Art In the Afternoon
Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008
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 Full story »
More Secret History by Jack Neely
Beefy Brilliance
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
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 Full story »
More The Gourmet Nose
Stretched
Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008
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 Full story »
More Grocery Check-Out by John Yates
On the Edge
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
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 Full story »
More Other Lives
Tragedy and Tribute
Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008
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.” Full story »
More Midpoint by Stephanie Piper
Exploiting to Extinction
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
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 Full story »
More That's Wild by Rikki Hall
It’s All In the Flip
Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008
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. Full story »
More All Foods Considered by Rose Kennedy
“Infill” Development
Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008
Urban Renewal by Matt Edens: In redevelopment parlance, “infill” typically refers to new buildings built on vacant lots amid older ones. Generally occurring at a late stage in a neighborhood’s revitalization, it’s a good sign that the area has matured and stabilized. “Infill,” in that regard, is also an indication that the neighborhood is running low on fixer-uppers. To see some examples, trek out to Fourth and Gill and look at the new homes at the corner of Gratz and Lovenia, along Grainger Avenue in Old North Knoxville, or Deaderick Avenue in Mechanicsville. More importantly, these are all privately developed homes, sold on the open market to buyers who could have easily afforded to live elsewhere—another sure sign that the neighborhoods they’re in have returned to middle-class roots Full story »
More Urban Renewal by Matt Edens
Letter From Ft. Myers, Fla.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Letters Home from Buddy Lucas It has been said that Tennessee is an old man stretched out under the sun and the moon and the stars, who dips his toes in the Mississippi River and rests his head on the Smoky Mountains with a thousand tales to tell and all the time to tell them. Being a part-time existentialist, full-time daydreamer, and occasional magic-bean buyer, I adhere to that description. This Tennessee will always be home to me. Knoxville has a special place in my heart, because it was there I feel I came to be who I am. Full story »
More Letters Home
Google's for Yankees
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Ask Everwhat: Boy, did you catch me at the right time! I spent last weekend at the Franklin Graham Festival. Ever since moving to Knoxville I’d been hearing about McCarthy-esque comings-to-Jesus under the Jackson Avenue bridge, about MySpace-page renunciations at teen prayer camp in Seymour, about tent meetings on the lawn of the Original Freez-O. Full story »
Ice Cream Dream
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Wireless Kitchen: Poised and articulate, with black curly hair, perfect white teeth, glowing skin, and lively dark eyes, 20-year-old Colleen Cruze exhibits a charming combination of sweet innocence along with a maturity beyond that of most of her peers. This agricultural science major at the University of Tennessee may be the best advertisement ever for growing up on a dairy farm—in this case, Cruze Dairy Farm in the French Broad Area. Full story »