Knox County Public Library.

Joan Markel, the museum’s curator of Civil War history, is Calvin M. McClung was Ellen McClung Green’s brother. commencing the sixth year of the museum’s popular Civil War lecture series at the museum this Sunday, Jan. 24. The talk, “Clergy, Physicians, and Press: Ministering to the People,” is free, and The names confuse people daily, especially considering that begins at 2 p.m.

McClung Museum also has an impressive “collection,” and the McClung Collection has enough interesting exhibits and hanging art that it could also be called a “museum.” (UT’s McClung Tower, which is The McClung Museum is located on Circle Park. Established in near McClung Museum, is named for another McClung altogether.) the 1880s, Circle Park is a historic site in itself. Knoxville’s first public park, originally known just as “the Circle,” was once surrounded by Victorian residences. Circle Park was not considered part of UT’s One of McClung Museum’s collections is that of Eleanor Audigier, campus until about 50 years ago. the Knoxville arts patron who founded the Nicholson Art League, before moving to Europe and a life of collecting art from around the world. When she died in Rome in 1931, she left her impressive A museum of anthropology was first proposed in the 1930s with collection of decorative art to the university. Some of the Audigier an unexpected impetus. UT took a leadership role with helping the collection is on display at the museum today.

Tennessee Valley Authority excavate Native American sites affected by the new network of dams and reservoirs. Funds for a permanent museum became available in 1955, through a gift from prosperous In September, McClung will unveil “Knoxville Unearthed: attorney and world traveler John Webb Green and his wife Ellen Archaeology in the Heart of the Valley,” a rare exhibit of artifacts McClung Green. The Greens lived in the Fountain City area and led found by archaeologists, especially organizer Professor Charles the establishment of Fountain City Park. They named the museum Faulkner, in the city of Knoxville.

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

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

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

Jan. 21, 2016 Volume 02 / Issue 03 knoxmercury.com

CONTENTS

“ Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.” —Robert Kennedy

12 C itizen Review

NEWS

10 Second Effort For white East Tennessee residents interested in assisting minority justice movements like Black Lives Matter Knoxville and Comite Popular de Knoxville (an organization for undocumented immigrants), there is now a home: Showing Up for Racial Justice-865. McCord Pagan reports on the group’s aims.

COVER STORY

In the third part of our three-part series examining the Knoxville Police Department, S. Heather Duncan examines Knoxville’s Police Advisory Review Committee. PARC, which reports directly to the mayor, was established more than 17 years ago to investigate complaints against the KPD and make recommendations about its policies. PARC was designed specifically to be less intimidating to the public than filing a complaint with the KPD Internal Affairs Unit, but members of the black community do not feel that PARC represents them very effectively in disputes.

Join Our League of Supporters!

Yes, you can get a mug. And more! Find out how you can help at knoxmercury.com/join.

DEPARTMENTS

OPINION

A&E

4 Letters 6 Howdy

8 Architecture Matters

18 Program Notes: White Stag’s new

23 Spotlights: Guster, David Bowie

19 Shelf Life: Chris Barrett reports on

FOOD & DRINK

Start Here: Roadside Sketches

by Andrew Gresham, By the Numbers, Public Affairs, Quote Factory

36 ’Bye

Finish There: Sacred and Profane

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

George Dodds vows to start the new year by looking at the construction of new buildings rather than the destruction of old ones.

10 Scruffy Citizen

Jack Neely shares his personal memories of the Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum.

CALENDAR EP, and the Grateful Dead pick a local designer.

007’s infiltration of the Knox County Public Library.

20 Music: Matthew Everett talks with jazz violinist Regina Carter.

21 Classical Music: Alan Sherrod

Tribute

34 Dirt to Fork

Rose Kennedy lists the things she loves about Beardsley Community Farm’s Snow Day fundraiser.

reviews some of KSO’s recent smallensemble performances.

22 Movies: Lee Gardner takes a ride in Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s Taxi.

January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 3

LETTERS Delivering Fine Journalism Since 2015

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR GUIDELINES

• Letter submissions should include a verifiable name, address, and phone number.

We do not print anonymous letters.

• We much prefer letters that address issues that pertain specifically to Knoxville or to stories we’ve published.

• We don’t publish letters about personal disputes or how you didn’t like your waiter at that restaurant.

• Letters are usually published in the order that we receive them.

WE HOPE SO TOO

Comics, as with any other art form, are subjective. I recall towards the end of the Metro Pulse days reading some letters complaining about the quality. I always kind of felt bad for the artists but didn’t really disagree.

All the more reason to say something I’ve been meaning to for weeks—nay, months. To wit: that Spirit of the Staircase is absolutely fantastic. I love it. I think it is quirky, smart, clever, weird (in the best of ways) and I wish all success to Matthew Foltz-Gray and I hope Knoxville Mercury is able to carry it as long as possible.

Rhian Merris Knoxville

THE GREAT FREEZE OF 1886

In a couple of his always fascinating articles, Jack Neely recently made references to the permanency of advertising as well as the local myth surrounding whether or not the Tennessee River in Knoxville ever froze. [“Winter in Knoxville,” Dec. 24, 2015 and “Be Immortal. Advertise.”

Scruffy Citizen, Jan. 7 2016] Evidence can be found in the Knoxville News Sentinel archives. The Knox County Library is currently raising funds to digitize this archive through the inspiring From Papers to Pixels Campaign. Anyone who has tediously labored over microfilm will love this digital project. You can currently search 1940 and 1982 for free, which feature news stories, articles, as well as old ads.

4

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

Continuing my research on the Ijams family, one story caught my attention. In 1940, Arthur Ogden, founding member of the then East Tennessee Ornithological Society (now the brilliant KTOS!), reminisced about the frigid winter of 1886 when he and Harry Ijams (then only 11 years old) skated along the Tennessee River from downtown to Looney Island across from Sequoyah Park.

Can you imagine doing that now?!

Climate change makes you wonder. I think your readers would be fascinated to learn more about the library archive project.

Paul James, executive director Ijams Nature Center Knoxville

EDITOR’S NOTE:

For more on the From Papers to Pixels Campaign, head to knoxmercury.com for Jack Neely’s Sept. 11 article, “Knox County Public Library Foundation’s Ambitious Paper to Pixels Project.”

MAYBE IT’S JUST SOME TEMPORARY ALGAE In response to John thomas Oaks’ letter of Jan. 14, 2016 [“Where Are the Local Outdoor Artists?”]: “Being an artist in Knoxville is like trying to skip stones on a stagnant pond.”

Roger Smith Powell

Send your letters to: Our Dear Editor Knoxville Mercury 706 Walnut St., Suite 404 Knoxville, TN 37920 Send an email to: editor@knoxmercury.com Or message us at: facebook.com/knoxmercury

BACK ISSUES: ORDER NOW!

That’s right—our online store now offers you the ability to order physical copies of back issues and engage a human being to deliver them to your home. It’s just that easy! Meanwhile, you can also shop for all of our Knoxville Mercury goods and services. We’ve got merchandise, League of Supporter memberships, and amazingly enough, classified ads! And remember, all proceeds go to a worthy cause: keeping your favorite weekly paper in business.

Go to: store.knoxmercury.com.

EDITORIAL EDITOR Coury Turczyn coury@knoxmercury.com SENIOR EDITOR Matthew Everett matthew@knoxmercury.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jack Neely jack@knoxhistoryproject.org STAFF WRITERS S. Heather Duncan heather@knoxmercury.com Clay Duda clay@knoxmercury.com CONTRIBUTORS

Chris Barrett Ian Blackburn Patrice Cole Eric Dawson George Dodds Lee Gardner Mike Gibson Carey Hodges Nick Huinker Donna Johnson

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

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

Charlie Finch Corey McPherson CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

David Luttrell Shawn Poynter Justin Fee Tyler Oxendine CONTRIBUTING ILLUSTRATORS

Ben Adams Matthew Foltz-Gray

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

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

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 706 Walnut St., Suite 404, Knoxville, Tenn. 37902 knoxmercury.com • 865-313-2059 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR & PRESS RELEASES editor@knoxmercury.com CALENDAR SUBMISSIONS calendar@knoxmercury.com SALES QUERIES sales@knoxmercury.com DISTRIBUTION distribution@knoxmercury.com

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Terry Hummel Joe Sullivan Jack Neely Coury Turczyn Charlie Vogel The Knoxville Mercury is an independent weekly news magazine devoted to informing and connecting Knoxville’s many different communities. It is a taxable, not-for-profit company governed by the Knoxville History Project, a non-profit organization devoted to exploring, disseminating, and celebrating Knoxville’s unique cultural heritage. It publishes 25,000 copies per week, available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. © 2016 The Knoxville Mercury

Keep Independent Journalism Alive in Knoxville!

By making a donation to the Knoxville Mercury, you'll help us fulfill our mission to report stories that otherwise wouldn't be told. You'll be teaming up with an entire community of engaged citizens who want more from their local media. And you can earn some cool perks: Get the MERCURY MESSENGER E-NEWSLETTER and see the paper $35 SUPPORTER LEVEL a day early with info on restaurants, shows, and events.

All of the above, plus exclusive KNOXVILLE MERCURY LEVEL TRAVEL MUG only available to supporters. $75 PARTNER All of the above, plus four tickets to our ANNUAL FUNDRAISING $200 PATRON LEVEL CONCERT at the Bijou Theatre and pre-show party.

All of the above, plus a KNOXVILLE MERCURY $500 INVESTOR LEVEL ART BOOK featuring a year’s worth of covers.

All of the above, plus invitations to our ANNUAL FOUNDERS’ PARTY LEVEL where you can meet Knoxville’s movers and shakers. $1000 FOUNDER

To donate, simply complete the form below, tear it out and send it to us with your contribution.

Name:

Email:

Street Address:

City, State:

Zip:

Amount dontated: Check attached:

Yes

No

May we thank you by name (not amount) on our website and ads?

Yes

No

Mail form and check to Knoxville Mercury Attn: League of Supporters 706 Walnut St., Suite 404 Knoxville, TN 37902

OR DONATE ONLINE AT: store.knoxmercury.com

January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 5

thinkstock.com

HOWDY

BY THE NUMBERS

The Bible Belt

553 271,980

Religious congregations said to be active in Knox County in 2010.

Active religious folk worshiping in Knox County (or at least belonging to a congregation) in 2010.

13 Roadside Sketches by Andrew Gresham (agreshamphoto.com)

3rd

Knox County’s ranking compared with other Tennessee counties for the total number of practicing religious observers. Only Shelby County around Memphis and Davidson County around Nashville boast more active religious folk.

QUOTE FACTORY “ The provisions of the bill could jeopardize federal funding if it is determined the state is noncompliant with federal law.”

2

—The state’s fiscal note on the Tennessee Natural Marriage Defense Act, a bill (set for a Jan. 20 vote) that would “defend natural marriage as recognized by the people of Tennessee in the State Constitution” by nullifying federal law. The note goes on to say that such a nullification would jeopardize approximately $6,510,520,500 in federal funding for TennCare and over $2 billion for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs. But that’ll really show ’em!

—Clay Duda

PUBLIC AFFAIRS

1/21 MEETING: MAGNOLIA AVENUE STREETSCAPING THURSDAY

5:30-7 p.m., John T. O’Connor Senior Center (611 Winona St.). Free.

Magnolia Avenue’s eventual makeover gets one step closer. The city will review the final designs for improvements between Jessamine and North Bertrand streets, including better sidewalks, bike lanes, raised medians, bus pull-offs, and more. There will be a two-week public comment period following the meeting.

Email ideas or comments:. dmfoster@knoxvilletn.gov.

6

Non-Christian congregations in Knox County, including three Muslim groups, two Hindu, two Unitarian Universalist, one Buddhist, one Sikh, three Jewish, one Bahá’í, and six followers of Zoroastrian (though they do not have a formal congregation).

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

1/22 GRAND OPENING: THE 1400 FRIDAY

6-9 p.m., 1400 N. 6th Ave. Free.

A new month, a new collective art space! The 1400 promises to be our latest creative venue for artists, musicians, and filmmakers. Its debut features the work of artists Thomas O’Connor, Ryan McCown, Kaitlyn Nagel, Joseph Grant Barbour, and K’hey Millionz. There’ll be DJ sets by A Certain Zone and Fanatic Brewing Company’s craft wares will be in the house.

1/24 SOUNDS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST SUNDAY

2 p.m., Sandra G. Powell Recital Hall at the Natalie L. Haslam Music Center. Free.

Knoxville doesn’t often get Middle Eastern musical performances, so this is a rare opportunity provided by UT’s Ready for the World Music Series—be sure to go before the Tennessee Legislature launches an investigation. Performing will be the Arabesque Ensemble of Chicago. Cultural exhibits and a reception will begin at 12:30 p.m. in the lobby.

Giant steel crosses visible from Interstate 75 near Knoxville. One of the roughly 100-foot-tall structures is located near Sugarlimb southwest of town, another near LaFollete north toward Kentucky.

Source: The most recent statistics from the Association of Religion Data Archives at Pennsylvania State University

1/25 WRITERS IN THE LIBRARY MONDAY

7 p.m., Lindsay Young Auditorium of UT’s John C. Hodges Library. Free.

UT Libraries and the Creative Writing Program is kicking off a semester-long celebration of poetry and music with performances by, coincidentally enough, accomplished poet-singers RB Morris and Matt Urmy.

Usually, you have to pay to see these guys!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Details about this unique event coming soon.

January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 7

ARCHITECTURE MATTERS

Past-Forward: Part 1 A vow to focus on construction rather than destruction

“What’s past is prologue.”

—William Shakespeare, The Tempest

T

he ancient Romans had a useful double-faced god called Janus (Ianuarius). He presided over war and was the guardian of transitions and portals. The start of a new year is a Janusian time, literally; the Romans named January in his honor. The year’s first month always seems a time to straddle the fence before lurching forward into the unknown.

A few weeks before Christmas the short list of candidates to design the Obama Presidential Library was released. Whichever of the seven architects is chosen, their portfolios make clear that the Obama library will not be a jot like Robert A. M. Stern’s George W. Bush Library. Nor will it be much like Hugh Stubbins’ Ronald Reagan Library, a 243,000 square foot rambling neo-Mission Style villa glommed onto a monumental box of a building housing Air Force One. The big box notwithstanding, the Mission Style part is intended to provoke memories of a regional California colonial architecture that dates back to when the state was still large swaths of Spanish-owned haciendas.

Perhaps more than most cultural artifacts, viewed in the proper light, these emblems writ large reveal much about the character of the president they represent, and the culture out of which that presidency emerged.

8

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

Rather than looking backward to Mussolini’s Italy, as Mr. Stern did for Mr. Bush, or replicating a facile notion of a Spanish colonial ranch as Mr. Stubbins produced for “the Gipper,” the Obama library will be forward looking. In short, it will be modern.

Leaving aside the question of architectural character for a moment, one may wonder how these institutions came into being and who pays for them. It may seem that presidential libraries have been around since there have been presidents; they are, however, a relatively new phenomenon in American politics.

In 1939, with a second Great War beginning in Europe, and a decade-long Depression far from ending at home, Franklin Delano Roosevelt began seeking private funds to establish the first of these libraries, an idea all his own. Although Congress would not codify their formation until Harry Truman’s second term in office, FDR’s Presidential Library, in Hyde Park, New York, was dedicated five months before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. All presidential libraries are privately funded, most managed by the National Archives; Mr. Obama’s will be the 14th.

At the inaugural dedication of the first one, Roosevelt commented: “To bring together the records of the past and to house them in buildings where they will be preserved for the use of men and women in the

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons

BY GEORGE DODDS

future, a Nation must believe in three things.

“It must believe in the past.

“It must believe in the future.

“It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgment in creating their own future.”

Speaking on his family’s Hyde Park estate where he spent much of his youth and early adulthood, part of which he had donated in perpetuity to the nation to house his presidential papers, it would have been understandable had he lapsed into nostalgia. Yet, the text of his address, preserved in his archive, reveals just the opposite. Unsentimental in purpose, he forecasted the use of a legacy still unfinished, as the foundation for envisioning a future not yet delineated.

Visiting the Hyde Park estate, now under the stewardship of the

Future (1935, Robert Aitken) northeast corner, National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. National Park Service, walking through the meticulously maintained period rooms of the main house, it is easy for one to see only the vestiges of things past, to revel in the memento mori of the Victorians and Edwardians who dwelled among them. This, however, would miss FDR’s point entirely, as have several of the recent presidential libraries. The true value of the archival institution he created is not preservation and remembrance for their own sake, but as instruments of change—for the emancipation of potential futures from the bonds of a perpetual present tense that otherwise blinds us to, as FDR might have put it, the lessons of the past.

For many this is the rub with both Mr. Obama’s presidency in particular, and the modern architecture the president has favored, in general. It is what makes so many uncomfortable

about a tall, lithe, articulate, liberally-minded and well-educated African American in the Oval Office and it is what makes many of the same, if not more, uncertain about the value of this thing called modern.

Both were conceived as forward-looking, paradigm-shifting events. Each signaled change. Of course, not all change is good, nor is it always forward moving. History bursts at the seams with examples of each. “To learn from the past,” one must be open to such possibilities so “that [one] can gain in judgment in creating [one’s] own future.” That would be yet another rub.

Locally, one simply needs to take a moment to look around our city, not as something to get through, connecting home and office, but rather much like presidential libraries—as a representation. While the libraries represent a presidency and a personality, cities represent, in a more general way, the people who, over the course of centuries or millennia, construct them.

Getting out of one’s car is a great way to understand a city from a radically different perspective. From this interloper’s station point, one sees that much of the new construction in Knoxville—commercial, institutional, and residential—seems designed to provoke vague memories of a past that, much like Reagan’s “shining city on a hill,” never really existed, at least not for the 99 percent of us. Worse yet, in many cases, well-designed and well-constructed modern buildings are being demolished willy-nilly, replaced by insipid dreck intended to depreciate faster than the average home mortgage.

Far too many local losses of this sort have been chronicled in this paper of late. Rather than turning this column into a de facto obituary for mid-century modern buildings in Knoxville (the list grows longer each month), the start of a new year seems a good time to focus on new construction—it’s time to look forward. In my next column I will discuss two projects currently under construction by important Knoxville institutions, one forward looking, the other not, and the implications of each. ◆

You can support local, independent journalism with gear, back issues, classified ads, and donations.

All are available in our new online store.

George Dodds is the Alvin and Sally Beaman Professor of Architecture at the University of Tennessee. Architecture Matters explores issues concerning the human-made environment in Knoxville and its environs.

January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 9

SCRUFFY CITIZEN

Our Coliseum It’s about 1,880 years newer than the one in Rome— but may not last as long

BY JACK NEELY

T

he Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum dilemma illustrates a challenge to preservation practice and theory. The value of historic preservation is easier to prove with smaller buildings. In any building of less than 50,000 square feet, a building with so many historical associations would be a slam-dunk for preservation.

Mahalia Jackson performed there in 1961, the year it opened, in a dramatic era. Bob Dylan played there early in his concert career. Since then it’s seen Duke Ellington, Eric Clapton, Johnny Cash, the Jackson 5, Betty Grable, Gladys Knight, Willie Nelson, Myrna Loy, Cat Stevens, Michael Redgrave, Nelson Eddy, Isaac Hayes, Guy Lombardo, Bruce Springsteen, the Temptations, the Monkees. It’s a kaleidoscope of 20th-century culture.

Some shows weren’t just another stop on the tour. Country demigod George Jones’ final show, a couple of weeks before his death, was almost three years ago. Electric-guitar icon Randy Rhoads’ final show was in the same room, just before his fatal plane crash in early 1982. In his memoir, Keith Richards specifically mentioned the Rolling Stones’ second show in that same big room was one of the best shows of their legendary 1972 tour. Later the same year, soul/funk legend James Brown, who performed there several times, was arrested on the premises for disorderly conduct and assaulting a police officer. During the World’s Fair, it saw Bob Hope, and

10

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

became one of the very few venues in America ever to host the famous Kabuki Dancers. In 1983, it was on global TV when it hosted the Miss Universe pageant.

Richard Nixon spoke there when he was running for president in 1968.

It was the birthplace of the Knoxville Opera Company. In 1999, the Auditorium was the setting for the national broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion.

The history’s there, but practical answers aren’t coming as quick as they would with a smaller building.

If I were on a jury to consider its fate, I would have to recuse myself.

It’s a legend in my life, too. The first dozen circuses I ever saw were in that big room. The first hockey game; naturally, it was where Knoxville pro hockey was born, more than 50 years ago, when the Knoxville Knights played in an East Coast division. And my first big rock concert. If you’ve never heard of Uriah Heep, I’m here to tell you, for at least a couple of hours in 1974 that British heavy-metal band was monumentally important.

So many elementary-school field trips, plays like Dick Whittington and his Cat. So many Sunday afternoon travelogues, movies about Bali or Tunisia, presented by an adventurer in a pith helmet.

The only time I was ever center stage there was more than 40 years ago, when I donned a tuxedo to escort a young woman as she was “presented” there. It was a bit awkward. I

hardly knew her, and she was dating another fellow at the time. I haven’t heard from her since the Ford administration. But for a few seconds, in the spotlight at the Civic Coliseum, we were a famous couple.

In 1974, my dad and I saw the closed-circuit transmission of the Evel Knievel fiasco at the Snake River Canyon. Rather than accomplishing the incredible with a rocket-powered motorcycle, he parachuted to safety. It was the first time I ever heard Dad cuss.

One of the most fun evenings of my life was working backstage with the Prairie Home show. The crew was enthralled with the bizarre décor of the backstage, adorned with hundreds of show posters and autographs.

Later, my daughter graduated from high school there.

I’ve been by less frequently in recent years. The last several times I attended shows of any length there, I squirmed in the uncomfortable seats.

Were they always that hard?

And when I hear about tearing it down, I think, well, that’s a shame, I guess. Modern architecture just isn’t porous enough to absorb our affections.

It came about after more than 30 years of talking about it. A civic auditorium was proposed in 1929, then delayed by the Depression. A 1950 referendum narrowly defeated an elaborate plan to build a major civic center on the northwestern corner of downtown, between Union and Jackson. Then some wanted to put it near the river, where we eventually put the City-County Building. Then it was the urban-renewal era, with its federal mandate for slum clearance, that offered a new site, the predominantly black residential area on the east side of downtown.

There were plans to put it on Central Street; then farther east, just this side of Mulvaney Street; then farther east still, the other side of Mulvaney.

It was very near downtown, but kept its distance, as if skeptical of the concept. It seems suburban, but back then that’s what people liked about it.

“Unlike so much of today’s architecture, which screams economy and penny-pinching inside and out,” noted the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in early 1962, Knoxville’s Civic Coliseum “is beautiful. Outside, by day or night, the textured concrete walls have a golden glow. Inside the color scheme from the concert hall to the manager’s office is a gay and lighthearted yellow and orange. The building is surrounded on four sides by grass, trees, shrubbery and terraces, and is topped with a barrel-shaped roof someone compared to a giant caterpillar.” The feature article proceeded to speculate how Atlanta could learn from Knoxville’s obvious success.

Five or six years ago I talked to its architect, Bruce McCarty, about the Civic Coliseum. He introduced modernism to mainstream Knoxville with graceful and functional buildings. He was proud of much of his work, but he seemed a little sheepish about that particular one, for which he presented plans in 1958, to evoke images of a circus tent. He told me he didn’t think his design had aged well.

Few walk there after dinner or drinks. And after a show, people walk mainly to their cars. As, in 1961, was the ideal.

It’s all history. The Civic Coliseum is old enough now to qualify for the National Register of Historic Places. And it does tell an interesting story. ◆

It was very near downtown, but kept its distance, as if skeptical of the concept.

It seems suburban, but in 1961 that’s what people liked about it.

Photo by McCord Pagan

Second Effort Social-justice activists form local branch of Showing Up for Racial Justice

BY MCCORD PAGAN

F

or white East Tennessee residents interested in assisting minority justice movements like Black Lives Matter Knoxville and Comite Popular de Knoxville (an organization for undocumented immigrants), there is now a home: Showing Up for Racial Justice-865.

While SURJ-865 is still deciding on its formal leadership structure and some aspects of its programming, nearly all of the two dozen supporters at its second meeting on Jan. 11 were interested in aiding in the struggle for racial and social justice in Knox, Anderson, Blount, and Jefferson counties.

Attendees at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church on Kingston Pike discussed issues such as how to engage their white friends in healthy, meaningful debate about race, plans to assist groups like Black Lives Matter without talking down to minorities, and how or even if they should use their self-described white privilege to assist minorities. Although people of all backgrounds are welcome, SURJ is designed to encourage white activists to participate in social-justice movements and with minorities in their struggle for

equality, while respecting such groups’ autonomy and independence.

“Black folks need their own space, separate from the problems that can come from having to deal with white folks in those spaces, and just free of all those complications to plan their own liberation effectively, and it’s our job to support it, not tell them how to do that work,” says Alex Fields, spokesperson for SURJ-865.

As the local chapter of Black Lives Matter only accepts blacks as members—which organizers say is an effort to establish a “black space” for frank conversation—SURJ-865 is designed to give white activists an organization to rally around in the pursuit of racial justice, whether it is in support of Black Lives Matter initiatives or fighting to give undocumented immigrants in Tennessee in-state tuition. It was only after a request by local Black Lives Matter organizers that SURJ-865 was created. Founding members of both Knoxville groups work for the Highlander Research and Education Center, an organization in New Market dedicated to grassroots activism in Appalachia and the South.

While it may appear ironic that Black Lives Matter Knoxville does not

allow whites and other non-blacks as members, local BLM organizer André Canty points out that the organization works with many groups of different backgrounds. But those most affected by racial discrimination should be the ones taking the lead in effecting change, he says, instead of the other way around.

“When it comes to any kind of issue, whether it’s black lives or for poor whites in Appalachia, the people most affected should meet and they should lead the charge,” Canty says, “And then those not affected and allies, in this case white people, then collaborate once we’re ready and once we’re organized.”

Organized in October, the local SURJ chapter of the national organization is still brand new. The second meeting of SURJ-865 was supposed to be in November, but the leadership postponed it since it fell on the same day as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s visit to Knoxville.

Instead, they encouraged members to join the protest against the outspoken, anti-immigration candidate.

To support racial justice and groups like Black Lives Matter, SURJ-865 will go into white commu-

nities, churches, and workplaces to get more people involved, Fields says.

While the organization is still identifying areas where it can help, the group marched in Knoxville’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day rally on Monday.

“In the longer run, we’d like to start planning events of our own, taking direct action, and doing whatever we can to get white folks active from every level,” Fields says, “Whether it’s organizing study groups or workshops for Sunday school class, whatever ways we can reach more white folks.”

Fran Ansley, a retired instructor from the University of Tennessee, noted that even during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, black activists told their white counterparts that they had a responsibility to organize their own groups to bring in more white people.

“Many of the black leaders said to the white students, ‘Y’all need to stop trying to boss us around, you need to let us make our movement ourselves, and we would like you to go organize white people to join our movement.

That’s what we need,’” Ansley says.

“There is a need for white people to talk to other white people about [racial equality], to recognize that the [Black Lives Matter] movement, though it is black-led, and it should be black-led, that white people have a part in it as allies,” Canty says.

While the national SURJ group was organized in 2009 to counteract the racist rhetoric that increased in the wake of President Barack Obama’s election, the group has seen a recent surge in interest by white activists looking for ways to fight for racial justice since the protests in Ferguson, Mo., says Pam McMichael, director of the Highlander Research and Education Center and one of the national founders of SURJ. “The growth of chapters has really escalated as more and more white people have wanted to step forward,” she says.

The organization now has more than 100 chapters, according to its website, and has a goal of 7 million members.

SURJ-865 operates in Knox, Anderson, Blount, and Jefferson counties, and meets the third Monday of each month in the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church. More information on the group is available at facebook.com/SURJ865/ and by emailing 865surj@gmail.com. ◆ January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 11

PART 3 OF A 3-PART SERIES

PARC’s mission is to investigate KPD complaints on behalf of the community— but many feel it’s not effective enough

BY S. HEATHER DUNCAN

12

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

W

hen Latasha Williams opened the door around 8 a.m. on that surreal morning in May 2012, a police officer was standing there, holding a picture of her husband.

Did she know this man?

Marcus Charles Williams had died at 3:23 a.m., after falling from an interstate overpass. Latasha, suddenly a single mother, was overwhelmed. Her husband was gone, plus there were all these duties and details to handle, from the funeral to retrieving her car from the police. But she thought at least the police would be able to answer the question racing through her mind: Did her husband jump?

“It probably wasn’t a big deal to anybody else, but to us it’s very important for us to know exactly what happened,” Latasha Williams says. “If he slipped, that changes everything, because he left behind kids.”

But she says the investigator wouldn’t return her phone calls. So she tried to learn for herself what had happened by requesting a copy of the video recording from one of the police cruisers.

It didn’t show what she needed to see. But she could hear the officers at the scene joking about her husband’s death and about a past suicide.

“To hear them laughing and talking about how he was sweating and crying—that made me feel they didn’t do as much as they could have to help him,” Williams says. “It makes me wonder, do y’all care to protect and serve as you took the oath to do?”

In frustration, after more than a year of seeking answers, she called the mayor’s office and was referred to the office of the Police Advisory Review Committee, or PARC. PARC, which reports directly to the mayor, was established more than 17 years ago to investigate complaints against the Knoxville Police Department and make recommendations about its policies. PARC was designed specifically to be less intimidating to the public than filing a complaint with the KPD Internal Affairs Unit.

Williams filed her complaint with PARC in June of 2013, and PARC executive director Avice Reid requested a copy of the relevant dashcam video the same day. However, Reid’s case notes indicate she didn’t actually watch the video or talk with police about the incident until January, 2015—a year and a half after the complaint was filed.

“Even when I called Ms. Reid, it

took more than a year to get back to me, and I just felt as if nobody cared,” Williams says.

Reid says she can’t remember the reason for the delay, but that most cases don’t take that long to conclude.

Critics say PARC is not representative, independent, or accessible enough to serve its intended purpose.

Joe Tolbert Jr., a young black Knoxville social activist now attending divinity school, says he thinks poor blacks don’t bother to file complaints with PARC because they’ve written it off as unresponsive.

PARC staff members have a reputation for not calling back or following up, he says.

“They do make a lot of effort, but there’s so much more they could be doing,” he says.

Tolbert says he first became aware of PARC in high school, after an unarmed family member was shot by a policeman and the family filed a complaint with PARC. They felt the effort was unsuccessful because the officer was never charged in the killing, he says.

Dr. Joe Kendrick, executive director of Knoxville Community Step Up, says he learned PARC existed only last August, at a community forum sponsored by his group, which aims to keep black men from the cycle of prison. Kendrick, a lifelong community activist, says half the people in the audience had never heard of PARC either.

As a city department that has no professional investigator and can’t veto police decisions, “They don’t have any power,” Kendrick says. “It’s almost like the fox guarding the henhouse.”

PARC officials say the agency could be more effective if residents showed up to PARC meetings and reported complaints more. And police say PARC is a valuable partner in improving policies and providing training.

“For those who think PARC is not effective, I would tell them they don’t understand PARC and the daily communication we have with them,” says Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch. “The board asks hard questions, and many times those questions get us to dig deeper.”

Liana Perez, the director of operations for the National Associa-

PART THREE OF A THREE-PART SERIES:

the Knoxville Police Department DEC. 17 - THE POLICE Checks and Balances: How well does KPD police its own officers?

JAN. 14 - THE COMMUNITY Equal Protection: Can KPD overcome the doubts of Knoxville’s black community?

“They don’t have any power. It’s almost like the fox guarding the henhouse.”

—DR. JOE KENDRICK, executive director, Knoxville Community Step Up

JAN. 21 - THE ARBITRATOR Citizen Review: Does the Police Advisory Review Committee hold KPD accountable?

Read them all online at knoxmercury.com,

tion of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE), says there has been little study of what features make groups like PARC successful.

The association has recently been awarded a small U.S. Department of Justice grant to help it identify what structures and best practices are most common and effective.

PARC’S ROLE

Knoxville’s Police Advisory Review Committee has seven members, who meet quarterly, plus a full-time executive director. Reid was a longtime senior project manager for the Tennessee Valley Authority and was serving as chairman of the PARC board when she was offered the executive director job in 2008. She replaced the first PARC director, Carol Scott, who retired. On Tuesday, Mayor Madeline Rogero named Reid the city’s senior director of community relations, with additional oversight of its Save Our Sons initiative and the Equal Business Opportunity Program; a new PARC director will be named later.

Reid takes citizen complaints, reviews KPD internal affairs cases and department policies, and conducts diversity training for police officers. Sometimes she accompanies citizens to city court or conducts mediation between a citizen and police. Reid also serves on the board of NACOLE. According to NACOLE, there are more than 200 civilian oversight groups in the U.S. In places like Chicago, Seattle, and San Francisco, they investigate police behavior. Other

“For those who think PARC is not effective, I would tell them they don’t understand PARC and the daily communication we have with them.”

—David Rausch Knoxville Police Chief

January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 13

“For the most part, people leave here in a better situation than when they came.”

—AVICE REID, executive director, Police Advisory Review Committee

AVICE REID

14

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

oversight agencies just review investigations and policy. Some have final decision-making authority, and a few even employ an independent law-enforcement auditor.

Knoxville’s citizen oversight group is stronger than many because it has subpoena powers and reports to the mayor rather than the police chief.

But it has neither an investigator nor the last word on punishments and policy changes.

Reid says she doesn’t think PARC has ever used its subpoena powers, but it doesn’t have to—the police provide information when requested because they know PARC has the power to get it. Besides, Reid says, KPD is cooperative, even giving her real-time access to all its dashcam footage.

Rausch says PARC has influenced KPD training. For example, after a case in which a policeman used a knife to cut a homeless man’s lanyard, PARC asked whether the department was training officers on the appropriate use of knives. Although most officers carry a knife, knives aren’t issued by the department, so its leaders hadn’t thought of that, Rausch says. At PARC’s recommendation, police are now trained in using a knife as both a tool—to free a person trapped by a seat belt after a wreck, for example—and a weapon of last resort.

Sometimes PARC cases bring to light problems and gaps. “We have said, ‘The officer followed policy, but this policy is not right’” about two or three times a year, Reid says.

Sometimes KPD changes its policy as a result. Sometimes it doesn’t.

Each PARC board member independently reviews all the documents and footage from KPD internal affairs cases as well as PARC cases in which the citizen was unsatisfied with Reid’s response.

Reid says Rausch often comes to PARC meetings. If he doesn’t, he sends a deputy chief.

Rausch says PARC is helpful, but, “My role is to make PARC disappear, because I want the public to have the confidence that they can come to us with anything.”

Until then, unlike the KPD Internal Affairs Unit, PARC opens a case on every complaint it receives, Reid says.

Reid pulls any related police documents and video and often talks with supervisors or captains about the incident. She reports the result back to the citizen. She won’t necessarily share the exact nature of any discipline an officer might receive, because that’s influenced by other factors in the officer’s personnel file, she says.

“For the most part, people leave here in a better situation than when they came,” Reid says. Even if they aren’t happy with the outcome, she says, “They better understand the officer’s actions” and police department policy.

From its founding in September 1998 through Sept. 30, 2015, PARC had closed a whopping 2,241 cases, according to its third-quarter 2015 operations report. During 2014, PARC opened 103 cases and closed 100, according to its annual report.

(Some cases opened each year extend into the next.)

A review of PARC complaints for 2014 showed five dealing with excessive force, four with unnecessary force, four with racial discrimination or profiling, and four with harassment. Several recent PARC complaints about police brutality were discredited by dashcam video that showed police handling the complainant gently or showed the person using body parts in a normal way after claiming significant injuries.

In 2014, the highest number of PARC complaints by far—35—dealt with rudeness. Many hinge on the legitimacy of traffic stops, tickets, or towing.

Although PARC was established partly to combat racism in policing, a majority of PARC complaints usually come from white people, Reid says.

It’s hard to tell for sure because the margins are very slim and PARC labels the ethnicity of some as “unknown” (15 percent, in the first three quarters of 2015).

Reid also says she doesn’t see a higher volume of complaints from East Knoxville, where many of the city’s poorest black neighborhoods are located. Because she and her executive assistant mark some complaints with a location but not others, it’s impossible to tally these for sure.

For the first three quarters of 2015, PARC files showed many contacts aren’t actually complaints.

Citizens also call to report crimes or request information.

Reid says she may meet with police officials if she sees a pattern of similar complaints about a particular officer, even if they were deemed to be unfounded. She says she also looks into police-related incidents that make the news. But she was unfamiliar with several heavily-reported cases involving officers whose dashcam recordings were missing in disputed drug searches of black suspects.

PROBLEMS WITH PARC

PARC has the potential to change the way police and black residents relate to each other, but many say it hasn’t lived up to its promise.

Community activists criticize the makeup of the PARC committee and how its members are chosen.

The board is too old, wealthy, and well-educated, say Tolbert and others.

Reid says their age is partly because they need to be vested in the community, and younger people tend to be less settled.

The seven-member board includes just three minorities: two blacks and one Hispanic.

No one has complaints about specific board members, but critics say they wish the committee included neighborbood-level leaders from “high-crime” areas.

“If they would have a board that would be more inclusive—come from Walter P. [Taylor Homes], come from

the Burlington area—people would feel more comfortable talking to those people,” says Diane Jordan, a former longtime Knox County commissioner representing East Knoxville. Jordan’s brother Kevin Taylor was murdered in 2004 after a botched cocaine delivery, and two of her eight sons served time for drug convictions.

Elandria Williams grew up in Powell and works for the Highlander Research and Education Center, a nonprofit that supports grassroots community organizing. She argues that the board should include a parent or grandparent who has lost a child to a police shooting.

“The people most impacted by issues of being criminalized are not up there, not only in terms of race but class,” Tolbert says. “Upper middle class, black or white, usually don’t have to come into contact with police the same way that the poor and working class do.”

Elandria Williams, Tolbert, and Andre Canty, who have all been associated with the local Black Lives Matter movement, say they are also uncomfortable with PARC members being appointed by the mayor.

“I feel like anything that is an appointed thing is only going to work so far, because no one is going to appoint you to make their life difficult,” Elandria Williams says. “It’s solely dependent on you having someone in that office who actually thinks that’s important.”

In most cities, the members of police oversight boards may be nominated by a mayor or city manager, but are also confirmed by City Council, according to documents on NACOLE’s website. In some places, each Council member appoints a representative from his or her district.

Ron Davis was one of the organizers of Citizens for Police Review, a nonprofit created in the 1990s to advocate for greater oversight of the Knoxville Police Department. (In 1998, four men, three of them black, died in the span of seven months after altercations with police. Two of the black men were unarmed, and one was suicidal.) The group helped draft the structure of PARC. Davis says it was always a challenge to create an independent oversight group funded by the city it is overseeing.

Davis says it’s a weakness that PARC doesn’t have its own investigator. Reid refers cases to the police

department’s Internal Affairs Unit when she thinks the investigation may involve a serious policy violation or when the number of witnesses may require more manpower, she says.

(Someone making a PARC complaint can always request a referral to Internal Affairs, too.)

The PARC board can ask KPD for more information about Internal Affairs cases before deciding if they agree with the department’s findings.

Their disagreement doesn’t require police to make changes, however.

Rausch says it’s rare for the department to change its disciplinary decisions based on PARC’s comments. “A lot of times they don’t understand the nuance,” he says.

“I think it needs to be more than recommendations,” says Canty, who is also president of 100 Black Men of Greater Knoxville, which aims to empower minority youth. “There needs to be more weight to it.”

If PARC is dissatisfied with how the police handle an issue, it could take its concerns to the mayor. Reid says she’s never had to do this.

Reid says the fact that they work closely together shows the police are open to constructive criticism and support PARC’s goals. The police chief who served before Rausch, Sterling P. Owen IV, was PARC chairman when he was chosen for the top cop job.

“It’s important to have a relationship with the chief, because we like to resolve issues without running it through the mayor every time,” Reid says.

Davis says he thinks PARC has good intentions. “But it realized that it can’t get anything done unless the police cooperate,” he says. “So PARC ends up appearing to do a lot of cooperating with the police department, which makes the community feel PARC is just an appendage of the police department.”

Jordan says that leads citizens to feel that no one is on their side. “They don’t consider [PARC] their forum,” she says. “They consider that the police’s forum. They don’t have any trust or faith in that at all.” Jordan served on Knox County Commission during the police shootings of the 1990s—she or her sons knew many of the victims—and advocated for PARC to be created. But now she says she doesn’t think it works.

Darius Hunt, a young black man

from East Knoxville who is on parole for a drug conviction, says he believes he was often profiled by police before he got involved with drugs. He says he received more than a dozen tickets in a year for minor traffic violations and was roughly drug-searched when his

BY THE NUMBERS

PARC NATURE OF CASES (Note: Some complaints involve more than one type allegation and therefore, this total may exceed the total number of case complaints) JANUARY 1, 2014 – DECEMBER 31, 2014 # OF CALLS TYPE OF COMPLAINT

35

8

8

6

5

5

5

4 4

4

3

2

2

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1 1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1 1

1 118

Rudeness, Courtesy Violation, Disrespectful Attitude Unlawful/Illegal Citation Citizen’s Advocate Complaints Against Other Agencies or Referrals Excessive Force Failure to Respond to Call/Inappropriate Police Response to Call Unknown Incident Complaints Against KPD & Other Agencies Harassment Unnecessary Force Racial Profiling False or Misleading Information Given by Officer Failure to Make An Arrest Disagrees With Speed on Citation Failure to Coordinate Exchange of Information at Traffic Accident Failure to Follow Proper Procedures Failure to Perform Duty Failure to Return/or Withholding Found Items (Money) Gunshots Heard Illegal Towing of Vehicle Improper/Inappropriate Police Action Improper/Inappropriate Police Action - Aggressive Driving/Speeding Inappropriate/Unprofessional Conduct (Laughing, Profanity, Over-Reaction) Intimidation/Antagonize KPD Failure To Follow Safety/Precautions KPD Lack of Enforcement: Drug Trafficking KPD Lack of Enforcement: Enforcing Noise Ordinance KPD Lack of Enforcement: Investigating Crime KPD Refusal To Accept Proof of Insurance (Electronic, etc.)

KPD Refusal to Provide Written Violation/Citation Lack of Communication between KPD Offices/Depts/Divisions No Incident or Complainant Changed Mind Racial Discrimination Request for Additional Patrol Speed Sign Not Posted Threat By Officer Time Limitation Truthfulness Unnecessary Arrest TOTAL

Source: PARC 2014 Annual Report

January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 15

BY THE NUMBERS

PARC REPORT OF OPERATIONS JANUARY 1, 2014 – DECEMBER 31, 2014

1/1/13 – 12/31/13

1/1/14 – 12/31/14

Total cases brought to PARC (9/22/98 to 12/31/14: 2,223)

89

103

Total cases closed (9/22/98 to 12/31/14: 2,149)

89

100*

PARC cases referred to IAU for the year

0

0

IAU case conclusions in which the Executive Director and Committee concurred with no further review

31

24

IAU cases reviewed by the Executive Director and Committee where additional investigation was requested

9

10

White Male White Female Total White

23 (26%) 26 (29%) 49 (55%)

35 (34%) 18 (17%) 53 (51%)

African American Male African American Female Total African American

10 (11%) 21 (24%) 31 (35%)

28 (27%) 13 (13%) 41 (40%)

Hispanic Male Hispanic Female Total Hispanic

1 (1%) 0 (0%) 1 (1%)

1 (1%) 1 (1%) 2 (2%)

Unknown Ethnicities

8 (9%)

7 (7%)

Ethnic/Gender origin of case complainants:

* Includes (1) Case Closed from 2011, (5) Cases Closed from 2012 & (19) Cases Closed from 2013 Source: PARC 2014 Annual Report

car broke down in an intersection. But he says he has never considered filing a PARC case because the committee sides with police most of the time.

“Their checks are being cut by the same people,” says Hunt. “So why wouldn’t they look out for each other?”

PARC is part of the city’s community relations division and doesn’t have its own budget, but its annual expenses run roughly $162,000, says Eric Vreeland, city communications manager. PARC salaries (for Reid and an executive assistant who works 30 hours a week for the office) total $136,670, Vreeland says.

16

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

Although PARC “takes all complaints,” there are some barriers to using its services. Perhaps the biggest is that Reid doesn’t proceed with an investigation until a complaint is written down so its claims are clear.

“Having to fill out a form is definitely a wall,” Jordan says. “This is a low-income area, low-educated area, a lot of these people have dropped out of school. … They can’t write it up.

They can tell it to you, but they don’t have those kinds of skills. ” The alternative is meeting Reid or coming to her office, but this can be time-consuming and intimidating, especially for someone without a car.

If she never receives a written complaint, Reid attempts to reach the person again but often finds the phone has been disconnected or her message isn’t returned. Then she closes the case. A review of PARC files from the first nine months of 2015 showed that this happens frequently.

Another complication of PARC being a city department is that it won’t take complaints from someone who has hired an attorney, because that could put Reid in the position of gathering evidence for a lawsuit against the city.

“But that doesn’t mean I stop looking at the issues involved,” she says.

Reid can arrange for a citizen to talk directly with an officer or police supervisors to discuss a disagreement. But Jordan says that’s more intimidating than helpful.

“They have these meetings, and when you go to them it’s like going to court,” she says. “They have all their people and you have to come before them. If you made complaint, you feel like you’re the one on the spot, not the officer.”

SPARSE CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT

“What’s disappointing about being on PARC is the minimal participation we get,” says Rosa Mar, a PARC board member and CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “That is important for the community to keep PARC, and also the police department, on its toes. We’re a group of six representing 200,000 people, and we don’t necessarily see all and know all.”

It’s a common problem, Davis says, and the same one that eventually doomed Citizens for Police Review, which fizzled out about four years ago: “If there were no high-profile police

shootings… the energy didn’t maintain,” he says. “Part of the challenge of PARC, as well as the community, was that trying to keep citizens coming out and pushing to hold PARC accountable just didn’t last.”

Elandria Williams agrees. “Once people stopped dying in police custody, people were like, ‘Great!

We’re done!’” she says.

PARC holds its meetings in a different neighborhood of the city each quarter, in an attempt to be more accessible. There was a brief surge in interest last year after the 2014 killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.: Young people showed up to complain generally about police. But Reid says only one person has gotten on the mailing list or come to more meetings.

“It was an opportunity to say how horrible life is, and we need to fix it,” she says. “Well, help us fix it.”

Kendrick says when people at the Community Step Up forum last fall complained about their treatment at the hands of police, Rausch asked repeatedly, “Did you report it?”

“And they said no,” Kendrick says.

“African-American people often believe even if you are going to report something, nothing is going to happen.”

There’s a good reason for that, Tolbert says. He argues that blaming black residents for failing to hold police accountable ignores a long history. That history extends from police sending slaves back to their masters to police beating up Civil Rights protesters to police shootings of unarmed blacks today. The upshot is that PARC should expect to have to do more to engage black residents.

But Rausch and City Councilman Mark Campen speculate that low turnout at PARC meetings indicates Knoxville residents have few concerns about police behavior. In other words, it could be a good sign.

Tolbert and Davis emphasized that “PARC is better than no PARC.” Mar, Reid, and community leaders say a similar board is badly needed as a counterbalance to the Knox County Sheriff’s Office. (Reid often gets complaints about sheriff’s deputies and directs those to the Sheriff’s Office, but says she knows there’s little recourse.)

Latasha Williams received some help from PARC in understanding her

WHAT

PARC 4th Quarter (2015) Meeting

WHEN

Thursday, Jan. 21 at 6 p.m.

PARC Members ROBBIE ARRINGTON 5403 Lyndell Road Knoxville, TN 37918 Term: 07/23/2013 - 06/30/2016

WHERE

ANN BARKER 5400 Smoky Trail Knoxville, TN 37909 Term: 07/01/2015 - 06/30/2018

INFO

STEVEN A. FISHER 608 Tree Ridge Road Knoxville, TN 37922 Term: 07/08/2014 - 06/30/2017

New Friendship Baptist Church (1933 Texas Ave.) 865-215-3869

husband’s 2012 death, but she says the explanation didn’t make much sense to her.

According to Reid’s case notes, Reid told Williams in February 2015 that officers said Marcus Williams had first jumped, then attempted to hold onto a railing over the highway before falling. The police officers who had made insensitive remarks at the scene would not be getting in trouble—their reactions were not unusual coping mechanisms after seeing something traumatic—but their supervisor would talk to them about the need to turn off their mics when they aren’t in contact with citizens.

Reid’s case notes indicate that at the time, Williams thanked Reid for her help.

Latasha Williams’ PARC complaint also dealt with her frustration with the case’s investigator. Williams’ car had been impounded because her husband drove it to the overpass before his death. Her complaint states the investigator had told her he didn’t know if there was a suicide note in the car because the officers weren’t allowed to search it without her permission. But she says she heard officers on the dashcam recording discussing the contents of her car. In addition, Latasha Williams says the investigator never showed up for an appointment to help her retrieve the car, which she had to pay to free from the impound lot per police department policy.

Police spokesman Officer Darrell DeBusk says officers check the car for indentification but don’t search it after

Did you get a A copy?

ROSA MAR 3801 Glenfield Drive Knoxville, TN 37919 Term: 07/01/2015 - 06/30/2018 MELFORD ROBINSON 3921 Skyline Drive Knoxville, TN 37914 Term: 07/08/2014 - 06/30/2017 LAURENS TULLOCK 625 Market St. Suite 1200 Knoxville, TN 37902 Term: 07/23/2013 - 06/30/2016 CYNTHIA WHITE 1913 Pleasant View Lane Knoxville, TN 37914 Term: 07/23/2013 - 06/30/2016 these kinds of incidents. He says the investigator had to cancel his meeting with Latasha Williams but did provide her with information about how to reclaim her car. The investigator declined to speak about the case to the Mercury.

Reid never appears to have followed up on the parts of the complaint dealing with the investigator or the car.

Latasha Williams says she believes that the investigator lied to her and that the officers at the scene were disrespectful, and both should have faced some kind of consequences. But she gave up a while ago: “I had children to take care of, and I couldn’t keep stressing over it.”◆

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

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

January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 17

A&E

P rogram Notes

LOCAL MUSIC REVIEW

White Stag Eos Crux

“S

uspended Cognition,” the opening epic from White Stag’s Eos Crux EP, begins with a dissonant jazz-metal dirge bordering on modern-era King Crimson; acoustic-electric chords cycle progressively higher into an eruption of Meshuggah-style growls and guttural riffs. Then there’s the warped, Zappa-esque wah-wah interlude and the Tool-tinged mantra of atmospheric arpeggios and pounding toms. It’s impossible not to play spot the influence throughout these four dizzying tracks, but White Stag never

settles for cheap imitation—there’s a twist around every corner.

The quartet displayed that fluidity on their debut EP, 2014’s King of the Forest, and last year’s 12-minute behemoth single “The Rhythm of Clockwork,” which incorporated the pastoral flute of frontman Richi Worboys into their convulsive palette.

“The change from the first EP to what we’re writing now is ridiculously drastic,” drummer Eric Sublett told us last year, commenting on their evolution. He’s right: Eos Crux, an appetizer for their forthcoming debut

album, finds the band digging deeper for a unique mish-mashed approach—a bit tech/death metal, a bit symphonic prog, a bit post-rock, and a surprising amount of jazz-fusion.

For its first third, closer “Mothouse” leans closer to conventional indie rock with its chiming electric guitar riffs—and then the band throws the rulebook out the window minutes later by pairing metallic leads with a left-field banjo that alludes to Mastodon’s Crack the Skye. The biggest surprise is “Hyperion,” which weaves in ominous synthesizer and squirming fusion saxophone. Only “Death to Empty Words,” with its brooding, pitch-shifted vocals, fails to raise an eyebrow.

Knoxville’s progressive scene seems to be growing deeper every month. But with Eos Crux, White Stag have positioned themselves near the top of the heap. (Ryan Reed)

It’s impossible not to play spot the influence throughout these four dizzying tracks, but White Stag never settles for cheap imitation—there’s a twist around every corner.

19 18

Shelf Life: James Bond

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

20

Music: Regina Carter

21

Classical: KSO Chamber Classics Series

Pick ’Em LOCAL DESIGNER NAMED OFFICIAL ARTIST FOR GRATEFUL DEAD SERIES In the 10 years that he’s been making concert posters, Justin Helton has circled all around the legacy of the Grateful Dead, with posters for Phil Lesh and Dead and Co., the new all-star tribute featuring Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann— not to mention work for the band’s spiritual heirs like Phish, moe., and String Cheese Incident.

So it’s fitting that Helton, a former designer for AC Entertainment and head of Status Serigraph on West Jackson Avenue, has been named the 2016 artist in residence for Dave’s Picks, a series of official live recordings from the Dead’s archives. That means he’ll design the cover artwork for all four Dave’s Picks releases scheduled for this year.

“My number one criteria is to make something that I not only think is worthy of the Dead and their legacy but something that I am proud of as well,” Helton says in an online interview at dead.net, the band’s website. “Since each release is based around a different show, the time, place and venue of each show go into consideration. Being able to create something that hopefully feels like a fun representation of that night is what I go for while trying to make the art feel like something that fits well within the Dead’s visual history.”

Dave’s Picks, named after Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux, have been issued since 2012. The recordings are available as CD sets from the band’s website. The first release of 2016, featuring a July 1974 set from Fresno, Calif., will be available on Feb. 1. (Matthew Everett)

22

Movies: Taxi

Shelf Life

A&E

Shaken, If Not Stirred How fares Cold War hero James Bond in the age of détente and Blu-ray?

BY CHRIS BARRETT

M

ost people have encountered British Agent James Bond only through the lucrative film franchise that has made him immortal—while making the seven actors who have portrayed him seem, subsequently, particularly mortal. It may surprise viewers to be reminded how spectacularly popular the Bond novels of Ian Fleming, who wrote them as a holiday hobby after retiring from a career in World War II-era espionage, actually were. In the decade before Bond turned up on screen in 1962, the print version of Casino Royale, in which Bond was introduced, enjoyed three printings.

Fleming impressively combined technical experience and keen observation with wit and pathos. The onscreen misogyny and machismo are largely Hollywood add-ons. It seems to sell. Here are some Bond adventures new to Blu-ray and new to KCPL.

DR. NO (1962)

When in doubt, don’t just wear the tuxedo. Be the tuxedo. There is no denying that Sean Connery owned the role. He’s got the walk. He’s got the talk.

He’s got the wardrobe. He’s got Ursula Andress. Bond does not prevail because he’s got the gadgets or the gunpower.

The unflappable Bond foils Doctor Julius No in his ploy to subvert the U.S. space program because he is clearly the coolest human involved. Connery’s Bond radiated superiority. It’s a screen trait that has been scripted for others before and many times since but seldom accomplished so successfully. Notably, we meet administrative functionary Miss Moneypenny in this first film. Her character resembles and was installed in the Bond novels in homage to the woman who typed them for the author.

THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (1987)

An overlooked gem, as is Timothy Dalton as a two-time (and apparently too normal) Bond. What does it tell us about ourselves when we become nostalgic for the Cold War—a known enemy, and what we now longingly refer to as symmetric warfare? What does it tell us about ourselves that we prefer action scenes to CGI? No doubt, something obliquely flattering. Never mind that the scenes took place before the cameras in fake snow using stunt doubles moving at a hundredth of the pace they were later edited to simulate. They were humans in a landscape, as are we. Anyone who considers spy thrillers tripe for the unwashed should probably see this.

Dalton and Maryam d’Abo make a thrilling bobsled escape through the Austrian Alps nesting in her open cello case.

“We started seeing all kinds of views and hits on our Facebook page and realized it was because we were mentioned in the Knoxville Mercury readers’ poll.”

—MARIANE FREITAG, The Bag Lady Boutique

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977)

Fleming based Bond on several real field-agent colleagues from his secret service days. There’s an archived drawing by Fleming of what the author imagined James Bond to look like. The subject of that portrait bears a striking resemblance to Roger Moore. Spy was Moore’s third outing as Bond. One reason the film endures and remains popular is that it introduces the enormous and menacing henchman Jaws (portrayed by the late Richard Kiel). It’s a pretty perfect time capsule, with a fax-machine watch, nuclear warheads on nuclear submarines, and sweet Carly Simon singing the theme song. For those of us who frequent libraries, Simon dates the whole business by having recently turned 70 and just publishing her entering-retirement memoirs.

Agent 007 may envy her. ◆

Our social media savvy readers can help boost your facebook traffic, too.

Deliver your message to our audience of engaged readers. sales@knoxmercury.com 865-333-2048 knoxmercury.com/advertise

January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 19

A&E

Music

Photo by David Katzenstein

First String Regina Carter offers new perspectives on jazz tradition

BY MATTHEW EVERETT

W

hen Regina Carter decided she wanted to switch from classical music to jazz, in the mid 1980s, she faced a dilemma. She was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, but the school didn’t have a jazz program. So she transferred to Oakland University, in Rochester, Mich., near her home town of Detroit, where she found a distinguished jazz department—but no formal program for violin.

“I remember going in to the big-band director there and telling him I want to learn jazz,” Carter says.

“He said, okay, you’re going to sit right

20

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

there with the alto saxophones. You’re going to be in the alto section. He said, breathe when they breathe, listen to how they phrase, just do everything they do. So basically I was learning how to be a saxophone player on violin.”

That unorthodox education paid off—in the 30 years since landing among those undergraduate saxophone players, Carter has become the most celebrated jazz violinist of her generation, known for a full, emotional tone, nearly flawless technique, and a restless creative imagination. With her own band, she has recorded jazz

standards, traditional African music, country and folk tunes, and pieces from the classical canon, and she’s collaborated with Mary J. Blige, Billy Joel, Aretha Franklin, and Wynton Marsalis.

Part of that has been necessity.

Even though the violin has been a part of jazz since its beginnings—from black Southern string bands in the 1920s, New Orleans swing orchestras, and Stéphane Grappelli’s work with the Quintette du Hot Club de France in Paris in the 1930s—it’s an often overlooked and unappreciated instrument. Carter has had to create her own path through the contemporary jazz industry.

“The thing is, people tend to look at instruments and say, that’s not a jazz instrument, or this isn’t a jazz instrument,” Carter says. “But instruments are just pieces of wood, string, metal, whatever they are, plastic. It’s not about the instrument itself, it’s about who’s playing it, whatever music they choose, however they choose to express themselves.”

When she moved to New York in 1991, Carter took any gig she could get—traditional jazz combos, avant-garde groups, pop and R&B sessions. That wide-open approach has remained with her during her solo career. Each of her eight solo albums has been different from the others. In recent years, since winning a MacArthur genius grant in 2006, she’s taken special interest in her own musical roots. Reverse Thread (2010) and Southern Comfort (2014) focus on African folk music and Southern folk and country, respectively, with Carter and her band revisiting and reinterpreting those old forms. Before that, she recorded an album of her late mother’s favorite songs and one combining improvisation with the classical repertoire. (That one, Paganini: After a Dream, from 2003, was recorded with an 18th-century violin that once belonged to Niccolo Paganini.)

Carter’s next project, she says, will be dedicated to the music of Ella Fitzgerald—another opportunity to lend fresh ears to familiar jazz traditions. “It’s celebrating Ella, but

not in a straight-ahead way—just taking the pieces apart and doing something different or new,” Carter says. “I just want to see what I can do with them—I mean, 50 million people do these records. But it takes me a minute to try some new tunes and see what’s going to happen. I can have an idea but if the idea doesn’t really work, I don’t want to force it. I just want to see. I don’t want to disrespect Ella or her music.”

For her show here next week, Carter is leaving her band behind to perform with the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra in a format that will recall her days at Oakland University.

“Big band is probably my favorite configuration to work in,” she says.

“It’s so much fun to hear all that sound around me and just feel the rhythm section and the horns. It’s like being on a train when it really gets moving. … There’s something about big band, and when it’s the right big band and they’re swinging, you know, you can’t sit still. I don’t care what kind of music you like or grew up listening to, when a big band is rocking it, you’re going to be tapping your foot.” ◆

WHO

Regina Carter with the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra

WHERE

The Square Room (4 Market Square)

WHEN

Tuesday, Jan. 26, at 8 p.m.

HOW MUCH $32.50

INFO

knoxjazz.org

Classical

Full Chamber KSO’s small ensembles inspire a classical-music resurgence

BY ALAN SHERROD

I

t’s probably no surprise that the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra’s rise in performance stature over the last five years or so coincides with the expansion of its public and outreach chamber-music programs. That expansion has been fueled by KSO’s Concertmaster Series, programmed by concertmaster Gabriel Lefkowitz and performed by him and a varying assortment of his orchestra colleagues. Another part of the expansion was the elevation of the principal woodwind players to core salaried status in 2013, allowing regular performances by KSO’s Woodwind Quintet in the new Q Series. This expansion comes on top of the existing performances by the KSO Principal Quartet which have, for a number of years, held a spot in the orchestra’s Chamber Classics Series.

How does an increased number of small-ensemble performances positively influence a full orchestra of 75 or so?

Successful chamber-music performances demand musicality, focus, passion, and collaboration while communicating in relatively close quarters with the audience. These are much the same qualities that seem to have inspired the larger group, and they have made the orchestra an ensemble that visibly enjoys working together.

With the holiday music season now over, last week brought two offerings of chamber music from KSO. First, the Principal Quartet in a Chamber Classics concert at the Bijou Theatre featured notables from the string quartet works of Schubert, Prokofiev, and Brahms. Three days later, the Concertmaster Series, in its current digs at the Knoxville Museum

of Art, presented a program that mixed Lefkowitz’s informational and entertaining music chitchat with virtuosic violin pieces and ensemble works with colleagues.

The KSO’s Principal Quartet is now in its fourth season with its current members—associate concertmaster and violinist Gordon Tsai, principal second violin Edward Pulgar, principal violist Kathryn Gawne, and principal cellist Andy Bryenton. Although essentially thrown together by virtue of their orchestra position, this group has grown together as an ensemble, solving problems of energy and balance with deeply satisfying results.

On this month’s Sunday afternoon Chamber Classics concert, those ensemble accomplishments were obvious. The quartet skillfully navigated the personality shift from Prokofiev’s String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, with its clashes of discord and lyricism, to Brahms’ String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat Major, with its enticing textural diversity. In the Brahms, the third Agitato movement, which has the violins and cello playing with muted strings while the viola’s warmth is unrestrained, was truly texturally mesmerizing.

The Concertmaster Series is also in its fourth year, seeing a venue shift two years ago from the warm brick ambiance of Remedy Coffee in the Old City, to the Great Hall at the KMA. Overall, the move has been a positive one, increasing the audience size— and the audience comfort. Unfortunately, the seemingly obvious potential of tying in the museum and visual art to music remains oddly unex-

A&E

plored. Also remaining mysteriously unexplored is some attention to lighting and platforming of the performers to improve ambiance, acoustics, and audience sightlines.

Happily unchanged, though, is Lefkowitz’s engaging repartee with the audience. Last week’s performance opened with Lefkowitz playing the familiar and virtuosic Paganini Caprice No. 24, a solo violin piece that impressed with the agonizingly difficult technique required to play it and the violinist’s ability to transcend that technique for sublime musicality.

Lefkowitz was joined by pianist Kevin Class for the unannounced Paganini Cantabile, followed by Debussy’s Sonata for Violin and Piano from 1917, the composer’s last major work before his death. Impressive here was the duo’s handling of Debussy’s pushing and pulling of the two instruments against each other, creating textures that seem to both coalesce and diverge.

After intermission, Lefkowitz and Class were joined by violist Gawne and cellist Bryenton for Dvorak’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat. The ensemble took the audience on an enjoyable ride that moved from heated drama to lyricism, and from individualism to group sonorities with a progressively Slavic flavor. Despite the fact that all of the players had multiple events in a very busy week, particularly Gawne and Bryenton, this performance was miraculously cohesive and tremendously satisfying.

The Concertmaster Series wraps up in April with a performance of Brahms String Sextet No. 2 in G Major. ◆

Successful chamber-music performances demand musicality, focus, passion, and collaboration while communicating in relatively close quarters with the audience.

January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 21

A&E

Movies

Moving Pictures Renegade director Jafar Panahi surreptitiously tours the streets of Tehran in Taxi

BY LEE GARDNER

I

n 2010, the Iranian government banned director Jafar Panahi from writing scripts or making films for 20 years. In the five years since, he has become even more prolific as a filmmaker, and has become arguably the most famous Muslim director in the West. And like the previous two films he’s illicitly produced and smuggled out in defiance of the ban, his latest, Taxi, takes as its subject the director’s plight and the repressive conditions under which he and his fellow Iranians endure. Probably not what the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance had in mind when it sought to punish him for noting Iran’s problems in the first place.

But Panahi’s work since the ban extends far past pure polemic. This Is Not a Film plumbed the depths of his existential hurt at being denied his life’s work, as he tried to shoot a version of his most recent script alone in his apartment with an iPhone while under house arrest. Closed Curtain explored the paranoia inherent to life in a security state. For Taxi, he takes his cameras into the street to sketch a sly, blackly comic meta-portrait of life under the heel of the government.

The winking conceit here is that Panahi, a middle-aged, bespectacled artist with an avuncular air, has been reduced to driving a cab through the streets of Tehran. His first fare, a thick-necked young bro, notices the small lens on the dash right away.

(Panahi uses a variety of consumer

22

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

cameras to avoid detection by the authorities while filming.) Within a few blocks, the bro and another fare, a dainty woman wearing a hijab, engage in an argument over how car thieves should be dealt with. He advocates hanging. She counters that the “pressure” of poverty often drives people to steal. It almost seems too pat—a neatly polarized discussion of social issues from two members of the nonprofessional cast before even five minutes of screen time has elapsed. But as Panahi’s tour of

WHAT

The Public Cinema: Taxi

WHERE

Knoxville Museum of Art (1050 World’s Fair Park Drive)

WHEN

Sunday, Jan. 24, at 2 p.m.

HOW MUCH Free

INFO

publiccinema.org

Tehran continues, his discursive journey picks up momentum.

His next fare turns out to be a fan, a sweaty former video clerk who briefly enlists the director in his new business—peddling bootleg Western movies, illicit goods despite the fact that the dealer can offer the latest season of The Walking Dead or “get you dailies of what’s shooting now.” A few stops later, he picks up his young niece from school, and she soon pulls out her own small camera and starts shooting him. She’s taking a filmmaking class at school and is interested in making something “distributable” by the standards of the Iranian government. The list of qualities that make a film officially acceptable for public consumption, as she recites them out of her notebook, sound like a recipe for cinematic insufferability. Above all, she was told by her teacher, “avoid sordid realism.”

As Panahi’s cab makes its turns and stops, he captures plenty of realism, sordid and otherwise. A brief meeting with an old neighbor brings film into the frame again—another crime, this time a robbery and beating, captured on security cam.

But the neighbor doesn’t want to

press charges. He knows the man and woman who robbed him, and they need the money. Again, with so many laws, and so much pressure, almost anyone can be a criminal. Soon, the niece has her own moment of revelation at another stop when she films a luxe wedding party and catches a young can-collector picking up a fat bill dropped by a member of the wedding. She urges him to give it back, even though it is nothing to them and everything to him, shooting all the way.

There are no fewer than four films-within-a-film here—at one point, Panahi’s camera catches the niece filming the wedding party being filmed, so two in a single shot. It’s as if, finally sprung from house arrest and venturing out, Panahi is giddy with the possibilities of shooting again, even within curtailed limits.

Indeed, Taxi is remarkably engaging for a film shot with a handful of mostly static cameras that never leave a cab, but it never feels like an exercise. Panahi and his fellow travelers see what is happening in the streets outside the windows, and it’s there for them to capture, banned or not. Taxi does so, brilliantly. ◆

Thursday, Jan. 21 - Sunday, Jan. 31

MUSIC

Thursday, Jan. 21 THE J.D. BAKER BAND • Longbranch Saloon • 8PM WILL BOYD • Bourbon Street Whiskey Bar • 6PM MILES EBERLE • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Join Miles Eberle as he plays your favorite songs all night long at Knoxville’s Open Chord. Joined by drummer Ben Bolden, Miles creates a comprehensive show with music spanning the decades. We’ll pass out request sheets at the beginning of the show - he’ll play anything you want.

All ages. • FREE WDVX 6 O’CLOCK SWERVE: BRANDON FULSON AND THE REALBILLYS • Scruffy City Hall • 6PM THE GREAT AFFAIRS • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

HANDSOME AND THE HUMBLES • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM • Handsome and the Humbles play old-fashioned heartland country-rock record, inspired by Uncle Tupelo, the Drive-By Truckers, Ryan Adams, and the Hold Steady, specializing in a kind of three-chord wistfulness.

KIRK AND MEREDITH • Meksiko Cantina of Farragut • 6PM • Acoustic duo.

WARREN PINEDA & JON MASON • Red Piano Lounge • 6PM BEN RABB WITH MISSY RAINES AND THE NEW HIP • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-aweek lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE MISSY RAINES AND THE NEW HIP • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM SECRET CITY CYPHERS RIVERBOAT MASQUERADE BALL • Star of Knoxville Riverboat • 8PM • Featuring Amour, J Bush, Profit Levi, RTS (Resound the Sound), Outlaw the CEO, and Soultron. • $12-$16 SHADY BANKS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM Friday, Jan. 22 BIG BAD OVEN WITH ZACH AND KOTA’S SWEET LIFE AND TANGLES • Pilot Light • 10PM • Local rock! 18 and up.

BLACK JACKET SYMPHONY: JOURNEY’S ESCAPE • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • The Black Jacket Symphony offers a unique concert experience through recreating classic albums in a live performance setting. A selected album is performed in its entirety by a group of handpicked musicians specifically selected for each album, with no sonic detail being overlooked--the musicians do whatever it takes to musically reproduce the album. The performance is separated into two sets. The first set features the album being recreated as a true symphonic piece. The second set, which features a selection of the album artist’s “greatest hits,” opens in full contrast to the first set with an incredible light display and the symphony being much more laid back. The tone is set very quickly that the show will feature the high level of musicianship of the act being covered and will also be accompanied by all the bells and whistles of a major rock and roll show. • $28 BLUE MOTHER TUPELO WITH TRAVIS MEADOWS AND WHISKEY JACK • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Rising up from the bluffs of Memphis to the mountains of east Tennessee, through the Delta lowlands and muddy banks of Indianola, Mississippi along the way - comes the unique Southern Soul sound of Blue Mother Tupelo. • $8-$10 WILL BOYD • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM KEITH BROWN • Red Piano Lounge • 6PM TAMARA BROWN AND FAMILY • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE

THE TEMPER EVANS BAND • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM FROG AND TOAD’S DIXIE QUARTET • The Crown and Goose • 8PM • Live jazz featuring a mix of original music, early jazz and more. • FREE HAYDEN GARBER AND WHISKEY ROAD • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM IF BIRDS COULD FLY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • 21 and up.

JAMEY JOHNSON • Cotton Eyed Joe • 9PM • Jamey Johnson’s response to success was almost predictably contrary—after his 2008 self-released album, That Lonesome Song, landed the burly Nashville singer/ songwriter a major-label deal, he followed up with The Guitar Song, an expansive but resolutely noncommercial double album, and Living for a Song, an old-fashioned tribute to the songwriting legend Harlan Howard.

Excellent records, but not exactly the kind of thing Mercury executives knew how to market. Johnson had been introduced to Nashville as a new outlaw; he lived up to that reputation, quickly demonstrating that his creative instincts would override his label’s sales plans. • $25 JESSICA LAMB • 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 MAINS AND THE BRANCHES • Sugarlands Distilling Co. • 6PM • Formed in Texas, flourishing in Detroit, this indie rock collective has spent the last few years making waves everywhere around and in between. Following the release of their debut album, Home, Mike Mains & the Branches used their unique sound, captivating live performances, and relentless touring to carve out a firm place for themselves in the hearts of indie rock music fans everywhere. • FREE THE NAUGHTY KNOTS • Laurel Theater • 8PM • The East Tennessee trio The Naughty Knots bring together a blend of country, jazz and blues and old time fiddle tunes that are as homegrown as garden tomatoes. The Naughty Knots can cookup some delicious tunes and serve them to you on a silver platter, with a focus on great songwriting, tight harmonies and solid instrumentation.

Check out their first CD 12 Song in the Pan. • $11 SHADOWED SELF WITH VANKALE, BELFAST 6 PACK, AELIANA, AND TRANSPARENT SOUL • The Concourse • 7:45PM • 18 and up. • $10 SNOW DAY 2016 • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 7PM • Beardsley Community Farm is Knoxville’s only urban demonstration farm that helps get fresh, healthy, local food to Knoxville’s under-served communities. Snow Day will feature seven performances by a diverse group of local musicians, a soup contest between some of Knoxville’s finest restaurants, a Homegrown and Homemade Beard Pageant, and a silent auction. At the door: $8 admission, plus $5 for soup • $8 • See preview on page 34.

SOULFINGER • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM SUPATIGHT • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM TALL PAUL • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM ALIVE AFTER FIVE: THE TENNESSEE SHEIKS • Knoxville Museum of Art • 6PM • The Tennessee Sheiks is an acoustic swing band led by mandolin maestro, Don Cassell, and singer, Nancy Brennan Strange, who have performed together in an assortment of bands for over twenty years and with the Sheiks, along with original member and gypsy jazz-style guitarist Don Wood, for eleven years. New members, bassist Grant Parker, guitarist Barry “Po” Hannah, and Ken Wood on percussion,

CALENDAR

have injected new blood into the musical chemistry that makes this band special. • $10 CALEB WARREN AND THE PERFECT GENTLEMEN • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE Saturday, Jan. 23 FRED EAGLESMITH • 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 FRED EAGLESMITH • The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Maryville) • 8PM • The heart of rock and roll is alive and well with Fred Eaglesmith’s 20th album, Tambourine. Fusing together all of Fred’s past influences, the result is pure rock ‘n ‘roll reminiscent of 1966.

Eaglesmith is a veteran of the music industry and at the same time is about as far away from actually

participating in today’s music industry as one could be. • $20 KATY FREE • Red Piano Lounge • 6PM THE FREIGHT HOPPERS • Laurel Theater • 8PM • Those who had the pleasure to see the fabled Freight Hoppers perform from 1992 to the band’s lay-up will certainly know what a sight and sound it is to witness the fiddle and banjo combination driven by David Bass and Frank Lee. The current line-up is Barry Benjamin on fiddle, Frank Lee on bottleneck guitar, and vocals, Mclean Bissel on guitar and vocal and Bradley Adams on string Bass.

Their latest album Mile Marker was released in 2010. • $13 MATT HIRES • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg)• 4PM • FREE INAEONA WITH DECONBRIO, AMONG THE BEASTS, AND THE ART OF • The Concourse • 8PM • A spellbinding mix of

GUSTER Bijou Theatre (803 S. Gay St.) • Wednesday, Jan. 27 • 8 p.m. • $28 • knoxbijou.com

Guster’s career has been one strange evolution. Between sonic shifts and flirtations with pop success, the alt-rock veterans have built a devoted following based on their quirky live shows—they’ve harnessed an independence rare in modern music, mirroring the success of most prominent jam bands.

The group began as a folk-rock trio (acoustic—never electric—guitarists Adam Gardner and Ryan Miller, hand-drum whiz Brian Rosenworcel), rising to prominence in early ’90s Boston. And though they accidentally fell into the same crowd as long-winded acts like Phish and Dave Matthews Band, Guster always relied on songcraft over flash.

In the following decade, courted by major labels, the band evolved in the recording studio, adding lush chamber-pop layers to their sound on albums like 2003’s Keep It Together, which spawned the anthemic singles “Careful” and “Amsterdam.” Expanding to a quartet, Guster took an even bolder leap with their latest album, 2015’s Evermotion, a collaboration with producer Richard Swift (the Shins, the Black Keys) that sprawls into more psychedelic territory. With Rhett Miller. (Ryan Reed)

24

Spotlight: David Bowie Tribute Concert January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 23

CALENDAR spacey post-prog melodies and epic industrial heaviness.

18 and up. • $10 INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP COLLEGIATE A CAPPELLA SOUTH QUARTERFINALS • University of Tennessee Natalie L. Haslam Music Center • 7AM • FREE JAKE AND THE COMET CONDUCTORS WITH THE ROYAL BUZZ AND DUSTIN SELLERS • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM AARON KIRBY AND THE TENNESSEE JAM BAND • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM LACHLAN • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE MARTY AND TRACE • Mind Yer Ps and Qs Craft Beer and Wine Lounge • 8PM MOON TAXI WITH THE LONELY BISCUITS • Tennessee Theatre • 8PM • $28 THE CHUCK MULLICAN JAZZ BONANZA • The Bistro at the

Thursday, Jan. 31 - Sunday, Jan. 31

Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE PAPADOSIO • The International • 8PM • Mesmerizing, spellbinding and genre-defying: With their fourth full-length studio release Extras In A Movie, Papadosio reveals a striking cinematic cornucopia of sounds: orchestral, electronic, organic, acoustic, psychedelic and celestial. The 16 selections that comprise the song cycle are concise and structured – launch pads for the improvisational excursions that are a hallmark of the band’s celebrated concert performances.

QUARTJAR WITH SOMETHING WICKED • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM THE STAGGER MOON BAND • Preservation Pub • 8PM • 21 and up.

STATE STREET RHYTHM SECTION • Barley’s Taproom and

Pizzeria • 10PM • State Street Rhythm Section is a powerhouse funk band with horn section playing high-energy dance, funk and soul music in the vein of Tower of Power, James Brown and the Average White Band.

MATT WOODS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 10PM THE WILL YAGER TRIO • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM Sunday, Jan. 24 SHIFFLETT AND HANNAH • 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 THE JON WHITLOCK TRIO • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM Monday, Jan. 25 THE JAKOB’S FERRY STRAGGLERS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • The Jakob’s Ferry Stragglers draw from old-time, bluegrass, country, jazz, rockabilly and swing to create their tight, high-energy string band music.

GRACE PETTIS AND BRIAN POUNDS WITH J.D. SIMO • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-aweek lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE

A TRIBUTE TO DAVID BOWIE Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage (8502 Kingston Pike) • Thursday, Jan. 28 • 8 p.m. • $8 • All ages • openchordmusic.com

Full disclosure: The first David Bowie album I ever bought—on cassette—was Tonight, in 1984.

While it did not storm the charts like its predecessor, Let’s Dance, or impress music critics like most of his output of the previous decade, I thought it was a nice pop album at the time, especially the catchy single “Blue Jean.” Of course, now it is on the black list of Bowie albums that be not named—an ill-fated foray into MTV-friendly new-wave music that is best left forgotten. But even Bowie’s failures are more fascinating than most of the chum that rises to the top of the streaming/downloaded/stolen music lists of today. Tonight is actually a secret collaboration with his former Berlin roommate, Iggy Pop, who wrote more than half the songs on the album. Yes, the Iggy Pop of broken glass and peanut butter, the guy who inspired Ziggy Stardust in the first place. While the finished product is overproduced and lacking soul and grit in a very ’80s way, the songs themselves are actually quite good.

Which is a long way of saying: Bowie was a true pop artist. He had an incredible run of hits—and probably an equal number of misses—but he always brought a level of creativity and intelligence to his music that few popular rock stars have ever been able to match. I think that’s part of the reason why his death has been so upsetting for so many fans, even the casual listeners—we knew that we could count on David Bowie to take his art to new, surprising places. Rock music suddenly seems a whole lot less imaginative now.

I don’t know if any of the performers at the Open Chord’s Tribute to David Bowie will be surveying his lost years of new-wave dabbling, but I’ll bet they could start the process of artistic reappraisal right here. Covering Bowie songs in a variety of genres are Deadbeat Scoundrels, the Valley Opera, Southern Cities, the Automatic-Stops, and Doc Isaac. (Coury Turczyn)

Tuesday, Jan. 26 KATY FREE • Red Piano Lounge • 8PM THE HOOTEN HALLERS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • The Hooten Hallers are a blues, soul, and rock n’ roll band from Columbia, MO. Known for their raucous live shows and influenced heavily by the canon of American roots music, this hard touring band does everything in their power to bring that music to you.

ROBERT EARL KEEN • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • It’s not always easy to sum up a career — let alone a life’s ambition — so succinctly, but those five words from Robert Earl Keen’s calling-card anthem just about do it. You can complete the lyric with the next five words — the ones routinely shouted back at Keen by thousands of fans a night (“and the party never ends!”) — just to punctuate the point with a flourish, but it’s the part about the journey that gets right to the heart of what makes Keen tick. Some people take up a life of playing music with the goal of someday reaching a destination of fame and fortune; but from the get-go, Keen just wanted to write and sing his own songs, and to keep writing and singing them for as long as possible.

KNOXVILLE JAZZ ORCHESTRA AND REGINA CARTER • The Square Room • 8PM • Violinist Regina Carter has recorded with pop stars such as Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Mary J. Blige and Lauryn Hill, performed with Dolly Parton, Tanya Tucker and Billy Joel, and collaborated with dozens of top tier jazz artists including Cassandra Wilson, Kenny Barron, Max Roach and Oliver Lake. Her classical training is evident in the effortless control she exhibits on her instrument, but the music she plays reflects a broad knowledge of many styles, with a strong blues sensibility and a gift for connecting with her audience. • $15-$32.50 • See story on page 20.

THE REIGNS BAND • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

J.W. TELLER WITH RED SHOES AND ROSIN • 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 Wednesday, Jan. 27

24

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

KEITH BROWN • Red Piano Lounge • 8PM MATT COKER • Bourbon Street Whiskey Bar • 6PM 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 GUSTER • Bijou Theatre • 8PM • $28 • See Spotlight on page 23.

IZZY AND THE CATASTROPHICS WITH APPALACHIAN SURF TEAM • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

VICTOR KRUMMENACHER • 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 TENNESSEE SHINES: DYLAN LEBLANC • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7PM • After releasing two critically acclaimed albums and being called “the new Neil Young,” Dylan LeBlanc walked away from an unlikely major label deal and slipped into a blur of booze and self-doubt. Exhausted and damaged at just 23 years old, Dylan went home to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to write a new life for himself.

The result is Cautionary Tale, a collection of shimmering, arresting songs with the same haunting vocals that caught the attention of Lucinda Williams and Bruce Springsteen, now with a sharpened edge honed by hastened maturity. The record, made with Ben Tanner and John Paul White, will be released January 15. • $10 THE HUNTER SMITH TRIO • The Bistro at the Bijou • 7PM • Live jazz. • FREE Thursday, Jan. 28 SCOTT H. BIRAM • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Something heavy is happening to Scott H. Biram. There he is, eyes rolling back in his head, arms outstretched, consumed with bliss, exhaustion, or guilt, being consigned to the old crimson river. In this moment, being baptized in blood might be Biram’s dark epiphany, the 12 songs of Nothin’ But Blood a conduit for an emotional fight or flight, relaying a deep personal grapple between the pure and the impure, good and bad, the beautiful dream and an ugly reality. What in the past has been expressed through reeling irreverence and spirit-lifting profanity (which he’s still got in spades; don’t worry) is here a more penetrating, and chilling, version of The Dirty Old One Man Band-- self-examining and penitent, yet still as crazy as a jack-eyed preacher. On his ninth album (and fifth for Bloodshot Records) ‘blood’ is many, often inherently contradictory, themes: life, death, suffering, evil, commitment, legacy, atonement. Even in its title, ‘Nothin’ But’ could mean ‘all encompassing’ or ‘it’s no big deal.’ Literally, all or nothing. • $10 DALE ANN BRADLEY • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria (Maryville) • 8PM DEADBEAT SCOUNDRELS WITH THE VALLEY OPERA, SOUTHERN CITIES, THE AUTOMATIC-STOPS, AND DOC ISAAC • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8 p.m. • A tribute to David Bowie. All ages. • $8 • See Spotlight on page 24.

THE DIRTY DOUGS • Bourbon Street Whiskey Bar • 6PM WDVX 6 O’CLOCK SWERVE: KNOX COUNTY JUG STOMPERS • Scruffy City Hall • 6PM • The Knox County Jug Stompers come from all kinds of backgrounds—bluegrass, rock, acoustic blues, country music—but have settled on a more or less authentic reproduction of the jug music made popular throughout the South nearly a century ago

by Gus Cannon and the Jug Stompers and other bands with similar names, like Clifford Hayes’ Old Southern Jug Band, the Dixieland Jug Blowers, and the Seven Gallon Jug Band.

A LIVE ONE • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM • A tribute to Phish.

CARY MORIN WITH THROWING PLATES • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week

Thursday, Jan. 21 - Sunday, Jan. 31

lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE WARREN PINEDA & JON MASON • Red Piano Lounge • 6PM REBELUTION • The International • 9PM • “Too blessed to be stressed,” is one of many key song lyrics from Rebelution’s new album Count Me In. The California band’s fourth full-length release on its own label 87 Music, and partnering for the first time with Easy Star Records, marks its tenth year together. And while surely every band has its share of stress, Rebelution feels they have been “too blessed” to have much time to worry about it. 18 and up. • $22.50-$39.50 THROWING PLATES • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

Friday, Jan. 29 THE BAILSMEN • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 5PM • The bailsmen play hot jazz and gypsy swing, drawing from the inspiration of Django Reinhardt’s driving rhythm and the excitement of prohibition-era luminaries Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet. • FREE THE MARK BOLING/MIKE BAGGETTA QUARTET • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM • A double guitar-led modern Jazz quartet featuring UT Jazz Department coordinator Mark Boling’s Trio Life band. Featuring fellow UT Jazz department faculty Jon Hamar on Bass and Keith Brown on Drums, with special guest, NYC guitarist and improviser, Mike Baggetta. Performing original music and new versions of other songs. • $5 ALIVE AFTER FIVE: DONALD BROWN AND EVELYN JACK • Knoxville Museum of Art • 6PM • Evelyn Jack and Donald Brown and their outstanding band return for a 3rd installment to what has become a series of “Tributes to the R&B Classic Hits. Their first “Tribute” in November, 2014, focused on the music of Donny Hathaway, and it was such a success, they followed up with tribute to a variety of R&B performers last summer that was also very well received. With a veritable cornucopia of R&B classic hits to delve into, this “Tribute” is sure to be another spectacular evening of music. • $15 CIRCLE OF THE SONG FEATURING ED JURDI, SETH WALKER, AND EDWARD DAVID ANDERSON • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • As far back as we can remember, humanity has been compelled to gather around song.

Whether as a centerpiece for celebration, a reflection on loss or a calling to inspire community; in the form of ballads, blues, spirituals and countless other variations, timeless songs have been integral to the narrative of their times. With that idea in mind, three of this generation’s most devoted artists to the art of the song: Ed Jurdi, Seth Walker and Edward David Anderson will once again head out on the road together to perform in the round, share their extensive bodies of work with one another, pick on a few classics and celebrate…The Circle Of The Song.

THE CRANE WIVES WITH THE MICHAEL TOMAN MUSIC GROUP • WDVX • 12PM • Part of WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, a six-days-a-week lunchtime concert series featuring local, regional, and national Americana, folk, pop, rock, and everything else. • FREE THE CRANE WIVES • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • 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 JEANINE FULLER • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz.

• FREE THE GEE BEES AND NICK LUTSKO’S PUPPET PEOPLE • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM • 21 and up.

HAIR OF THE DOG • Waterfront Bar and Grill • 9PM • Classic rock.

CALENDAR

JACK’D UP • Two Doors Down • 10PM KEVIN MCGUIRE • Red Piano Lounge • 6PM CARY MORIN • Preservation Pub • 8PM • 21 and up.

ODD FUTURE FIESTA • Longbranch Saloon • 9PM • Some members of the Odd Future hip-hop gang from Los Angeles will be gathering in Knoxville later this month for a show at the Longbranch Saloon on Cumberland Avenue. Don’t expect headliners like Tyler, the Creator or Frank Ocean at the Friday, Jan. 29 performance, though— the Odd Future Fiesta, as it’s listed on the club’s online concert calendar, will include founding member Left Brain and peripheral Odd Futurists Papa E-Pill and Larry Dog, according to the website Knoxville Music Warehouse. Left Brain, aka Vyron Turner, was one of the original members of the provocative hip-hop collective in 2006, along with Tyler, Hodgy Beats, and a handful of other rappers and producers. He’s produced songs on nearly all the dozens of Odd Future albums, singles, EPs, and mixtapes released over the group’s existence, including “Off Top” from Earl Sweatshirt’s 2015 major-label debut, I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside, and “Transylvania” from Tyler, the Creator’s 2011 album Goblin.

• $15-$20 SMOOTH DIALECTS WITH VESSEL • Preservation Pub • 10PM • 21 and up.

SWINGBOOTY • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM WAVE TRANSFORM FESTIVAL • Bijou Theatre • 7PM • The WaveTransform Festival presents artists from Knoxville’s WaveTransform Recording Studios (www.wavetransform. com). The festival features events which cover several styles of music, and which include both local artists and international musicians who have performed in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit the festival website at www.wavetransformfestival.com. • $15.50 Saturday, Jan. 30 MARK BOLING • The Bistro at the Bijou • 9PM • Live jazz. • FREE DALE ANN BRADLEY • Laurel Theater • 8PM • “I grew up in a tar and paper covered shack right near Loretta Lynn’s childhood home,” reflects Dale Ann Bradley on her origin in east Kentucky as a preacher’s daughter. In the 1980s she was performing as a solo artist at Renfro Valley then joined the New Coon Creek Girls in the 1990s. Her latest album Pocket Full of Keys is nominated for a 2016 Grammy. Along the way Dale Ann also received five IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year awards, the latest in 2012. • $13 KANE BROWN • Cotton Eyed Joe • 9PM • 18 and up. • $10 THE CRANE WIVES • Sugarlands Distilling Co. (Gatlinburg) • 4PM • The Crane Wives are a home grown indie-folk outfit from Grand Rapids, Michigan. They utilize three-part vocal harmonies, eclectic instrumentation, and a passion for song-craft to create organic music that is both accessible and innovative. Each live show features contagious energy as well as original music that ranges from whisper quiet ballads to danceable grooves. • FREE EXIT 60 • Two Doors Down (Maryville) • 10PM KATY FREE • Red Piano Lounge • 6PM GUY MARSHALL • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 10PM • Guy Marshall is a folksy five-piece band, whose main members, husband and wife Adam and Sarrenna McNulty, have been a staple in Knoxville’s Americana scene for the past five years. Armed with an infectious stage presence and an earnest arsenal of songs that touch on themes of whiskey and wallowing, the pair, backed by a rotating cast of musicians, have played gigs that range from providing a soundtrack to beer-soaked attendees of Knoxville’s Brewer’s Jam to securing a spot

on the main stage of the 2015 Rhythm N’ Blooms festival.

• $5 CHRIS JAMISON’S GHOST WITH TROUT STEAK REVIVAL • 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 PAUL LEE KUPFER • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 10PM • FREE WDVX WORLD-CLASS BLUEGRASS: THE DEL MCCOURY BAND WITH SIERRA HULL AND EMILY ANN ROBERTS • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 7PM • For more than 50 years, Del McCoury’s music has defined authenticity for hardcore bluegrass fans as well as a growing number of fans among those only vaguely familiar with the genre. McCoury is something special, a living link to the days when bluegrass was made only in hillbilly honkytonks, schoolhouse shows and on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, yet also a commandingly vital presence today, from prime time and late night talk show TV to music festivals where audiences number in the hundreds of thousands. • $25-$40 PHANTOM HARPS WITH ASHES OF LAKESHORE, SEVENTH SERVANT, AND FINAL FIGHT • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • All ages. • $7 SMOOTH SAILOR • Scruffy City Hall • 9PM MICHAEL TOMAN • Red Piano Lounge • 9PM TURRENTINE/LEE DUO • Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan • 7PM • Zebulon Turrentine and Chris Lee play an eclectic mix of music that includes selections from the standard classical guitar repertoire and a variety of less expected sources. • $20 WAVE TRANSFORM FESTIVAL • Bijou Theatre • 7PM • For more information, visit the festival website at www. wavetransformfestival.com. • $15.50 YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND WITH TROUT STEAK REVIVAL • The International • 8:30PM • Yonder Mountain String Band has always played music by its own set of rules. Bending bluegrass, rock and countless other influences that the band cites, Yonder has pioneered a sound of their own. With their traditional lineup of instruments, the band may look like a traditional bluegrass band at first glance but they’ve created their own music that transcends any genre.18 and up. • $25-$40 Sunday, Jan. 31 THE BROCKEFELLERS • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 8PM REV. HORTON HEAT WITH UNKNOWN HINSON, NASHVILLE PUSSY, AND IGOR AND RED ELVIS’S • The Concourse • 8PM • Loaded .38s, space heaters, and big skies. Welcome to the lethal, littered landscape of Jim Heath’s imagination.

True to his high evangelical calling, Jim is a Revelator, both revealing & reinterpreting the country-blues-rock roots of American music. He’s a time-travelling space-cowboy on an endless interstellar musical tour, and we are all the richer and “psychobillier” for getting to tag along. • $20 SHIFFLETT AND HANNAH • 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

OPEN MIC AND SONGWRITER NIGHTS Thursday, Jan. 21

January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 25

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

FREE BREWHOUSE BLUES JAM • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Join Robert Higginbotham and the Smoking Section for the Brewhouse Blues Jam. We supply drums and a full backline.

Friday, Jan. 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 Tuesday, Jan. 26 OLD-TIME JAM SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Hosted by Sarah Pickle. • FREE PRESERVATION PUB SINGER/SONGWRITER NIGHT • Preservation Pub • 7 p.m. • 21 and up. • FREE Wednesday, Jan. 27 TIME WARP TEA ROOM OLD-TIME JAM • Time Warp Tea Room • 7PM • Regular speed old-time/fiddle jam every Wednesday from 7-9 p.m. at the Time Warp Tea Room. All instruments and skill levels welcome.

BRACKINS BLUES JAM • Brackins Blues Club (Maryville) • 9PM • A weekly open session hosted by Tommie John. • FREE OPEN CHORD OPEN-MIC NIGHT • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8PM • Join us on the last Wednesday of each

26

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

Thursday, Jan. 31 - Sunday, Jan. 31

month for Open Mic Night at Open Chord/All Things Music.

Come show off your skills or come practice with your band. We supply the backline, you supply the talent. Sign up when you arrive and claim your slot—three songs or 10 minutes.

Thursday, Jan. 28 SCOTTISH MUSIC SESSION • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 7:15PM • Held on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month.

• FREE

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Thursday, Jan. 21 KSO MASTERWORKS SERIES: BEETHOVEN AND BRUCH • Tennessee Theatre • 7:30PM • January’s concerts will be conducted by Aram Demirjian with special guest artist Philippe Quint, violin. This concert opens with Adams’ Lollapalooza, followed by Ligeti’s Romanian Concerto. The Orchestra will be joined by Philippe Quint for Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and the program will conclude with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. • $15-$89 Friday, Jan. 22 KSO MASTERWORKS SERIES: BEETHOVEN AND BRUCH • Tennessee Theatre • 7:30PM • January’s concerts will be conducted by Aram Demirjian with special guest artist Philippe Quint, violin. This concert opens with Adams’ Lollapalooza, followed by Ligeti’s Romanian Concerto. The Orchestra will be joined by Philippe Quint for Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and the program will conclude with

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7. • $15-$89 Sunday, Jan. 24 READY FOR THE WORLD MUSIC SERIES: THE MIDDLE EAST • University of Tennessee Natalie L. Haslam Music Center • 2PM • The University of Tennessee’s Ready for the World Music Series brings renowned artists to perform and talk about musical styles and literature from diverse regions around the world. Three regions will be featured in the 2015-2016 academic year: Latin America (Sunday, October 11), The Middle East (Sunday, January 24), and Scandinavia (Sunday, April 3). Ready for the World: The Middle East, featuring the Arabesque Ensemble of Chicago, will introduce Middle Eastern compositions that combine Eastern and Western sonorities and instruments. An exploration of how traditional Middle Eastern instruments naturally blend with Western instruments to create new and exciting forms for musical expression. • FREE OAK RIDGE CIVIC MUSIC ASSOCIATION • Oak Ridge High School • 3PM • The concert will feature music from Jurassic Park, Star Wars, and a narrated exploration of the orchestra instruments called “The Thrill of the Orchestra!”

There will be a reception following the concert, with more live music in the lobby, performed by students from Oak Ridge High School. Subscription and individual tickets may be purchased online at www.ORCMA.org or by calling (865) 483-5569. • FREE Wednesday, Jan. 27 KEVIN CLASS: COMPLETE MOZART PIANO SONATAS, PROGRAM ONE • University of Tennessee Natalie L. Haslam Music Center • 8PM • FREE

Thursday, Jan. 28 KSO VERY YOUNG PEOPLE’S CONCERT • Tennessee Theatre • 9:30AM • Very Young People’s Concerts are created especially for students in pre-school through the second grade. This year’s concerts explore how music can tell a story with the help of the KSO’s animated friend, Picardy Penguin. Picardy will help students learn how music can emphasize important parts of a story or define character.

Students will join the KSO in the concert theme song Music Can Make Your Life Complete, create a musical story in Lucas Richman’s The Birthday Present, explore how music emphasizes plot in Richman’s Playground Escapades, and Picardy will narrate Prokofiev’s beloved Peter and the Wolf which many students study in first and second grades! Other repertoire includes: the traditional folk song Blow the Man Down, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee, and Mozart’s Overture to the Marriage of Figaro. • $8 Friday, Jan. 29 KSO VERY YOUNG PEOPLE’S CONCERT • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 9:30AM • Very Young People’s Concerts are created especially for students in pre-school through the second grade. This year’s concerts explore how music can tell a story with the help of the KSO’s animated friend, Picardy Penguin. Picardy will help students learn how music can emphasize important parts of a story or define character. Students will join the KSO in the concert theme song Music Can Make Your Life Complete, create a musical story in Lucas Richman’s The Birthday Present, explore how music emphasizes plot in

Thursday, Jan. 21 - Sunday, Jan. 31

Richman’s Playground Escapades, and Picardy will narrate Prokofiev’s beloved Peter and the Wolf which many students study in first and second grades! Other repertoire includes: the traditional folk song Blow the Man Down, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee, and Mozart’s Overture to the Marriage of Figaro.

MARYVILLE COLLEGE CHOIR FESTIVAL • Clayton Center for the Arts (Maryville) • 6PM • Featuring Paul Phoenix of the King’s Singers. • $5 Sunday, Jan. 31 OAK RIDGE COMMUNITY BAND/WIND ENSEMBLE SHOWCASE CONCERT • First Baptist Church Oak Ridge • 3:30PM • This concert will showcase small groups including the Tanasi Winds, a tuba-euphonium ensemble, the ORCB Trombone Quartet, the Secret City Winds Quintet, a couple woodwind trios, and others performing a variety of music with jazz, classical, swing, novelty, and show tunes. Admission is $5 for adults over 18. For more information visit www.orcb.org or call 865-4823568. • $5

THEATER AND DANCE

Thursday, Jan. 21 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: RABBIT HOLE• Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8PM • Becca and Howie Corbett have everything a family could want, until a life-shattering accident turns their world upside down and leaves the couple drifting perilously apart. Rabbit Hole charts their bittersweet search for comfort in the darkest of places and for a path that will lead them back into the light of day. Jan. 8-24. Visit theatreknoxville.com. • $15 TENNESSEE STAGE COMPANY: ‘HOUSE RULES’ • Historic Southern Railway Station • 8PM • Tennessee Stage Company kicks off it’s 26th annual New Play Festival with Staci Swedeen’s House Rules. Swedeen’s play is the first of seven new plays appearing in this year’s festival.

Swedeen’s play is about two brothers who confront the intertwined nature of hatred and love and learn that all truths kept silent become poisonous. Jan. 21-31. Visit tennesseestage.com. • $15 Friday, Jan. 22 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘SARA CREWE: A LITTLE PRINCESS’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • Captain Crewe leaves his young daughter Sara at a school for girls, while he goes abroad to claim his fortune in jewels.

The school is run by a strict head-mistress named Miss Minchin, who takes special care of her wealthy new student, until a stunning twist of fate changes the destiny of everyone in the school and throughout the neighborhood. Frances Hodgson Burnett’s story remains one of the world’s most popular books for children, despite being written over 100 years ago. It is a timeless tale of rags-to-riches, and Sara Crewe has become a role model for grace-under-pressure and undefeatable hope.

Jan. 22-Feb. 7. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: “RABBIT HOLE” • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8PM • Jan. 8-24. Visit theatreknoxville.com. • $15 TENNESSEE STAGE COMPANY: ‘HOUSE RULES’ • Historic Southern Railway Station • 8PM • Jan. 21-31. Visit tennesseestage.com. • $15 Saturday, Jan. 23 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘SARA CREWE: A LITTLE PRINCESS’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM and 5PM • Jan. 22-Feb. 7. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12

CALENDAR

THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: “RABBIT HOLE” • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 8PM • Jan. 8-24. Visit theatreknoxville.com. • $15 TENNESSEE STAGE COMPANY: ‘HOUSE RULES’ • Historic Southern Railway Station • 8PM • Jan. 21-31. Visit tennesseestage.com. • $15 DOLLYWOOD ENTERTAINMENT AUDITIONS • Dollywood • 11AM • Dollywood Entertainment will be holding auditions in Pigeon Forge, Saturday, January 23rd, 11:00am-2:00pm, at Dollywood, 2700 Dollywood Parks Blvd. Casting singers who move and actors who sing and move. Registration begins at 9:00am. Must be at least 17. For more information, including audition requirements, pay rates and benefits, go to www.dollywoodauditions.com.

Sunday, Jan. 24 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘SARA CREWE: A LITTLE PRINCESS’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 3PM • Jan. 22-Feb. 7. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 THEATRE KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN: “RABBIT HOLE” • Theatre Knoxville Downtown • 3PM • Jan. 8-24. Visit theatreknoxville.com. • $13 TENNESSEE STAGE COMPANY: ‘HOUSE RULES’ • Historic Southern Railway Station • 3PM • Jan. 21-31. Visit tennesseestage.com. • $15 Thursday, Jan. 28 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘SARA CREWE: A LITTLE PRINCESS’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • Jan. 22-Feb. 7. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 TENNESSEE STAGE COMPANY: ‘HOUSE RULES’ • Historic Southern Railway Station • 8PM • Jan. 21-31. Visit tennesseestage.com. • $15 Friday, Jan. 29 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘SARA CREWE: A LITTLE PRINCESS’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 7PM • Jan. 22-Feb. 7. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: BORN YESTERDAY • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • In this classic comedy, vulgar, egotistical “junkman” Harry Brock, along with his “dumb” but charming girlfriend, Billie Dawn, arrives in Washington to make a few “deals” with powerful political big-wigs. Increasingly embarrassed by Billie’s lack of knowledge and social graces, Harry hires an idealistic young magazine reporter to educate the former showgirl.

Billie not only learns to appreciate history and politics, but along the way, discovers the depths of Harry’s crooked activities. Jan. 29-Feb. 7. Visit www.orplayhouse. com.

TENNESSEE STAGE COMPANY: ‘HOUSE RULES’ • Historic Southern Railway Station • 8PM • Jan. 21-31. Visit tennesseestage.com. • $15 Saturday, Jan. 30 KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘SARA CREWE: A LITTLE PRINCESS’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 1PM and 5PM • Jan. 22-Feb. 7. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 L.A. THEATRE WORKS: ‘DRACULA’ • Niswonger Performing Arts Center • 7:30PM • This gothic horror is a classic for all time and still holds its place as one of the greatest horror stories ever told. In Charles Morey’s acclaimed adaptation, Count Dracula slips quietly into Victorian London with a cargo of his native Transylvanian soil, necessary for rest between his victims. The city seems helpless against his frightful power and only one man, the smart and resourceful Dr. Van Helsing, can stop the carnage. To do this, he must uncover the vampire’s lair and pierce Dracula’s heart with a wooden stake; setting up an epic confrontation of good vs evil. Under the leadership of Producing Director, Susan Albert

Loewenberg, L.A. Theatre Works has delighted audiences with its unique live radio theater style performances. • $30-$40 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: BORN YESTERDAY • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 8PM • Jan. 29-Feb. 7. Visit www.orplayhouse. com.

TENNESSEE STAGE COMPANY: ‘HOUSE RULES’ • Historic Southern Railway Station • 8PM • Jan. 21-31. Visit tennesseestage.com. • $15 MARBLE CITY PERFORMANCE COMPANY: WTF? VARIETE SHOWCASE • The Bowery • 9:30PM • A variety and burlesque show. For more information visit us at: www.

MarbleCityPerformers.com. 18 and up. • $10 Sunday, Jan. 31 OAK RIDGE PLAYHOUSE: BORN YESTERDAY • Oak Ridge Playhouse • 2PM • Jan. 29-Feb. 7. Visit www.orplayhouse. com.

KNOXVILLE CHILDREN’S THEATRE: ‘SARA CREWE: A LITTLE PRINCESS’ • Knoxville Children’s Theatre • 3PM • Jan. 22-Feb. 7. Visit knoxvillechildrenstheatre.com. • $12 TENNESSEE STAGE COMPANY: ‘HOUSE RULES’ • Historic Southern Railway Station • 3PM • Jan. 21-31. Visit tennesseestage.com. • $15

COMEDY AND SPOKEN WORD

Thursday, Jan. 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, Jan. 24 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic.

Monday, Jan. 25 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, Jan. 26 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 email us at longbranch.info@gmail.com to learn more, or simply come to the show a few minutes early. • FREE EINSTEIN SIMPLIFIED • Scruffy City Hall • 8PM • Einstein Simplified Comedy performs live comedy improv at Scruffy City Hall. It’s just like Whose Line Is It Anyway, but you get to make the suggestions. Show starts at 8:15, get there early for the best seats. No cover. • FREE SPIKE COLLAR COMEDY • Open Chord Brewhouse and Stage • 8:30PM • Featuring host J.C. Ratliff, local comedians Jay Kendrick and Boston McCown, and Matthew C. Tate, Sharon Singletary, Tom Hand, and Shane Justice from Huntsville, Ala. 18 and up.

January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 27

CALENDAR Sunday, Jan. 31 UPSTAIRS UNDERGROUND COMEDY • Preservation Pub • 8PM • A weekly comedy open mic.

FESTIVALS

Friday, Jan. 22 SNOW DAY 2016 • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 7PM • Beardsley Community Farm is Knoxville’s only urban demonstration farm that helps get fresh, healthy, local food to Knoxville’s under-served communities.Snow Day will feature seven performances by a diverse group of local musicians, a soup contest between some of Knoxville’s finest restaurants, a Homegrown and Homemade Beard Pageant, and a silent auction. Featured Musicians: Mic Harrison And The High Score, CrumbSnatchers, Old City Buskers, Roman Reese, Scruffy City Syncopators, Sunshine Station and more. At the door: $8 admission, plus $5 for soup • $8 THE 1400 KICKOFF PARTY • The 1400 • 6PM • Kick off event for a new creative spaces for art, film and music in Knoxville. • FREE HEALTHY LIVING EXPO • Knoxville Convention Center • 9AM • If your New Year’s resolution is to get fit in 2016, then you should attend The Healthy Living Expo (HLE) at the Knoxville Convention Center on Friday, January, 22 at 9 am-3 pm and Saturday, January 23 at 9 am-4pm. The event focuses on fitness, nutrition, health and living green. It also offers educational exhibits, cooking demonstrations, informative speakers and fun

Thursday, Jan. 31 - Sunday, Jan. 31

entertainment. • $10

8:15PM • A weekly free movie screening. • FREE

Saturday, Jan. 23 HEALTHY LIVING EXPO • Knoxville Convention Center • 9AM • If your New Year’s resolution is to get fit in 2016, then you should attend The Healthy Living Expo (HLE) at the Knoxville Convention Center on Friday, January, 22 at 9 am-3 pm and Saturday, January 23 at 9 am-4pm. The event focuses on fitness, nutrition, health and living green. It also offers educational exhibits, cooking demonstrations, informative speakers and fun entertainment. • $10

SPORTS AND RECREATION

FILM SCREENINGS

Sunday, Jan. 24 PUBLIC CINEMA: ‘JAFAR PANAHI’S TAXI’ • Knoxville Museum of Art • 2PM • Internationally acclaimed director Jafar Panahi (This is Not a Film) drives a yellow cab through the vibrant streets of Tehran, picking up a diverse (and yet representative) group of passengers in a single day. Each man, woman, and child candidly expresses his or her own view of the world, while being interviewed by the curious and gracious driver/director. Panahi’s camera, placed on the dashboard of his mobile film studio, captures a spirited slice of Iranian society while also brilliantly redefining the borders of comedy, drama and cinema. • FREE • See review on page 22.

Monday, Jan. 25 THE BIRDHOUSE WALK-IN THEATER • The Birdhouse •

Thursday, Jan. 21 CYCOLOGY BICYCLES THURSDAY MORNING RIDE • Cycology Bicycles • 10AM • Join Cycology Bicycles every Thursday morning at 10:00 a.m. for a road ride with two group options. A Group does a 2 to 3 hour ride at 20+ pace; B group does an intermediate ride at 15/18 mph average.

Weather permitting. • FREE FLEET FEET GROUP RUN/WALK • Fleet Feet Sports Knoxville • 6PM • Sometimes, a group of workout buddies is just what you need to get out there run! Join us every Thursday night at our store for a fun group run/walk. We have all levels come out, so no matter what your speed you’ll have someone to keep you company. Our 30 - 60 minute route varies week by week in the various neighborhoods and greenways around the store, so be sure to show up on time so you can join up with the group. All levels welcome. • 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 RIVER SPORTS THURSDAY EVENING GREENWAY BIKE RIDE • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Every Thursday night from 6 to 7:30 join River Sports Outfitters on an easy paced,

Business

beginner friendly Greenway Ride. Bring your own bike or rent one for $15. Lights are mandatory on your bikes from September through March. • FREE WHOLE FOODS GAME NIGHT • Whole Foods • 6PM • Join us for everything from Candy Land to chess, and feel free to add a pint and a pizza. • FREE KNOXVILLE BICYCLE COMPANY THURSDAY GRAVEL GRINDER • North Boundary Trails • 6:30PM • Join Knoxville Bicycle Company every Thursday evening for their gravel grinder.

Meets at 6:30 pm at North Boundary in Oak Ridge, park at the guard shack. Cross bikes and hardtails are perfect.

Bring lights! Regroups as necessary. Call shop for more details. Weather permitting - call the store if weather is questionable.

CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES THURSDAY GREENWAY RIDE • Cedar Bluff Cycles • 6:30PM • Join us every Thursday evening for a greenway ride at an intermediate pace of 14-15 mph.

Must have lights. Weather permitting. • FREE Friday, Jan. 22 RIVER SPORTS FRIDAY NIGHT GREENWAY RUN • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Greenway run from the store every Friday evening from 6-7:30 pm. Work up a thirst then join us for $2 Pints in the store afterwards. http:// www.riversportsoutfitters.com/events/ • FREE Saturday, Jan. 23 SMOKY MOUNTAIN HIKING CLUB: WILLIAM HASTIE PARK • Smoky Mountain Hiking Club • 9AM • This will be a joint hike for SMHC and the Tennessee Trails Association, which will explore the William Hastie Park in Knoxville’s Urban Wilderness. This will be a moderate 7 mile hike

Product awareness

Company goodwill

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

28

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016 WUOT_Ad_5.5x4.25_WhyWUOT_KnoxMerc.indd 1

9/7/15 9:52 AM

Thursday, Jan. 21 - Sunday, Jan. 31

CALENDAR CLASSICAL TICKETS start at just $15

using most of the trails to explore this unique area. Do not be deceived - there is plenty of rugged terrain in the area. Meet at the Anderson Elementary School parking lot (4808 Prospect Road) at 9:00 AM. Hike: 7 miles, rated moderate. Leader: Chris Hamilton, hikeintenn@gmail.com.

• FREE KTC CALHOUN’S 10-MILER • Calhoun’s (Lenoir City) • 7:30AM • Visit ktc.org. • $30-$35 Sunday, Jan. 24 KNOXVILLE HARDCOURT BIKE POLO • Sam Duff Memorial Park • 1PM • Don’t know how to play? Just bring your bike — we have mallets to share and will teach you the game.

• FREE Monday, Jan. 25 KTC GROUP RUN • Mellow Mushroom • 6PM • Join Knoxville Track Club every Monday evening for a group run starting at the Mellow Mushroom on the Cumberland Avenue strip on the University of Tennessee campus. Visit ktc.org. • FREE BEARDEN BEER MARKET FUN RUN • Bearden Beer Market • 6:30PM • Come run with us. Every Monday year round we do a group fun run through the neighborhood. Open to all levels of walkers and runners. Everyone who participates earns a $1 off their beer. Visit beardenbeermarket.com. • FREE CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES TUESDAY GREENWAY RIDE • Cedar Bluff Cycles • 6:30PM • Join us every Tuesday evening for a greenway ride at an intermediate pace of 14-15 mph.

Must have lights. Weather permitting. cedarbluffcycles. net. • FREE APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN BIKE CLUB • Central Flats and Taps • 7PM • Interested in getting involved with the mountain biking community here in Knoxville? The Appalachian Mountain Bike Club, meet the fourth Monday of each month. • FREE Tuesday, Jan. 26 CYTOLOGY BICYCLES TUESDAY MORNING RIDE • Cycology Bicycles • 10:30AM • Join Cycology Bicycles every Tuesday morning at 10:30 am for a road ride with 2 group options. A Group does a 2 to 3 hour ride at 20+ pace; B group does an intermediate ride at 15/18 mph average.

Weather permitting. cycologybicycles.com. • FREE WHOLE FOODS GAME NIGHT • Whole Foods • 6PM • Join us for everything from Candy Land to chess, and feel free to add a pint and a pizza. • FREE 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, Jan. 27 KTC GROUP RUN • Runner’s Market • 5:30PM • If you are visiting Knoxville, new to town, new to the club, or just looking to get more involved, this is the place to start. A festive and relaxed group get-together occurs every Wednesday afternoon at 5:30 pm at Runners Market. Visit ktc.org. • FREE CLIMBING FUNDAMENTALS • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Come learn the basics of climbing every second and fourth Wednesday of the month. Space is limited so call 865-673-4687 to reserve your spot now. Class fee $20.

Visit riversportsoutfitters.com/events. • $20 FOUNTAIN CITY PEDALERS SHARPS RIDGE MOUNTAIN BIKE RIDE • Fountain City Pedaler • 6PM • Join us every Wednesday evening for a mountain bike ride from the shop to Sharps Ridge. 6-10 mile ride with plenty of bail out points. Regroup as necessary. Lights required, call the

shop if you need them. Visit fcpedaler.com. • FREE Thursday, Jan. 28 CYCOLOGY BICYCLES THURSDAY MORNING RIDE • Cycology Bicycles • 10AM • Join Cycology Bicycles every Thursday morning for a road ride with two group options. A Group does a 2 to 3 hour ride at 20+ pace; B group does an intermediate ride at 15/18 mph average. Weather permitting. cycologybicycles.com. • FREE FLEET FEET GROUP RUN/WALK • Fleet Feet Sports Knoxville • 6PM • Join us every Thursday night at our store for a fun group run/walk. We have all levels come out, so no matter what your speed you’ll have someone to keep you company. Our 30 - 60 minute route varies week by week in the various neighborhoods and greenways around the store, so be sure to show up on time so you can join up with the group. 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 RIVER SPORTS THURSDAY EVENING GREENWAY BIKE RIDE • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Every Thursday night from 6 to 7:30 join River Sports Outfitters on an easy paced, beginner friendly Greenway Ride. Bring your own bike or rent one for $15. Lights are mandatory on your bikes from September through March. After ride join us at the store for $2 pints. riversportsoutfitters.com/events. • FREE WHOLE FOODS GAME NIGHT • Whole Foods • 6PM • Join us for everything from Candy Land to chess, and feel free to add a pint and a pizza. • FREE KNOXVILLE BICYCLE COMPANY THURSDAY GRAVEL GRINDER • North Boundary Trails • 6:30PM • Join Knoxville Bicycle Company every Thursday evening for their gravel grinder.

Meets at 6:30 pm at North Boundary in Oak Ridge, park at the guard shack. Cross bikes and hardtails are perfect.

Bring lights. Regroups as necessary. Call shop for more details. Weather permitting - call the store if weather is questionable. knoxvillebicycleco.com. • CEDAR BLUFF CYCLES THURSDAY GREENWAY RIDE • Cedar Bluff Cycles • 6:30PM • Join us every Thursday evening for a greenway ride at an intermediate pace of 14-15 mph.

Must have lights. Weather permitting. cedarbluffcycles. net. • FREE Friday, Jan. 29 RIVER SPORTS FRIDAY NIGHT GREENWAY RUN • River Sports Outfitters • 6PM • Greenway run from the store every Friday evening from 6-7:30 pm. Work up a thirst then join us for $2 pints in the store afterwards. riversportsoutfitters.com. • FREE Saturday, Jan. 30 RUN 4 THEIR LIVES 5K • Market Square • 10AM • Run 4 Their Lives is a Freedom 4/24 event that raises awareness and funds to bring sexually exploited women and children into freedom. Visit freedom424.org. • $30 Sunday, Jan. 31 KNOXVILLE HARDCOURT BIKE POLO • Sam Duff Memorial Park • 1PM • Don’t know how to play? Just bring your bike — we have mallets to share and will teach you the game.

• FREE

ART

Art Market Gallery 422 S. Gay St. JAN. 5-31: Artwork by Lil Clinard and Julia Malia.

Bliss Home 24 Market Square JAN. 1-31: Artwork by Ocean Starr Cline.

TONIGHT

Broadway Studios and Gallery 1127 Broadway JAN. 8-FEB. 2: Paintings by Hannah Harper.

Emporium Center for Arts and Culture 100 S. Gay St. DEC. 4-JAN. 29: Arts and Culture Alliance Members Show. JAN. 8-29: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Commission Exhibition, featuring artwork by African and African-American artists from Knoxville and works about social justice and civil rights.

DEMIRJIAN

Music Director candidate

Ewing Gallery 1715 Volunteer Blvd.

JAN. 14-FEB. 18: UT Artist-in-Residence Biennial, featuring work by Molly Zuckerman-Hartung, Aliza Nisenbaum, Caitlin Keogh, and Dominic Terlizzi.

BEETHOVEN & BRUCH

Knoxville Museum of Art 1050 World’s Fair Park Drive JAN. 29-APRIL 17: Knoxville Seven, an exhibit of artwork by an influential group of Knoxville artists from the 1950s and ’60s, including Buck Ewing, Carl Sublett, and more. 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.

Aram Demirjian, conductor Philippe Quint, violin

Thursday, Jan. 21 • 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 22 • 7:30 p.m.

Tennessee Theatre

ADAMS: Lollapalooza LIGETI: Romanian Concerto BRUCH: Violin Concerto No. 1 BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 7

Liz-Beth and Co. 7240 Kingston Pike JAN. 1-30: Feminine Icons With an Attitude, paintings by Cynthia Markert inspired by the free-thinking women of the early 1900s.

McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture 1327 Circle Park Drive JAN. 23-MAY 22: Maya: Lords of Time. ONGOING: The Flora and Fauna of Catesby, Mason, and Audubon and Life on the Roman Frontier.

Westminster Presbyterian Church Schiller Gallery 6500 S. Northshore Drive JAN. 12-FEB. 28: Paintings by Jennifer Brickey.

LECTURES, READINGS, AND BOOK SIGNINGS

Thursday, Jan. 21 JAMES WILLIAMS: ‘FROM THUG TO SCHOLAR’ • Union Ave Books • 6PM • Book signing with University of Tennessee Professor James Williams reading from his book From Thug to Scholar: An Odyssey to Unmask My True Potential.

• FREE Sunday, Jan. 24 MCCLUNG MUSEUM CIVIL WAR LECTURE SERIES • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 2PM • The museum’s sixth annual Civil War Lecture Series will examine the Knoxville community before, during, and after the upheaval of war through the lens of various professions and social groups. Visit mcclungmuseum.utk.edu for details on future talks in the series. • FREE

PREU

Music Director candidate

MOZART PIANO CONCERTO NO. 20 Thursday, Feb. 18 • 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Feb. 19 • 7:30 p.m.

Tennessee Theatre Eckart Preu, conductor Alon Goldstein, piano R. STRAUSS: Don Juan MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 20 HIGDON: Blue Cathedral PROKOFIEV: Selections from “Romeo and Juliet” Sponsored by Thermal Label Warehouse

CALL: (865) 291-3310 CLICK: knoxvillesymphony.com VISIT: Monday-Friday, 9-5 January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 29

CALENDAR GORDON GIBSON: ‘SOUTHERN WITNESS: UNITARIANS AND UNIVERSALISTS IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA’ • Union Ave Books • 2PM • Book signing and reading with Gordon Gibson author of Southern Witness: Unitarians and Universalists in the Civil Rights Era • FREE Monday, Jan. 25 UT COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN 2016 LECTURE SERIES • University of Tennessee Art and Architecture Building • 5:30PM • The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Architecture and Design will host internationally renowned architects and designers as guest lecturers during the 2016 spring semester. This semester’s lineup includes: • Jan. 25—Deborah Schneiderman, professor of interior design at Pratt Institute: “The Prefabricated Interior” • Feb. 15—Katarina Burin, lecturer on visual and environmental studies at Harvard University • Feb. 29—David Benjamin, principal of the Living and assistant professor of planning and preservation in the Graduate School of Architecture at Columbia University: “Adaptation” • March 28—Governor’s Chair Lecture featuring Kristopher Takacs, architect and associate director of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill’s Washington, D.C., office • April 11—Maria Hurtado de Mendoza, award-winning architect and co-founder of estudio.entresitio: “fuzzy bounded” • April 18—Charles Waldheim, John E. Irving Professor of Landscape Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design: “A General Theory” • April 30—General Shale Lecture featuring Thom Mayne, design director of Morphosis (Note: This lecture will be held at Bijou Theatre.)

Thursday, Jan. 31 - Sunday, Jan. 31

WRITERS IN THE LIBRARY: R.B. MORRIS AND MATT URMY • University of Tennessee • 7PM • The University of Tennessee leads off a semester-long celebration of poetry with readings and music by RB Morris and Matt Urmy. The public is invited to this free reading and performance at 7 p.m. in the Lindsay Young Auditorium of UT’s John C. Hodges Library. Visit library.utk.edu/writers for a complete schedule of Writers in the Library readings for the 2016 spring semester. • FREE

FAMILY AND KIDS’ EVENTS

Thursday, Jan. 21 BABY BOOKWORMS • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM • For infants to age 2, must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. • FREE Friday, Jan. 22 S.T.E.A.M. KIDS • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • 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. For grades K-5. • FREE Saturday, Jan. 23 SATURDAY STORIES AND SONGS • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM • A weekly music and storytelling session for kids. • FREE

Tuesday, Jan. 26 PRE-K READ AND PLAY • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM • Pre-K Read and Play is a pilot program specifically designed to prepare children to enter kindergarten. While the format of the program will still feel like a traditional storytime with books, music, and other educational activities, each weekly session will focus on a different standard from the Tennessee Department of Education’s Early Childhood/Early Learning Developmental Standards.

• FREE BLOUNT COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 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 EVENING STORYTIME • Lawson McGee Public Library • 6:30PM • An evening storytime at Lawson McGhee Children’s Room to include stories, music, and crafts. For toddlers and up. • FREE Wednesday, Jan. 27 BABY BOOKWORMS • Lawson McGee Public Library • 10:20AM • For infants to age 2, must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. • FREE PRESCHOOL STORYTIME • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM • For ages 3 to 5, must be accompanied by an adult.

• FREE Thursday, Jan. 28 BABY BOOKWORMS • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM

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

Cro one thing off your bucket list!

Expert scuba training from beginner to advanced.

We offer a wide assortment of classes to choose from. Reserve your place today.

30

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

• For infants to age 2, must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. • FREE Friday, Jan. 29 S.T.E.A.M. KIDS • Blount County Public Library • 4PM • 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. For grades K-5. • FREE PEPPA PIG LIVE! • Tennessee Theatre • 6PM • More fun than a muddy puddle! Peppa Pig, star of the top-rated TV series airing daily on Nick Jr., is hitting the road for her first-ever U.S. theatrical tour, Peppa Pig’s Big Splash! By popular demand, the live stage show will visit nearly 100 cities starting this November. Peppa Pig’s Big Splash! promises to be the perfect theatre show for all pre-schoolers! • $32-$42 Saturday, Jan. 30 SATURDAY STORIES AND SONGS • Lawson McGee Public Library • 11AM • A weekly music and storytelling session for kids. • FREE COVENANT KIDS RUN KICKOFF • Knoxville Zoo • 12PM • East Tennessee children will kick off the Covenant Kids Run with a one-mile event at the Knoxville Zoo in January and end it on the 50-yard line at Neyland Stadium in April. The start at the Knoxville Zoo will be held Saturday, Jan. 30, at noon. Children in eighth grade and younger are eligible to participate in the Kids Run.In the event of inclement weather, the Kids Run kickoff at the Knoxville Zoo will be held on Saturday, Feb. 6. For more information, visit www.knoxvillemarathon.com or call

Thursday, Jan. 21 - Sunday, Jan. 31

865-684-4294. • $15 MCCLUNG FAMILY FUN DAY: THE MAYA AND THEIR TEXTS • McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture • 1PM • Join us for free a free Family Fun Day featuring activities, crafts, tours, and more. We’ll explore Mayan texts in our special exhibition, Maya: Lords of Time. All materials will be provided. The program is free and open to the public.

Reservations are not necessary. • FREE

CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS

Thursday, Jan. 21 PLANET MOTION WORLD DANCE FITNESS • Champion Ballroom Center • 10AM • All levels fun dance workout incorporating dance and music styles from around the world.

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

AARP DRIVER SAFETY CLASS • John T. O’Connor Senior Center • 12PM • For registration and information, call (865) 382-5822.

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

BLOUNT COUNTY LIBRARY BASIC COMPUTER CLASSES • Blount County Public Library • 2PM • Basic computer classes are offered, free, at the library Jan. 6-March 10. • FREE BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 BIKE MAINTENANCE BASICS • REI • 6PM • Routine bike maintenance keeps you riding smoothly and prolongs the life of your bike. Join us for this introductory class to help you take care of your bike. Registration required at www. rei.com/knoxville. • FREE GOODWILL NETWORKING WITH LINKEDIN CLASS • Goodwill Industries • 2PM • Learn how to use LinkedIn, a professional social media platform, to grow your career.

Goodwill will teach you how to set up a profile, use the platform for networking, discover valuable content to help you learn more about your field and apply for jobs. It is recommended that you bring your resume to this training so you can easily fill out your profile. This session is free of charge and open to the public. No registration is required. • FREE GOODWILL FINANCIAL LITERACY CLASS • Goodwill Industries • 5:30PM • Whether you want to get out of debt, build up your savings or plan for a big purchase, money can be tricky to manage. Fortunately, Goodwill will be offering a free financial literacy class to help address these issues and answer difficult questions about money. It is recommended that participants attend both class sessions, though not required. This session is free of charge and open to the public. No registration is required. This two-part class will be held on Thursday, Jan. 21, and Thursday, Jan. 28. • FREE Friday, Jan. 22 GOODWILL RESUME WORKSHOP • Goodwill Industries • 1PM • Make a good first impression with a thoughtful resume.

Learn how to make a solid and effective resume to

CALENDAR

highlight your strengths and catch the employer’s eye.

Classes will take place in Goodwill’s Computer Lab. We recommend bringing your current resume, or as much information about your employment history as possible.

This session is free of charge and open to the public. No registration is required. • FREE Saturday, Jan. 23 IMPROV COMEDY CLASS • The Birdhouse • 10AM • A weekly improv comedy class. • FREE ANDREW HURST: “CARING FOR YOUR PAINTINGS AND ARTIFACTS” • East Tennessee History Center • 12PM • Do you own a piece of art made by Knoxville artist Lloyd Branson? If so, the East Tennessee Historical Society would like to know about it. In the decades after the Civil War, Lloyd Branson rose from a precocious sketcher on his family’s East Tennessee farm to become an accomplished artist and Knoxville’s most popular portraitist. Lloyd Branson completed hundreds of paintings, but unfortunately we have no detailed original records listing his artistic production. To document the breadth of Branson’s career, ETHS is conducting a survey of works associated with Knoxville’s “native genius.” The public is invited to bring Branson paintings, photographs, and other materials to the East Tennessee History Center to be photographed or scanned by ETHS staff and entered into a database of Branson’s known works. At noon, Andrew Hurst, a retired professional from the University of Tennessee’s McClung Museum, will conduct a program on caring for your paintings and other artifacts. For more information about the Branson Documentation, please call Michele MacDonald, curator of collections, at 865-215-8829. • FREE SAFTA OUTSPOKEN WRITING WORKSHOPS • Sundress Academy for the Arts • 1PM • OUTspoken is a third-year program from the Sundress Academy of the Arts (SAFTA) that will take place in June 2016. Our goal is to create a platform for the LGBTQ community of Knoxville, Tennessee, and its surrounding areas to record and perform the experiences of sex- and gender-diverse individuals in the South. OUTspoken begins with a series of writing workshops taking place on January 23rd, February 20th, and March 26th. During these workshops, on-site participants will create, edit, and produce a piece of art to be performed during the summer OUTspoken events. Registration is open and available at: http://www. sundresspublications.com/outspoken. • $25-$60 Sunday, Jan. 24 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY MINDFULNESS BASED STRESS REDUCTION • Cancer Support Community • 4:30PM • This 8-week training program, developed by Dr. Jon Kabat- Zinn from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, is a systematic practice that involves focusing attention, relaxing the body and integrating the mind and body to reduce stress. Evidence shows that this program can be effective for controlling anxiety, depression and stress. Must attend the January 10 orientation in order to participate in the series, which runs from January 17-March 6 from 4:30-6:30pm. RSVP. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

Monday, Jan. 25 NIA CARDIO-DANCE WORKOUT TECHNIQUE CLASS • Broadway Academy of Performing Arts • 10AM • Email emilybryant24@yahoo.com. Blending dance arts, martial arts, yoga and healing arts in a 55-minute mindful fitness fusion.

GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley

Unitarian Universalist Church • 5:30PM • Call 865-5772021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted.

DIVORCE RECOVERY WORKSHOP • Cokesbury Center • 6:30PM • Divorce can be a life-shattering experience.

Whether it was sudden or was years in the making, we all need to heal our hearts, rebuild trust and get on with the rest of our lives. You have a choice: you can either go through divorce or you can grow through divorce. The format includes both a large and small group presentations by trained leaders. Attend Divorce Recovery to begin reframing and moving on with your life. Cost for the 14-week course is $75, which includes a book and workbook. • $75 Tuesday, Jan. 26 KMA WINTER ADULT WORKSHOPS • Knoxville Museum of Art • 8AM • All classes are held at the KMA with easy access and plenty of free parking. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. Classes and workshops are taught by professional artists, living and working in the East Tennessee area. For a full description of classes and registration information, visit www.knoxart.org.

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

BLOUNT COUNTY LIBRARY BASIC COMPUTER CLASSES • Blount County Public Library • 2PM • Basic computer classes are offered, free, at the library Jan. 6-March 10. • FREE OMNI VISIONS FOSTER CARE TRAINING • Omni Visions Inc. • 6PM • Omni Visions is in need of foster and adoptive families as well as families that will provide respite care.

Omni Visions Treatment Parents receive financial reimbursement for each day a child lives in your home, as well as 24/7 support from our staff. Join us for our free PATH (Parents As Tender Healers) Training and open your heart and home to a child in need. For more information and to RSVP, please contact Rebecca Horton at (865) 524-4393 ext 1204 or rhorton@omnivisions.com. • FREE Wednesday, Jan. 27 GOODWILL CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING • Goodwill Industries • 9:30AM • This free workshop will focus on understanding how to provide exemplary customer service, providing methods to “go above and beyond” the call of duty and provide customer service which will increase customer loyalty and brand value to stores. This session will also focus on providing customer service training and encouragement from a management perspective, including applying the principles of customer service from a management level to an associate level. There will be useful tips and strategies on effectively providing customer satisfaction and resolution in tough situations in a retail or adjacent setting.This session is free of charge and open to the public. No registration is required. • FREE KMA WINTER ADULT WORKSHOPS • Knoxville Museum of Art • 10AM and 2PM • All classes are held at the KMA with easy access and plenty of free parking. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. Classes and workshops are taught by professional artists, living and working in the East Tennessee area. For a full description of classes and registration information, visit www.knoxart.org.

FIRST TIME MANAGERIAL SKILLS WORKSHOP • Goodwill Industries • 5:30PM • Stepping into a management position can be a daunting task. Prepare yourself with this free session from Goodwill! We’ll cover topics such as training and developing new employees, leading a team and setting appropriate goals, transitioning into a

ADVERTISING EQUALS SUPPORT. Thanks to our advertisers for their help in keeping our presses running. Let’s return the favor by supporting them.

January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 31

CALENDAR supervisory role and effectively meeting expectations, and setting yourself up for a long term career with even more upward mobility in the future. This session is free of charge and open to the public. No registration is required. • FREE HANDS-ON BIKE MAINTENANCE • REI • 6PM • Your bike’s drive train is a key component to efficient riding. Join our certified bike techs to learn about your drive train as well as how to inspect, maintain and adjust front & rear derailleurs to make sure your ride is as smooth as possible. Registration required at www.rei.com/knoxville.

• $45-$65 NIA CARDIO-DANCE WORKOUT TECHNIQUE CLASS • Broadway Academy of Performing Arts • 6PM • Email emilybryant24@yahoo.com. Blending dance arts, martial arts, yoga and healing arts in a 55-minute mindful fitness fusion.

Thursday, Jan. 28 PLANET MOTION WORLD DANCE FITNESS • Champion Ballroom Center • 10AM • All levels fun dance workout incorporating dance and music styles from around the world.

GENTLE YOGA AND MEDITATION • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 12PM • Call 865-577-2021 or email yogaway249@gmail.com. Donations accepted. • GOODWILL NETWORKING WITH LINKEDIN CLASS • Goodwill Industries • 1PM • Learn how to use LinkedIn, a professional social media platform, to grow your career.

Goodwill will teach you how to set up a profile, use the platform for networking, discover valuable content to

Thursday, Jan. 31 - Sunday, Jan. 31

help you learn more about your field and apply for jobs. It is recommended that you bring your resume to this training so you can easily fill out your profile. This session is free of charge and open to the public. No registration is required. • FREE BLOUNT COUNTY LIBRARY BASIC COMPUTER CLASSES • Blount County Public Library • 2PM • Basic computer classes are offered, free, at the library Jan. 6-March 10. • FREE GOODWILL FINANCIAL LITERACY CLASS • Goodwill Industries • 5:30PM • Whether you want to get out of debt, build up your savings or plan for a big purchase, money can be tricky to manage. Fortunately, Goodwill will be offering a free financial literacy class to help address these issues and answer difficult questions about money. It is recommended that participants attend both class sessions, though not required. This session is free of charge and open to the public. No registration is required. This two-part class will be held on Thursday, Jan. 21, and Thursday, Jan. 28. • FREE SEYMOUR FARMER’S MARKET FREE GARDENING WORKSHOPS • Seymour Branch Library • 7PM • This program is part of the library’s quarterly special interest series. • FREE HIKING THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL: FOOD AND EQUIPMENT • REI • 7PM • Considering a hike on the Appalachian Trail?

Whether you are thru hiking or just taking a short weekend trip, REI Outdoor School can help you prepare for the trail. In this class, we will discuss details of food and equipment selection, including picking the right clothing/layers, and gear details. Registration required at

Win Tickets to the

Clarence Brown Theatre!

www.rei.com/knoxville. • FREE BELLY DANCE LEVELS 1 AND 2 • Knox Dance Worx • 8PM • Call (865) 898-2126 or email alexia@alexia-dance.com. • $12 Friday, Jan. 29 GOODWILL RESUME WORKSHOP • Goodwill Industries • 1PM • Make a good first impression with a thoughtful resume.

Learn how to make a solid and effective resume to highlight your strengths and catch the employer’s eye.

Classes will take place in Goodwill’s Computer Lab. We recommend bringing your current resume, or as much information about your employment history as possible.

This session is free of charge and open to the public. No registration is required. • FREE INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTERS • Goodwill Industries • 1PM • Not sure how to use a computer? Goodwill can help.

Meet in the Bearden Goodwill’s computer lab to get hands-on experience and step-by-step instructions to learn the basics of using a computer. From turning it on to creating your own e-mail address to writing a Word document and using your first Excel spreadsheet, we’ll answer all your computer questions. This session is free of charge and open to the public. No registration is required. • FREE Saturday, Jan. 30 IMPROV COMEDY CLASS • The Birdhouse • 10AM • A weekly improv comedy class. • FREE BEGINNING GENEALOGY • East Tennessee History Center • 1PM • Instructor: Ann Blomquist, MEd. How to begin your family search using family, governmental, library, and

electronic resources. Call 865.215.8809 beginning Jan 19 to register.The 2016 Saturday Free Genealogical Courses at the East Tennessee History Center are co-sponsored by the East Tennessee Historical Society, the McClung Historical Collection – Knox County Public Library, and the Knox County Archives. All courses in the series are free and open to the public. • FREE KNOX COUNTY MASTER GARDENERS: PRUNING 101 • Bearden Branch Public Library • 2:30PM • Confused about what to prune, when to prune, how to prune? Join Master Gardener Marsha Lehman for a presentation on the basic rules and tools of pruning. You will also learn how to find reliable information on pruning specific plants.This free public event is offered on Saturday, January 30, from 2:30-3:30pm at the Bearden Branch Library, 100 Golf Club Rd, Knoxville 37919, phone 865-588-8813 or knoxlib.org. • FREE Sunday, Jan. 31 CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY MINDFULNESS BASED STRESS REDUCTION • Cancer Support Community • 4:30PM • This 8-week training program, developed by Dr. Jon Kabat- Zinn from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, is a systematic practice that involves focusing attention, relaxing the body and integrating the mind and body to reduce stress. Evidence shows that this program can be effective for controlling anxiety, depression and stress. Must attend the January 10 orientation in order to participate in the series, which runs from January 17-March 6 from 4:30-6:30pm. RSVP. Call 865-546-4661 for more info. All Cancer Support Community programs

h ? s a c y a d i l o h a r t x e e m o s Got

TITUS ANDRONICUS TICKET GIVEAWAY 2 pair of tickets available for the Feb. 17th performance.

Who wrote Titus Andronicus?

Send your answer to: contests@knoxmercury.com 2 winners chosen at random will be notified on Feb. 8th.

Brought to you by:

*Disclaimer: Winners will be chosen at random by the Knoxville Mercury from weekly submissions. Winners will be notified in advance. (1 pair of tickets per winner.) NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Void where prohibited.

Must be a legal U.S. resident, 18 years of age or older, and not be a sponsor or an employee, family member, or household member of a sponsor. Once notified, winner has 24 hours to respond. Odds of winning depend on number of entries received. Sponsor: Knoxville Mercury, 706 Walnut Ave., Suite 404, Knoxville, TN 37902.

long sleeve: orange.

short sleeve: grey, black, and white.

Spend it on some WUTK swag!

AvAilAble At Disc exchAnge, Fizz, AnD Open chOrD. All sales help support WUtK.

Streaming 24.7.365 at WUTKRADIO.COM 32

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

CALENDAR are offered at no cost to individuals affected by cancer.

organization.

MEETINGS

Thursday, Jan. 28 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

Thursday, Jan. 21 ATHEISTS SOCIETY OF KNOXVILLE • Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria • 5:30PM • Weekly atheists meetup and happy hour. Come join us for food, drink and great conversation. Everyone welcome. FREE CANCER SUPPORT COMMUNITY FAMILY BEREAVEMENT GROUP • Cancer Support Community • 4PM • 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.

THE SOUTHERN LITERATURE BOOK CLUB • Union Ave Books • 6PM • Union Ave Books’ monthly discussion group about Southern books and writers. • FREE Saturday, Jan. 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 Sunday, Jan. 24 LARK IN THE MORN ENGLISH COUNTRY DANCERS • Laurel Theater • 8PM • Call 546-8442. 17th-18th Century Social Dancing with live music. Beginners welcome, no partner is required. Also Rapper Sword dance group meets most Sundays at 7:00. Free.

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 Monday, Jan. 25 GAY MEN’S DISCUSSION GROUP • Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church • 7:30PM • We hold facilitated discussions on topics and issues relevant to local gay men in a safe and open environment. Visit gaygroupknoxville.org.

Wednesday, Jan. 27 KNOXVILLE WRITERS’ GROUP • Naples Italian Restaurant • 11AM • Dr. Lin Stepp author of The Smoky Mountain Books will be the speaker. Luncheon cost $12. For information and reservation call Mary McKinnon at 865-983-3740 by Jan. 25.

THE BOOKAHOLICS BOOK GROUP • Union Ave Books • 12PM • Union Ave Books’ monthly book discussion group. Visit unionavebooks.com. • FREE COMITE POPULAR DE KNOXVILLE • The Birdhouse • 7PM • A weekly meeting of the local immigrant advocacy

Saturday, Jan. 30 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

ETC.

Thursday, Jan. 21 FRIENDS OF THE BLOUNT COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY PRE-OWNED BOOK SALE • Blount County Public Library • 12PM • A fundraiser for the library where more than 50,000 books are available—$1 for soft cover and $2.50 for hard cover, plus movies (DVD & VHS), audiobooks and specially priced rare books, collectibles and others--by the Friends of the Blount County Public Library (FOL).• Thursday, January 21, 12 noon until 6 p.m.: Members-only sale, an opportunity for FOL members to purchase books before other members of the public are admitted to the sale. FOL memberships are available at the elevator doors, before accessing the Library lower level.• Friday & Saturday, January 22 and 23, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., open to the public in the Library lower level. • FREE

or

Friday, Jan. 22 FRIENDS OF THE BLOUNT COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY PRE-OWNED BOOK SALE • Blount County Public Library • 9AM • A fundraiser for the library where more than 50,000 books are available. • FREE Saturday, Jan. 23 FRIENDS OF THE BLOUNT COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY PRE-OWNED BOOK SALE • Blount County Public Library • 9AM • A fundraiser for the library where more than 50,000 books are available. • FREE Thursday, Jan. 28 LITTLE RIVER TRADING CO. PINTS WITH A PURPOSE • Little River Trading Co. • 5PM • The next Community Partners Pints for a Purpose, which is set for 5pm -9 p.m.

Thursday, January 28th, at Switchback Craft Beer Tavern/ Little River Training Co., 2408 E Lamar Alexander Parkway, will benefit Great Smoky Mountain Institute at Tremont (www.gsmit.org) .Sponsored by Blount Partnership, Osprey Packs and Smartwool. Thanks to opur sponsors 100% of the nights beer sales proceeds goes to the advocate. Featuring Yeehaw Brewing Co. and Tootsie Truck.

BURNS SUPPER • Boyd’s Jig and Reel • 6PM • The Burns supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns, author of many Scots poems. There will be food, music, poetry and more. Drinks at 6PM and food at 7PM. • $40

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

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

Send your events to calendar@knoxmercury.com

January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 33

FOOD

D ir t to Fork

fall that are still hanging around on a table in an unheated room of my house. This is a good way to think, though admittedly I’m going to need some editing and adding to come up with something edible.

5.

Photos by Rose Kennedy

Table to Farm A soupy Snow Day fundraiser grows seeds and beards

BY ROSE KENNEDY

T

here are times I just love to see Knoxville get together—the way we overflow parking lots to watch middle school cross-country matches, for example, or our raucous abandon and abundant turnout for October’s Open Street event on Central.

Sometimes we just get it—and the 8th annual Snow Day on Friday, Jan. 22 to benefit CAC Beardsley Community Farm promises to be a prime example.

Once again, patrons—as many as 800 if last year is any indication—will congregate at Barley’s Taproom and Pizzeria for a silent auction and many pleasing bands.

One of the main draws? Soup! Yes, the peasant food of choice, served up by several local eateries, along with a friendly competition: the Soup Off. And in the same way we walk several hundred yards from side-street parking spots to get glimpses of kids valiantly running the cross-country course, people must incur a bit of inconvenience if they want to be

34

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

involved in this part of the event.

Those who don’t arrive on time could miss the ladled portion of the fundraiser; the Soup Off starts at 7 and ends at 10 p.m., but sometimes the soup runs out by like 9, even 8:45. And you don’t want to miss the soup because the cooks and chefs—this year to include reps from OliBea, Babalu, Savory and Sweet Truck, Sunspot, Tupelo Honey Cafe, Tootsie Truck and more—give it all they’ve got.

Still, the things to love about this event continue well into the evening and for many months into the future.

Here are a few favorites, from my personal short list:

1.

The money raised provides about 15 percent of the urban demonstration farm’s operating budget, according to its urban agriculture director Khann Chov. So there is an event in Knoxville that allows you to sup soup and listen to bands and have admission fees transformed into line items and supplies—anything from soil amend-

ments and lumber for raised beds to, ah, chicken and cat food.

2.

Beardsley needs cat food for its resident feline, who blogs on their website and answers to “Weasel.”

3.

The soup competition is “friendly,” according to the Savory and Sweet Truck’s Byron Sambat, who also entered last year. S and S will be doing something with lots of local greens and sweet potatoes, maybe some butter, definitely some locally grown turmeric from a friend. Right off the bat, just from talking about the event, I’ve learned that it’s possible to grow turmeric around here, and that to make 10 gallons of soup for a contest involves a bit of test-batching, along with days of he and wife Kiki making vats of vegetable stock. (And that even a chef in a friendly soup competition will not divulge all the spices he might use.)

4.

The requirement that Soup Off contestants use at least some local ingredients encourages people like me to contemplate how they could do the same. And while the hard freeze of the past three nights is kind of daunting, I did come up with a short list of Cruze Farm whole milk, Blue Slip wine, homegrown oregano and mint, and some “storage onions” I harvested last

While it does not receive funding from the Snow Day efforts, Beardsley is moving onward and upward in its mission to educate us all about growing, preserving, and cooking fresh and local foods with ongoing construction on the CAC Beardsley Community Farm Education Center. They broke ground in June, and according to Chov, partners have been chipping away at constructing the 1,200-square-foot facility ever since. Funding sources include $150,000 from the city and 30,000 bricks and masonry training for UT students from General Shale. It will end up including a solar-ready roof, rainwater harvesting options, a classroom, restrooms, office space, storage space, and a 400-square foot covered outdoor classroom.

6.

7.

And a place to process vegetables and honey.

When I went to take a photo of the progress (there is a roof now!)

Tuesday morning, even though the temperature was still 19 degrees, a small plot across from the fenced farm had several lovely heads of greens growing. I particularly liked one, probably a bok choy, that was outside the crop cover and frost-kissed, but still green. When I arrived home I noticed that my own odd urn of mustard greens on the front porch had survived in the same fashion. Which adds another ingredient for that soup.

8.

And not least, the beard competition at Snow Day. There are homegrown and homemade categories, and it begins at 10:15 p.m., with prizes that include Dazzo’s pizza. I’m not sure which I like better: the hipster beards that are helping buy seeds and such for an urban demonstration farm, or the fact that most of the contestants’ beards will be sporting soup. ◆

drakescomeplay.com

BEER

THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET

REALLY GOOD

MARTINI MONDAY BECOMES

MOONSHINE MONDAY 13 SPECIALTY COCKTAILS HAND CRAFTED WITH A VARIETY OF SUGARLANDS MOONSHINE FLAVORS

BURGERS

EVERY MONDAY

SUSHI GRAND OPENING FEBRUARY 1 242 Morrell Rd, Knoxville, TN 37919 865-474-1188

$5

$2 DRAFTS ALL DAY EVERY TUESDAY* Sun – Thurs: 11 am – 12 am (food), 1 am (bar) Fri – Sat: 11 am – 2 am (food), 2:30 am (bar) drakescomeplay.com drakesknoxville

drakescomeplay

Celebrate & Save!

In Honor of Sunset Bar’s 1st Birthday!

Any gourmet burger & fries plus a draft beer $12

* high gravity drafts not included

1/2 OFF BOTTLES OF WINE EVERY WEDNESDAY UNTIL 10 PM

2200 Cumberland Ave sunspotrestaurant.com 865.637.4663

EVERY DAY’S A

HOLLY DAY! ’

Pantone 2622 Pantone 716

Pantone 7489 80% tint used

(ages 21 & up)

Any gourmet burger & fries plus a soft drink for only

$10

HAPPY HOUR EVERYDAY 9-10 PM

$5 $3 $5 $3

SUNSET PITCHER PINTS SIGNATURE COCKTAILS SHOOTERS

ENJOY THESE GREAT WEEKLY SPECIALS AT BOTH HOLLY’S LOCATIONS. •Meatless Monday Vegan & Vegetarian specials •Tijuana Tuesday Good Golly Tamale & other South of the •Viet Wednesday •Comfort Thursday •Falafel Friday •Saturday & Sunday

*Burger Special valid through 2/14/16*

13 Market Square • 865-246-2270 • trio-cafe.net

Border inspired Goodness Pho, Bahn Mi, & other Southeast Asia inspired Goodness Old favorites like Meatloaf, Chicken & Slicks, Mashed Spuds, Mac & Cheese How many kinds of Falafel can we invent?

Waffle specials, Egg specials and other creative ways to get you to come enjoy all day Goodness with us!!

Holly’s Gourmet’s Market & Cafe 5107 Kingston Pike • (865) 584-8739

Holly’s Corner

842 N. Central Ave • (865) 851-7854

hollyseventfuldining.com January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 35

’BYE

Sacred & P rofane

The Cost of Giving Is it really worth it?

BY DONNA JOHNSON

I

don’t know what kind of weird glitch I have in my neurochemistry that compels me—whenever I have a glass of wine or alcohol of any kind— to give everything I love away. Brand new dresses, coats, notebooks, paint—whatever I have newly purchased and hold dear to my heart, which is pretty much everything because of my love of stuff. One drink, and you can count on it: The next day I will wake up and it will all be gone.

I would like to say that I am such a wonderful, loving person that I just revel in the joy of giving, but there is little of that sense of fulfillment.

Sometimes I wake up and hate the person I’ve just given all my stuff to, as if they are responsible. It is particularly upsetting when I see gifts I have bestowed on some unsuspecting victim tossed into the dumpster, most particularly a painting that I have labored days on—right smack in the dumpster.

It has been brought to my attention recently in a mildly painful way that my gifts are often misunderstood, as in the case of my former neighbor, Jacob, who just moved back to Memphis. Through various conversations with other people in the neighborhood, I had learned that he was frequently clinically depressed. I empathized greatly with this, for when I was his age, 25, I suffered from the same malaise and sometimes could

36

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

not get out of bed for days due to feelings of despair. Through the wonders of medicine, I got better, but memories of my former wasteland of desolation are still present enough that I feel a strong connection to those who yet suffer in their own badlands.

Further, Jacob is a gifted writer, which compounded my feeling of connection.

So, through the course of a year, in my compulsion to give, I presented him my favorite book on poetry, several books on writing, and a couple of sunflowers during the summer.

Before he departed for his new life in Memphis, we shared a glass of wine together and discussed our experiences and struggles with addiction, and then said goodbye. I saw him two or three times afterward, but from the way he shunned me I became aware that he thought I had some sort of cougar-esque infatuation with him and was horrified.

He would have only had to look around our small neighborhood near Sassy Anne’s to see similar presents left on doorknobs of men and women alike—some near-strangers who must have thought me very strange—to have known this was not true. But there are some things we cannot do anything about, including what other people think about us.

Whatever Jacob may have theorized about why I gave him gifts throughout the year, the story had a

happy ending for me: He returned every single thing I ever gave him before he left. He demonstrated for me one of my favorite sayings in quite a literal way—“Whatever you put out comes back to you.” Seeing the presents I had given to him returned on my doorstep was like seeing old friends, though I’m pretty sure he was trying to send me a different message altogether.

Having been schooled for years in an on-and-off fashion by AA, I am aware of the tendency of alcoholics and addicts alike to indulge in “love-me-love-me” people-pleasing.

But I’m feeling pretty well loved, at the moment, so I don’t believe this is the case. Giving, for me, is the addiction.

A function of OCD, florid mania, whatever, it’s not the worst addiction one could have. And probably, if I would give up the underlying addiction, that of alcoholism, the other one would vanish on its own. And, in any case, most of the things I have given away were just reminders of yet another addiction, that of spending rashly.

So you could say it’s a good thing.

(You might be wondering if there’s anything I’m not addicted to? Answer: cleaning. I’m definitely not addicted to cleaning.)

But the bottom line is, whenever you give exorbitantly and inappropriately, people don’t love you more—they merely think you’re stupid.

On one occasion, after I had a show of my paintings at the Birdhouse in 4th and Gill, I made the mistake of bringing a newly met artist back to my home, having a few too many, and

showering the woman—a complete stranger—with unwelcome gifts. Off she went with her husband, both laden down with my scarves, coats, sweaters, a couple of very large paintings. If that wasn’t enough, my friend Andy, another person of many addictions, sat making crude jokes.

When they asked him what he did for a living, he crossed his knees, took a swig of vodka, and replied, completely unperturbed, “I do absolutely nothing.”

Another incident involved a brand-new, bright yellow Moleskine journal that I had just bought. But, you guessed it, before the day was over (and after a couple of glasses of red wine), I had given it away to someone who barely acknowledges my presence in the neighborhood. She is fond of saying “I love you” several times a day to everyone she meets, sometimes even me. Yet when those words are used that often and that indiscriminately, they become meaningless and irrelevant, almost like a compulsive tick in her vocabulary. As soon as I saw that yellow journal lying on her bed, I felt sick and knew I shouldn’t have done it. But this story, too, has a happy ending. When I told Flossie, one of the owners of Union Ave Books, that I had given away my journal, which I had bought at her store, she promptly gave me a new one in pale lavender. Again, a beautiful example of what you give coming back to you.

But what about just keeping your own stuff and letting other people keep theirs in the first place? ◆

Whenever you give exorbitantly and inappropriately, people don’t love you more— they merely think you’re stupid.

HOLLY DAY! A vibrant district along Central Street and Broadway.

Visit Downtown North

MAKE EVERY DAY A

Architectural Antics Architecturals

Art & Antiques COME FIND GREAT TREASURES FOR YOUR SPECIAL EVENT!

TUESDAY 25% Off Bottles Of Wine

’ 842 N. Central Ave 851-7854 AVAILABLE FOR PRIVATE PARTIES!

hollyseventfuldining.com

WEDNESDAY Trivia Night & Pint Night ONE OF A KIND GIFTS • STAINED AND LEADED GLASS YARD ART • POSTERS & PRINTS • UNIQUE DECOR

12pm-6pm Wed-Fri • 10am-5pm Sat 12pm-5pm Sun 865.414.4838 or 865.696.7777 820 N. Broadway • Knoxville TN www.architecturalantics.com

Happy Hour 3-7pm

Stop in Late for Nightly Specials $6 Daily Lunch Specials Ever changing. Always delicious.

Created only from the freshest local ingredients.

1020 N. Broadway 865-971-3983 www.sainttattoo.com KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

THURSDAY Whiskey Night $1 off all

consistently voted

Artist: Tommy Davis

37

MONDAY Central Originals for $5 after 7pm

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

’BYE

Spir it of the Staircase

BY MATTHEW FOLTZ-GRAY

38

KNOXVILLE MERCURY January 21, 2016

www.thespiritofthestaircase.com

’BYE

BY IAN BLACKBURN AND JACK NEELY

CLASSIFIEDS

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

FOR SALE BLUE VINTAGE NORTHFACE HIKING BACKPACK, aluminum external frame.

Early 1980's or so, about 90 liters. Great condition for its age, but some wear. $100 OBO. 678-313-7077

$5 NEW YEAR’S SALE, local and handmade, unique and modern, repurposed vintage beads, hand-painted geometric necklaces, and more. etsy.com/shop/triciabee

HOUSING 1BR APARTMENT IN PARKRIDGE - $425. 2BR $465. Take half off rent for first month, for December or January leasing. 865-438-4870

WANT TO FIND A COPY OF THE KNOXVILLE MERCURY?

We’ve got a map for that!

It’ll be updated as we add more locations.

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

Place your ad at store.knoxmercury.com

1BR 5 MIN FROM UT/ DOWNTOWN/HOSPITALS; apt. fully furn, incl. w/ dryer; underground parking; fitness ctr, wi-fi/ cable, hot tub; $500/mo. incl. util.; female student or non-student; 865-640-3801.

COMMUNITY

ANGEL IS A 4-YEAR-OLD medium-sized female black and tan Shepherd/ Rottweiler mix looking for her forever home.

Angel will be spayed, microchipped and fully vetted when adopted.

Visit Young-Williams Animal Center or call (865) 215-6599 for more information.

MARYVILLE’S FAIR TRADE SHOP. U nique gifts from around the globe. Hours: Wednesdays 2-8 pm and Sundays 8:30-9:15 am and 11:30 am-12:15 pm. Monte Vista Baptist Church 1735 Old Niles Ferry Road. For more information call 865/982-6070.

JOBS

DOLLYWOOD IS HIRING EXPERIENCED THEATRICAL AUDIO TECHNICIANS AND LIGHTING TECHNICIANS FOR THE 2016 SEASON. At least one year experience required. College degree a plus. Pay starts at $10/hr.

Exceptional benefits package. Please bring resume and letter of interest to interview, Saturday, Jan 23rd, 11:00am - 2:00pm, at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge. Questions?

Please send an email to “auditions@dollywood.com”.

DOLLYWOOD ENTERTAINMENT WILL BE HOLDING AUDITIONS IN PIGEON FORGE, Saturday, January 23rd, 11:00am-2:00pm, at Dollywood, 2700 Dollywood Parks Blvd.

Casting singers who move and actors who sing and move. Registration begins at 9:00am. Must be at least 17. For more information, including audition requirements, pay rates and benefits, go to www. dollywoodauditions.com.

OLD CITY WINE BAR, KNOXVILLE’S FIRST URBAN WINE BAR; f eaturing an eclectic collection of wines, beer & cocktails from around the world is opening soon. We are seeking front of house team members with a passion for customer service, and a desire to learn more about the world of wine. Send Resume to info@oldcitywinebar.com

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

No need to talk with any humans!

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

Listings will run in print and online for one week.

ORDER NOW:

store.knoxmercury.com!

January 21, 2016

KNOXVILLE MERCURY 39

Accredited, accessible & affordable programs for working professionals.

Increase your earning potential.

Introducing NEW graduate business programs starting in FALL MSBA | Master of Science in Business Analytics 36 credit hours

- Designed for working professionals

- Beginning Fall 2016

- Hybrid format meeting in Knoxville

DBA | Doctor of Business Administration 57 credit hours

- Designed for working professionals

- Beginning Fall 2016

- Hybrid format meeting in Knoxville

Information Session

Wednesday, January 27, 2016 • 6:30 p.m.

601 W. Summit Hill Dr., Knoxville Learn more about LMU’s accessible, affordable and accredited graduate business programs designed for working professionals.

Plus, attend the event and we’ll waive your application fee!

For more information, contact: DBA - Jake Fait – jacob.fait@LMUnet.edu • MSBA – Allen Pannell – allen.pannell@LMUnet.edu

www.LMUnet.edu