http://metropulse.com/news/viewpoints/knoxville-culture/MetroPulse Stories: Knoxville Cultureen-usviewpoints/knoxville-culturehttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/aug/13/long-term-parking/Secret History by Jack Neely: Earlier this summer, a twin-front building on the 800 block of Market Street was demolished, without publicity, as demolishers prefer it. I didn’t know about it until I saw the backhoes biting into it one weekend. It was the first demolition on Market Street in 30 years, but no one raised a stir. Few cared much about the building, a drab little former law office, a one-story victim of the over-stuccoed ’70s, ineligible for National Register status. I saw it in mid-demolition, when the stucco had fallen off, but the front walls were still standing, and was surprised to see, for the first time in my life, its dignified circa-1920 facade. ]]>Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/aug/13/long-term-parking/knoxville-culture/secret-historyhttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/aug/06/art-afternoon/Secret History by Jack Neely: If you want to take a break from all the political stuff, the hate stuff and the attack ads and the county political stuff—and I think we could all use a break—have a look at the upper left-hand gallery at the Knoxville Museum of Art. It’s called Higher Ground, sort of an episodic history of art in the Knoxville area, and the KMA’s first permanent exhibit ]]>Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/aug/06/art-afternoon/knoxville-culture/secret-historyhttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/28/senselessness/Secret History by Jack Neely: Many Knoxvillians heard Sunday morning’s awful news not from the Internet or television or even a phone call but oracle-like, from the pulpit, a shaken minister announcing a tragedy that would soon be known to the nation. ]]>Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:39:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/28/senselessness/knoxville-culture/secret-historyhttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/aug/13/shaky-reputation/The Gourmet Nose: Funny things, reputations. Easy to acquire, but the devil’s work to shift. Look at George W. Bush. He’s adopted a pretty admirable moral stance in Beijing this week, but it’s just no good; even he must have realized by now that his name will forever stand as a hideous stain on the fabric of democracy. ]]>Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/aug/13/shaky-reputation/knoxville-culture/the-gourmet-nosehttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/30/beefy-brilliance/The Gourmet Nose: Ye Olde Steakhouse (6838 Chapman Highway) is unrefined enough to have plastic-wrapped crackers on its tables. But don’t confuse lowbrow with low quality; the restaurant’s straightforward but perfectly prepared food reaches heights of excellence Knoxville’s more urbane destinations can only dream of. This exceptionally—perhaps uniquely—good steak house doesn’t just have patrons. It has fans, and remaining non-partisan is a challenge in the face of such sumptuous, beautiful cooking ]]>Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/30/beefy-brilliance/knoxville-culture/the-gourmet-nosehttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/16/sandwich-safari/The Gourmet Nose: One of the more unpleasant ways to die in Australia is to hit a kangaroo while driving through the outback. The split second before collision will often be enough for the beast to jump, clearing the hood but smashing through the windshield. Should the driver survive the initial impact, his last earthly sensation is likely to be that of being kicked repeatedly in the face by the muscle-bound hind legs of the panicked marsupial ]]>Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/16/sandwich-safari/knoxville-culture/the-gourmet-nosehttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/aug/06/stretched/Grocery Check-Out by John Yates: Super Dollar Discount Foods, one of the latest approaches to discount retailing by a major grocery chain in Knoxville, sacrifices atmosphere and selection to lower prices. Owned by K-VA-T Food Stores, the parent company of Food City, Super Dollar opened in June in an Asheville Highway strip mall just east of Chilhowee Park ]]>Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/aug/06/stretched/knoxville-culture/grocery-checkouthttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/23/upward-yearning/Grocery Check-Out by John Yates: It must take at least three geese to make up a gaggle, but what constitutes an embarrassment of riches? Everybody in America is created equal, but that still doesn’t keep us from gushing over the lifestyles of the rich and famous. We’re fascinated by the rich and fantasize about being one of them. No one seems too embarrassed about making big bucks or aspiring to do so. ]]>Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/23/upward-yearning/knoxville-culture/grocery-checkouthttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/09/foreign-outpost/Grocery Check-Out by John Yates: Hispanics have been coming to the mountains since the days of DeSoto, and East Tennesseans like Sam Houston and Davy Crockett were among the 19th-century Anglo-Americans who reached out to Hispanics on their own turf (and eventually annexed large chunks of that turf into the U.S.). ]]>Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/09/foreign-outpost/knoxville-culture/grocery-checkouthttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/30/on-the-edge/Other Lives by Lucy Sieger: From the book’s spine, an enigmatic dark-haired woman engages me with her smoky gaze. She has stenciled brows, kohl-lined eyes and a beauty mark; she is dangling a cigarette, of course. She is my alter ego, the writer I always wanted to be, my creative soul embodied in the daughter of sculptors from the Left Bank of Paris or poets from Prague ]]>Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/30/on-the-edge/knoxville-culture/other-liveshttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/02/short-stuff/Other Lives by Meg Beach: I’m five-foot nothing in my stocking feet. If you need a visual, I’m the same height—although not nearly the same width—as Danny DeVito. I never really thought of myself as short until just a few years ago when I heard DeVito in an interview say he was the same height as I am. It was truly a shock. I’d always thought of myself as being the same height as anyone I made eye contact with; I never took into account how much my neck was craned backward... ]]>Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/02/short-stuff/knoxville-culture/other-liveshttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/jun/18/river-now/Other Lives: Maybe it was all those Harleys rolling into the campground. I mean, I’ve had small realizations seep in over the last few months and certainly moments of synchronicity surfaced when Joel and I looked at each other, wordless, and smiled in simultaneous recognition. But the roaring engines brought it home for me. Brought it to this new home, this temporary home, called Knoxville. ]]>Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/jun/18/river-now/knoxville-culture/other-liveshttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/aug/06/tragedy-and-tribute/Midpoint by Stephanie Piper: I pass it on my way to work every day, the stone sign on Kingston Pike now heaped with flowers and balloons and handwritten tributes. Two weeks ago, it simply marked a church, a place of compassion and peace. A place to breathe a little easier and sit a little quieter and feel the strength of community. A place where children were rehearsing a play whose signature song is “Tomorrow.” ]]>Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/aug/06/tragedy-and-tribute/knoxville-culture/midpointhttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/09/age-appropriate/Midpoint by Stephanie Piper: Here is what I used to think: that I would always feel 26. Or even 35. I rejected the relentless march of time. Blessed with good health and a family tree of vigorous, long-lived women, I figured my odds of reaching an advanced age without visible signs of decrepitude were better than average. And for a while, they were. Married at 20, a mother at 21, I enjoyed a long run as the youngest parent on the playground bench and the PTA board. When my oldest child started college, I was still on the fair side of 40. I had energy to spare. I had years to burn. ]]>Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/09/age-appropriate/knoxville-culture/midpointhttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/jun/11/what-falls-away/Midpoint by Stephanie Piper: In search of the ultimate blunt cut, I strayed up and down Kingston Pike to a string of different salons and a parade of different stylists. Some of them were good and some of them were adequate and each of them had contradictory techniques coupled with strong opinions. ]]>Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/jun/11/what-falls-away/knoxville-culture/midpointhttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/aug/13/renaissance-rush/That's Wild by Rikki Hall: I only listen to Rush Limbaugh by accident, but when it happens, it is like a four-car pile-up. I cannot turn away. I might hear three segments in a bad week, none if I am living well. As little as I listen, I heard two egregious scientific proclamations in recent months on the man’s show. I wonder how wrong he is, and how often, on matters of science. ]]>Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/aug/13/renaissance-rush/knoxville-culture/thats-wildhttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/16/exploiting-extinction/That's Wild by Rikki Hall: The phrase “hunted to extinction” applies to many creatures, from whales to birds to plants, but the hunter is always the same. We are the only predator that wipes out its quarry. With Carolina parakeets and passenger pigeons, we did this on purpose because we considered those birds pests. Sometimes we overharvest a resource. Early American naturalists described ginseng as one of the most common plants in eastern forests, but it is now illegal to pick because it has become so rare ]]>Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/16/exploiting-extinction/knoxville-culture/thats-wildhttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/jun/18/dam-broke/That's Wild by Rikki Hall: The dam break in Wisconsin last week that cracked open a couple houses and a sewer line generated some spectacular video, but the damage was minor compared to what could happen as aging dams square off against worsening floods. ]]>Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/jun/18/dam-broke/knoxville-culture/thats-wildhttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/aug/06/its-all-flip/All Foods Considered by Rose Kennedy: I did, after I took three young teens to a pick-your-own blueberry farm on the Fourth of July about four years ago. I remember they were good little blueberries, though the proprietress told me they would get a little sweeter and plumper as the season wore into mid-August. I remember only my older daughter was proficient at picking, something to do with being left-handed, I thought. While the rest of us ate one, picked one, paused in the shade, she would denude half a bush. I remember expecting strawberry-size plants and getting full-grown bushes a little taller than I am. ]]>Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/aug/06/its-all-flip/knoxville-culture/all-foods-consideredhttp://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/23/un-sweet-tea/All Foods Considered by Rose Kennedy: know I asked for it. She handed it through the fast-food window, even smiled a little at my little dog riding in the passenger seat. Egg biscuit, unsweet tea. ]]>Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:00:00 -0000http://metropulse.com/news/2008/jul/23/un-sweet-tea/knoxville-culture/all-foods-considered