Garrison Keillor on Female Singers, His Stroke, and Chet Atkins
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010
Does Garrison Keillor ever slip out of his radio persona? A phone conversation from Eugene, Ore., a few hours before a show, offers no clues. With his deep baritone and carefully chosen words between measured pauses, he’s exactly the same guy who has offered the latest news from Lake Wobegon on nationwide public radio more Saturdays than not since the Ford administration. Full story »
More Music Stories
- Deftones Survive the Nu-Metal Era With Integrity Intact
- Jazz Luminary Donald Brown Looks Back on His 30-Year Recording Career
- Drummer Jimmy Cobb Brings the Landmark Miles Davis Album 'Kind of Blue' to Life
The Sword Heads Into Orbit on 'Warp Riders'
Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010
After lumbering through Dungeons & Dragons-style sword-and-sorcery kingdoms for two albums, Texas quartet the Sword shoots off into outer space on Warp Riders. Full story »
More Music Reviews
- Charming Vocals Shine Through the Clutter on Cotton Jones' 'Tall Hours in the Glowstream'
- The Party Isn't Over for Los Lobos
- !!! Don't Give Themselves Enough Room on 'Strange Weather'
Jazz Fest 2010 Continues After Hours
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010
The Knoxville Jazz Festival didn’t end with the last announced event, astonishing as it was. Full story »
More Eye on the Scene
- Hank Fest Returns to Candoro in October
- Deadline for Sound Off Competition: Monday, Aug. 30
- Bearden Club 4620 Closes Its Doors
The Songbirds Prepare for Benefit Show with Thad Cockrell and Mumford & Sons
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010
The Songbirds’ fresh vocal harmonies and simply arranged Americana have earned Ashley Wells and Lisa Speck a spot in the hearts of Knoxville music fans since the pair first began performing covers at the Preservation Pub two years ago. Wells and Speck met in church and, after receiving encouragement from Knoxville’s local music community, decided to write and perform their own material. In preparation for their upcoming performance at the Square Room, Wells fills us in on what she’s recently had in rotation. Full story »
More Boom Box
- Medford's Black Record Collection Starts to Ramble Again
- Faux Ferocious' Playlist Offers Insight Into the Band's Disorienting Sound
- Soulfinger Frontman Tim Spencer Prepares for CD Release With James Brown and Sharon Jones
KMA’s 'Contemporary Focus'
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010
The University of Tennessee’s Art and Architecture building must have been especially quiet last Thursday. Or half of it, anyway. That night at the Knoxville Museum of Art, a free public preview of its newly opened Contemporary Focus 2010 exhibition was held. Full story »
More Art
- At Downtown Gallery, UT Professor Norman Magden Loops Images Until They Collapse
- First Friday Farrago
- Salvador Dali's Illustrations of Dante's 'Divine Comedy' Make a Colorful Impression
KSO Closes Its Season With Colorful 'Pines of Rome'
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
When the last concert in May rolls around, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra audiences have already sadly resigned themselves to the fact that without any sort of summer series in Knoxville, it will be three long months until they see the orchestra again. On the bright side, though, Maestro Lucas Richman and the KSO did everything possible, musically speaking, in last weekend’s season finale concert, Pines of Rome, to tide us over until the fall. Full story »
More Classical Music
- KSO Honors Departing Concertmaster Mark Zelmanovich in Final Chamber Concert of the Season
- Knoxville Opera Presents Rossini as Vaudeville
- UT Presents Two Short Operas, One a Comedy by Puccini
'Sherlock’s Last Case' Fulfills All the Requirements of Summer Theater
Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010
Theater companies reserve the summer for their frothiest, most lightweight entertainments. Theatre Knoxville Downtown opens its sixth season with Sherlock’s Last Case, a play so unencumbered by meaning that it practically evaporates before your eyes. And if the company puts the production over with more brio than skill, it’s all part of the summer theater experience. Full story »
More Theater
- Oak Ridge Playhouse Dusts Off Rice/Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
- Clarence Brown Theatre Takes on '60s Icon Man of La Mancha
- Two Romantic Comedies, Written a Century Apart, Share a Single Truth
No Surprises, Just Epic Warfare, in 'StarCraft II'
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010
Eleven million sold or not, the specifics of a franchise that nearly stole away an entire generation of South Korean gamers is surprisingly hard to pin down for the uninitiated. “Warcraft in space” doesn’t make sense to those unfamiliar with the genre; “SimCity meets Halo” is even worse. Full story »
More Video Games
- Why I Hated My Vacation: The Worst of Summer Gaming
- The Surprising Success of OnLive, a Mutant Offspring of Gaming and YouTube
- War for Cybertron Wins Gaming
'The Art of the Steal' Shows How Subculture Becomes High Culture
Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010
The Art of the Steal (MPI DVD) painstakingly reveals the shameless maneuvering of various Philadelphia politicians, administrators, philanthropists, and wealthy men to turn Albert C. Barnes' collection of modern art into yet another center-city tourist attraction. Full story »
More DVD/TV
- Prison Makes a Better Criminal in Jacques Audiard’s 'A Prophet'
- IFC's Video on Demand Connects Niche Movies and Their Audiences
- Warner Tries to Keep Up With Technology—and Beat Bootleggers—With On-Demand Archive
The Inaugural Knoxville 24-Hour Film Festival Unleashes Some Winning Creativity
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010
In keeping with similar contests around the country, the time limit wasn’t the only guideline. To keep things interesting—and level the playing field against anyone who would attempt to start before the allotted 24-hour window—three elements had to be present in each film: a landlord, a dictionary, and the phrase, “Try to be incognito when you meet them.” The resulting films, screened prior to the awards ceremony last Thursday at the Bijou Theatre, were almost universally impressive. Full story »
More Movies
- 'Piranha 3D' Earns Instant Cult Status With Gore, Comedy, and Naked Spring Breakers
- Noomi Rapace's Performance Rises Above the Violent Murk of 'The Girl Who Played With Fire'
- Edgar Wright Transfers the Cartoon Frenzy of 'Scott Pilgrim' to the Big Screen
DC's Latest Takes on the Green Arrow Universe are Hit or Miss
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
DC’s new Justice League series has missed the mark, but Gail Simone’s Birds of Prey is off to a good start.
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More Comics & Graphic Novels
- Alan Moore Revives Underground Publishing Tradition With Big-Budget Zine
- DC and Dynamite Reboot Classic Characters With Divergent Results
- Graphic Novel "Trick 'r Treat" Celebrates All Things Halloween
Larsen Jay, Local Entrepreneur and Producer of 'That Evening Sun'
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010
Head of DoubleJay Creative, which does high-tech PR and video work, Larsen Jay was once famous for spearheading Market Square’s holiday skating rink. But he turned motion-picture producer with last year’s release of That Evening Sun. Full story »
More Guest Speaker
- Libby Sherrill, Executive Producer, 'Beyond the Myth,' a Film About Pit Bulls and Breed Discrimination
- A Conversation With George Barris, Creator of the Batmobile
- C. Martin Croker: The Man Behind 'Space Ghost' Villain Zorak
Mind the Gap on iPhone 4
Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010
By simplifying nearly everything about the smartphone experience while simultaneously opening their product to outside development and locking down that same development into only styles which help unify their vision, Apple positioned themselves via the iPhone as frontrunners in next-gen telecommunications. Say what you like about Apple, but they know how to build a solid, appealing piece of hardware. Or at least they did until the iPhone 4. Full story »
More Digital Media
- A 140-Character Sonnet
- Apple Tries to Get in on the News Business with the iPad
- Will Microsoft's Windows 7 Render Your PC Obsolete?
Despite Efforts, "Lulu in Marrakech" Unconvincing
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Diane Johnson has perfected the contemporary novel of manners. Or more particularly, she has mastered the expatriate version of such, a cross between Henry James’ American on European Tour and Jane Austen’s Social Commentary. In previous works, such as Le Divorce (1997), Le Mariage (2000), and L’Affaire (2003), Johnson’s central characters are invariably newly arrived Americans set adrift in European, mostly French-speaking, settings of subtlety and expatriate compromise. In her latest work, Lulu in Marrakech, Johnson relocates the setting from Europe to Morocco.
Full story »