MetroPulse Stories

Table of Contents: Feb. 23-Feb. 29, 2012

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:30:00 -0000

Cover: The Dirty Guv'nahs

Knoxville's Dirty Guv’nahs Set Their Sights on a Changing Music Industry

everettm@metropulse.com (Matthew Everett) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:25:00 -0000

Amid the continuing decline of record sales, the ongoing tightening of commercial radio playlists, and the decade-long collapse of the major-label music industry, the Dirty Guv’nahs have survived. They have methodically built themselves a reliable paying audience across the Southeast without the benefit of a label or professional management. Their success has come not just on the strength of their swaggering rock ’n’ roll, but by having a sensible 21st-century business plan. Matthew Everett takes a peek.

The Lamentable Tragedy at the Washington’s Birthday Zouave Ball

neely@metropulse.com (Jack Neely) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:18:00 -0000

If the Zouave Grand Military Ball at Spiro’s Hall wasn’t the social event of the season, it was the liveliest thing afoot on the evening of Washington’s Birthday.

Welcome to Poo Corner

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:14:00 -0000

This space belongs to nobody, and so dog owners walk their dogs there so they don’t have to pick up after them. In our family we call it the Dog Poo Corner. Still, it’s the closest public space, and we play there more often than one might expect.

UT’s New Athletic Director Should Take a Page From Pat Summitt’s Book

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:12:00 -0000

The University of Tennessee’s new athletic director, Dave Hart, will formally take over the Women’s Department of Intercollegiate Athletics in June. Actually, he pretty much already has, and devoted Lady Vol fans believe that the men’s side will undergo an instant upgrade when it absorbs the House That Summitt Built. But they aren’t sure they’re going to like him or the new consolidated athletics department.

Culture Warriors

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:09:00 -0000

Most people are more concerned about their kids, their jobs, and just living life. I suppose the culture warriors among us have appointed themselves to do battle on our behalf. They fight the gay menace so you don’t have to.

Upping Performance Pay For Top Teachers

Sullivan@MetroPulse.com (Joe Sullivan) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:07:00 -0000

More performance-based pay for top teachers and for instructional coaches ranks high on Superintendent Jim McIntyre’s list of needed initiatives. But as matters stand, it’s not even clear where the money will come from to sustain the strategic compensation program known as APEX.

Letter: The Local Sports Mafia

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:03:00 -0000

Woody English: "It bothers me that only a small number of local sports media overlap and fill all of the TV, radio, and written word positions in this burg."

Letter: Daily Comic Strips Are Still a Vibrant Art Form

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:01:00 -0000

Robert Ries: "That’s some big talk coming from a weekly that seems to openly acknowledge that they have yet to perfect their own funnies pages."

Clarence Brown Theatre's 'Fuddy Meers': A Minor Riot of Absurdist Modern Comedy

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:56:00 -0000

Fuddy Meers is a comedy about cognitive dysfunction, but don’t go with a grim sense of duty and a checkbook. It is not an appeal for greater awareness for dementia or posttraumatic stress disorder, with a website that shows how you can help. It’s a comedy—almost old-fashioned, in a way, the sort of comedy that used to suggest quaint adjectives like “madcap” and “screwball.”

Restaurant Report: Three Rivers Market and Deli

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:55:00 -0000

The new location of Three Rivers Market, the independently-owned natural foods grocery known to locals as “the co-op,” boasts a much-needed large parking lot, more room for grocery items (including organic meats), a dog-friendly patio, and a deli serving hot and cold foods.

Who Should Be Invited To an Unconventional Baby Shower?

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:39:00 -0000

we would also like to invite my wife’s Kentucky and Pennsylvania relatives and my Florida relatives as a formality, even though we know they won’t attend.

'Action! Mystery! Thrills!' Captures the Weird Spirit of Comics' Golden Age

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:39:00 -0000

Compiled and restored by comics historian Greg Sadowski, this new volume from always-reliable Fantagraphics Books serves up 176 covers from a decade when comics were still trying to figure out what they were—and what they could be.

'Project Nim' and "The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence): Two Grim New Portraits of Our Species

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:35:00 -0000

In 1973, a linguist named Herbert Terrace adopted an infant chimpanzee from a research lab in Oklahoma. “Adopted” is perhaps too neutral a term, though. As director James Marsh’s recent documentary Project Nim (Lions Gate DVD and streaming) reveals, he was ripped from his mother’s arms after she had been sedated. And yet that would be far from the unkindest thing to happen to him.

Studio Ghibli’s 'The Secret World of Arrietty' Reminds Us of the Wonders of Hand-Drawn Animation

coury@metropulse.com (Coury Turczyn) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:27:00 -0000

Despite the odds, two-dimensional drawings of cute little critters scampering across a movie screen are not a dead art form. They’re just not a very American one anymore.

He’s Just Not That Into You

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:21:00 -0000

If you don’t show up for meetings, maybe you’ve lost interest.

New Grant May Help Young Victims of Dating Violence

kennedyr@metropulse.com (Rose Kennedy) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:16:00 -0000

While the numbers didn’t increase in the two years between the 2009 and the recently released 2011 Knox County Schools Youth Risk Behavior Surveys, almost 10.7 percent of high schoolers surveyed reported being hit, slapped, or physically hurt on purpose by their boyfriend or girlfriend during the 12 months before the survey—two years ago it was 11.7 percent. Rose Kennedy looks at what these numbers mean in real life.

Q&A: Novelist Josh Weil

gervinc@metropulse.com (Cari Wade Gervin) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:12:00 -0000

Weil’s protagonists are really alone—so alone it hurts. Touches of a modern Southern Gothic pop up now and again, which is probably why Weil has been compared to Flannery O’Connor and Cormac McCarthy. But his novellas aren’t about violence, they’re about striving for connection, even if it’s only with a cow.

GOP Still Likes Killing Hall Income Tax

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:11:00 -0000

Knox County seniors, who pay more Hall Income Tax than any other county in the state, may get a substantial tax break this legislative session.

Q&A: Khann Chov, farm manager for the CAC Beardsley Community Farm

kennedyr@metropulse.com (Rose Kennedy) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:10:00 -0000

As farm manager for the CAC Beardsley Community Farm, Khann Chov will supervise its seed swap open to the public 12:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25—and the community farm work day that precedes it from 9 a.m.-12 noon.