Last year’s session of the state Legislature was a morass of bills urging schools to “Don’t Say Gay” and students to engage in “critical thinking.” Were these the most important issues facing the state? Eh, not so much. But they did earn us lots of national ridicule. So surely our legislators have learned their lessons and will get serious about tackling real problems this year? Well... Cari Wade Gervin gives us her take on what to expect from our elected representatives in 2012.

Here's our list of bills in the Legislature that will either get the most attention (crazy) or demand close attention (important).

Megan Mullins was browsing Craigslist, looking for baby things, when one “Wanted” plea seemed to leap off the screen: a woman who had just recently moved to town, in desperate need for diapers for her toddler. Mullins responded, and discovered an unmet need among Knoxville’s working poor and homeless, who can’t afford diapers, or can’t buy them with WIC funds. Thus began an unusual charity, as Rose Kennedy reports.

The kerfuffle over Gloria Ray’s compensation heading the non-profit Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corp. has rocked the city’s establishment and frayed friendships.

He didn’t get all the money he wanted, but the developer behind the Oliver Hotel got enough of a facade improvement grant from the Central Business Improvement District to say that Asheville restaurant Tupelo Honey Café will indeed open on Market Square, most likely by June.

State Sen. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, was in South Carolina Saturday night helping Newt Gingrich celebrate his victory over Mitt Romney in the Republican primary.

State Rep. Harry Tindell, D-Knoxville, has decided not to run for re-election. The Democrats are no longer in charge, he is no longer a committee chairman, and the Republicans redrew his seat to make re-election an uphill battle. But thus far people are still trying to find potential candidates.

Susan Fowlkes is the Knox County Health Department’s clinical nutrition director and lead on its diabetes management classes open to the public.

Mom: "You will never know the pain and agony I suffered watching you be bullied at school."

Gloria Ray defends her salary as head of the Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corp.

Dylan Dawkins' tracks may be instrumental, but it’s rare to find electronic music this lyrical: Dawkins’ loose-limbed synthesizers, which stretch and crawl in luxurious waves, rarely sit in idle ambience, recalling at turns both the spacey fog of Animal Collective and the eye-popping finesse of Herbie Hancock.

With over 400 years of music in our western repertoire, modern concerts devoted to just one composer often run the risk of appearing overly focused, fussy, and academic, even for listeners with more than a casual interest. The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, however, made a case last weekend that the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart can be a remarkable exception.

The Dirty Guv’nahs have just wrapped up recording sessions in Nashville for their upcoming, still-untitled new album, due out sometime this year.

Reportedly recorded in 1966 in a Colorado cabin (with electricity but no running water), the recordings were warm-ups for a gig, and thus never intended to be released as an official album. As such, they have a charming lo-fi quality to them, Dalton playing for friends who pass around a bottle—which was, reportedly, her favorite way to play music.

Are we ready yet to be grown up at the movies?

More reactionary American viewers will no doubt have a hard time with aspects of Essential Killing. Not only are a number of Americans/Westerners killed, but live Americans are typically portrayed as callous brutes fond of drugs and thudding bro metal—the kind of reductive vilifying that Islamic viewers of American films must be used to by now.

Yung Life plays fuzzy, dreamy synth pop, the kind that hints of M83 and New Order and Suicide, the kind that sounds like it was made in 1982 instead of 2012, the kind where shadowy vocals are muted behind swirls of hazy keyboards and throbbing beats.

In performance, Dumb Lunch’s stumbling beats take on a darker aspect, as the music collapses into a vortex of noise, volume, and 21st-century underground shock theater.

By early 2011 Fine Peduncle’s sound had solidified into a suggestive, hooky blend of hip-hop and left-field electronica, brought together by Cole Murphy’s Timberlake-on-bad-acid falsetto. What really brought the project to maturity, though, was the incorporation of his lifelong fascination with bugs.

Wolf at the Door has made giant leaps in songwriting with their newest material. Seeds of their new direction are displayed on the recently released Weary Bones EP, but upcoming full-length American Castles, judging by the “very rough” early mix, sounds even more thrilling.

I’ve been enjoying Bill Landry’s book, Appalachian Tales & Heartland Adventures. It chronicles the back story of the long-running WBIR series of anecdotal stories about backwoods crafts, sports, cuisine. I have only one complaint about the book. Landry spells possum as opossum.

So how did Gloria Ray get to be Gloria Ray?

The city attacks graffiti in this area with a bewildering ferocity. Someone pointed out that as a gateway to Parkridge, maybe the city wants the underpass to look nice. Maybe, but demoralizing lengths of empty concrete walls do nothing to improve Knoxville.

The job of law director is more complicated in Knox County than most places because the director represents not only County Commission and the mayor, but also all of the county’s other independently elected officials including the Board of Education, the county clerk, the property assessor, the register of deeds, the sheriff, and the trustee. Needless to say, their interests don’t always coincide.

Joshua Lewis: "A thriving downtown environment, one that separates itself from the rest of the nation, should not be about how many fusion restaurants and boutiques you can cram into each square mile."

Amien Essif: "While this Extreme Makeover: Home Edition episode was supposed to flatter our city, it’s done just the opposite."

"This is a question about what I guess you’d call economic etiquette. What should you do when many of your friends are suddenly either un- or under-employed?"

After a Herculean effort, Aegean Mediterranean Grille has opened—again. Let’s hope that unlike Sisyphus, they only have to push the rock up this particular hill once.

Folks have been asking me what I think of Gloria Ray, and especially whether she earns her annual compensation, which is slightly larger than that of the president of the United States.

A couple of weeks ago, when word came that developers were eyeing the former Fulton Bellows site along Third Creek as a possible location for a new shopping complex to include a Walmart and Publix, hands started wringing. After all, Walmart has a reputation for luring customers away from local businesses, and some felt that if the plans go through it could take dollars away from our downtown.

In addition to our Restaurant Guide, Bar Guide and Band Guide, Metro Pulse staff work throughout the year to provide in-depth coverage of Really Good Things to Know About Knoxville. How to be a good and happy cyclist in town? Got you covered. Want to give your dollars to local holistic health providers in town? We'll point you in the right direction. We've collected our Guides to Knoxville in one place for easy perusal.

There are a lot of “best” lists out there, from local magazines, TV stations, newspapers, and websites. But when we launched the Best of Knoxville in 1994, the very concept was alien to a lot of people here: Knoxville has things that are “best?” Who knew! Since then, of course, just about every media source in town has started vying to declare things best, and nobody bothers to question whether Knoxville’s establishments are worthy of such honors. (They are, and they help create the place we love to live in.) But the Best of Knoxville itself is still the best of the best-of-Knoxville lists, the one poll where the results reflect the will of thousands of voters, and the one that guides us to all things genuinely Knoxvillian.

This is it: The one true Best of Knoxville. Read more and see the winners >>

Peruse our previous Best of Knoxville winners.

Tips, Shortcuts, Pointers, Advice, and the Straight Dope on Making Life Easier for Yourself in the Marble City Read the Metro Pulse Insider's Guide to Knoxville >> And here's Volume 2.

A Resource Guide to Outdoorsy Activity in the Knoxville Area Read the Metro Pulse Outdoors Guide >>

Read the 2012 Knoxville City Guide >>

Download the Drinking Guide Flowchart (PDF) >>

May is National Bike Month, and Metro Pulse is celebrating by giving over most of this issue to bikes and bicyclists. Meet Kelley Segars, your regional transportation planner and bicycling advocate. Meet Elle Colquitt and Jon Livengood, who have sniffed out the best bike routes around Knoxville ... and share their favorites here. Get some air with Corey McPherson, closet BMX-er and ace photographer (and Metro Pulse designer). And meet your many fellow bicyclists and local bike-sellers through our handy list of bicyclists' resources—everything from off-road routes to clubs to shops to upcoming events to rules of the road. Read the Metro Pulse Bike Guide >>

Want to start feeling healthier but don't know where to start? Or are you a gym veteran who wants to take it up a notch? Find out what services the Knoxville area has to offer you for Holistic Health, Eating Well, Fitness & Feeling Good, and Mental Health. Read PEP!—the Metro Pulse Good-Health Guide >>

Mine our Earth Day coverage for what global warming means for the Smoky Mountains, how some Knoxvillians are working their own plot of land at Beardsley Community Farm, and local green living tips. Read the complete Earth Day coverage >>

You can never start planning to early, right? Mine our 2011 Valentine's Day Gift Guide and Christmas Guides (for him and for her) to start planning for your next gift-giving occasion.

Written and edited by local riders, Handlebars covers the full range of motorcycling: touring, sport, cruisers, vintage, dirt, and more. We'll tell you about the people, places, and events that make the area's motorcycle scenes so unique, and we'll give you the scoop on interesting new bikes coming onto the market. Handlebars aims to bring you the best of East Tennessee motorcycling. Check out fromthehandlebars.com >>