Thursday

knoxville gets a skatepark

My skaterboi son, Henry, will be very pleased to hear the news that Knoxville is finally getting a skatepark.

first friday in market square

My friend RANDALL BROWN wrote up this excellent overview of what's happening in Downtown Knoxville Friday night, July 1. It's a lot:


First Friday in the Market Square District
When: Friday, July 1st 5:00 - 9:00pm
Where: the Market Square District
What: a special downtown evening showcased by a unique experience provided by 20+ restaurants, shops and galleries!
please include: FOR MORE INFO CALL 256-2469

Special Musical Performance: Quartjar - Rock with bluesy hints and smart lyrics.

Other Highlights:

Open for their First First Friday - Shonos In City & Tijuana Taco!

The UT Downtown Gallery will present "Through the Lens of Ed Westcott: A Photographic History of World War II's Secret City." Westcott was the official photographer for the Oak Ridge division of the Manhattan Project.

Three Flights Up Gallery invites you to stop by for an evening of art, food and music featuring work by several local artists including Matt Peterson, Nick Hankins, Elizabeth Aaronb, Lauren Karnitz, Ben McKamey, and Ryan Sale. All works in the show are for sale, and participating artists receive 100% of the sale.

Reruns will feature LIVE Mannequins.

The Arts & Culture Alliance presents "Vigil", a new photo and video installation by Mignon and Wolf Naegeli. "Vigil" honors the courage and dedication of the international peace network, Women in Black, particularly its Knoxville chapter. Hear live sound art by Seva and brief literary performances by other Knoxville artists. Complimentary international hors d'oeuvres are served.

Sapphire offers iSFR where you are the DJ! Bring your iPod or digital music player and you can show 'em what you got.

One Vision Plaza hosts the Writer's Block LIVE Concert Series with special guests SARAH PIRKLE & JEFF BARBRA. The duo's latest album, "The Barb Hollow Sessions" debuted at # 6 on the Roots Music Report National Bluegrass Airplay Charts. Tickets $7.

Preservation Pub has extended Happy Hour and FREE Pizza til 6:30 and will host The Twilight Sentinels (rockabilly blues meets surf jazz), Kenneth Brian Band (Honky-tonk fun from Nashville)and The Cogburns (great garage rock from Atlanta)

Bliss HOME will the feature the works of local artists Clark Gillespie and Lauren Karnitz.

Downtown Grill & Brewery extends Happy Hour until 10 PM and has free popcorn in the bar area until 7 PM.

the twilight sentinels

My friend Patty Cottongim just pointed out to me that The Twilight Sentinels, the fabuloso band playing at Preservation Pub tomorrow night has a website RIGHT HERE.


So check them out online and then come join us at the show downtown Friday night.


--Katie

paparazzi mother


June 30 001
Originally uploaded by kgranju.
My daughter Jane says, "No more pictures, Mom!"


But of course, I did take more pictures (at the Fiesta Farm Gymkhana the other night) and you can see them RIGHT HERE

Jane did very well and had a lot of fun.

damn

I find THIS PHOTO and the accompanying backstory disturbing on so many levels that I'm not even sure what to say about it.

More later.

class matters?

I disagree very strongly with this OP-ED BY DAVID MOBERG in which he argues that class and race limitations are holding more Americans back than ever before.


We still have terrible problems with racism, but I believe classism is at an all-time low in this country. Anyone can now get into the country club...or the co-op building...or the chi chi preschool, if they have the funds. At one time, there were more explicit class barriers; you had to have the right last name and the funds.


I'm one of those patriotic progressives -- the kind many conservatives like to say don't exist -- who believes in the promise and reality of the American dream. It happens every day, all around us.


Moberg is flat wrong. 

some things i don't like about being divorced

-My car is making a totally funny noise and I think it needs to be sold or fixed or something and I'm very girly about car things and fixing things and selling things and I feel sort of paralyzed at the thought of doing anything at all. This was the sort of thing I never had to worry about when married. I think my gutters are screwed up too, but damned if I can tell for sure.

-Sometimes, when I run into friends who are married, even old friends -- like I did tonight at this new martini bar in downtown Knoxville (which is pretty darn nifty, by the way)-- the male friend with whom I have always flirted quite harmlessly (since we were both married) seems scared of me, and his wife seems scared of me in a different way, saying things like, "Have you lost weight?" or "Is your hair different?"

NOTE: I don't want to take up with anyone else's husband just because I no longer have one.

-I have no one to laugh about bizarro people at the end of a day/night out. Tonight, a flower bucket guy -- the guy who sells flowers downtown at night, decided he would serenade people outside my office and it was really funny (and I even got a pretty good picture of it)-- but it's late at night and anyone I called to tell would be pissed because I was calling so late, while someone who actually shares my house would HAVE to listen to my story ;-)

-When I get dressed to go to a party or whatever, I have no one to bounce things off of.
Do these earrings look good with this shirt or do my toes look too scrunched up in these shoes...?

That used to be one of the favorite parts of going out when I lived with someone -- sometimes we ended up bagging the party altogether.

Now I can only rely on my own judgment and I probably make far more fashion faux pas, and I certainly never end up staying in, having more fun at home...

Wednesday

knoxville magazine

So the new Conley media venture has launched: KNOXVILLE MAGAZINE.

Have you read it? Seen it? What do you think of the inaugural issue, and its shot at long term viability?

Comment below.

my musical to-do list for the next few days

There is so much good music happening in Knoxville in the next few days. Can't wait.

I already mentioned that SLEATER KINNEY will be headlining SUNDOWN IN THE CITY Thursday night, but I didn't mention the bonus feature: THE TIM LEE BAND will be opening.

Tim Lee was with The Windbreakers and also played with the dBs and Swimming Pool Qs and lots of other fab powerpop bands, and his own stuff is great as well. So get there early to catch his band before SK takes the stage.

On Friday night, my friend Randall Brown's band, QUARTJAR will be playing on Market Square as part of the monthly First Friday festivities, and then later that night, I'll be watching rockabilly-meets-surf-thrash band, The Twilight Sentinels at PRESERVATION PUB. The band features the uber-talented Brandon Cottingim on stand-up bass, and they rock. I saw them in February and have been looking forward to seeing them again.

So come on downtown Thursday and Friday nights and I'll see you there.

--Katie

the purpose-driven psycho

Could your boss be a PSYCHOPATH?



If you suspect he/she might be, you can take this handy-dandy ONLINE QUIZ from Fast Company to confirm your hunch.

Hott Fest


HottFestPosterLorez
Originally uploaded by kgranju.
Again, this is another example of why people should consider moving to my neighborhood, Oakwood Lincoln Park.

HOTT FEST (earlier this month) took place at the aforementioned (see post below) CORNER LOUNGE, right up the street from me on Central.

I like the poster

Tuesday

more on jimmy buffett

At least five clever, clever people have called me in the last day or two to tell me I should have gone to "Jimmy Buffett Night" at the local farm league baseball team stadium last Saturday.

(Slapping forhead) Gee! I can't BELIEVE I missed that!

Sadly, I was in Atlanta, listening to GOOD music with someone who also DETESTS BUFFETT MUSIC and who never wears pleated pants or pointy shoes.

hee hee

nestle

Nestle is AT IT AGAIN.

nestlemonstersm

One more reason to stick with THE NESTLE BOYCOTT.

sleater kinney


sleater-kinney
Originally uploaded by kgranju.
SK is one of my very favorite bands and I've never seen them live. But they are playing a FREE SHOW (!!!) Thursday night on Market Square in Downtown Knoxville. I am very excited.

My friend Randall Brown over at the Knoxville News Sentinel just had his interview with the band published and you can read it RIGHT HERE

wow!

I am really excited about this wonderful news story out today about how critically important it is for premature babies to receive breastmilk.

A quote from the story:

""We emphasize to the mothers how the milk is really a medication for their babies," says Paula Meier, a Rush nursing professor."

Bingo.

I've been writing about this for years: breastfeeding vs. artificial feeding is not a lifestyle choice akin to what color to paint the nursery or what brand of stroller to buy. It's a critical infant-maternal health issue.

Breastmilk is far more like human blood than it is like cow's milk. It's full of living hormones and enzymes and antibacterial elements that simply cannot be replicated in powdered or liquid manufactured milk that sits on a store shelf in a can.

My youngest child was in the NICU for almost a month when he was born. He was tube fed (breastmilk) for the first two weeks. He never had one drop of infant formula and went straight to nursing when he got the tube out of his nose.

Not only did I know breastmilk would help save his life, it helped me feel less freaked out and franticat having my newborn near death in a hospital for several weeks. I felt like I was mothering him, even though for 10 days, I couldn't even touch him insidethe oxygen tent.

The difference in infection and death rates betweeen breastmilk-fed preemies and preemies who get no breastmilk at all are really quite dramatic.

gymkhana

Tuesday, June 28th at 6:30 pm will be a gymkhana night at FIESTA FARM, the stable where my daughter and I ride.

If you have never watched a gymkhana, it's very fun. It's competitive games on horseback, including a jumper course, some bareback stuff, etc.

Anyone can come watch and it's free. Jane and I will be there -- she's riding and I'm helping. Bring your kids and come on by. The directions to the farm --in west Knoxville -- are on the website (click on link above).

corner lounge

My downtown neighborhood, Oakwood-Lincoln Park, just keeps getting better and better. I now have discovered TWO cool pubs/music venues within only a few short, walking blocks from my house.

The one I've been visiting most recently is THE CORNER LOUNGE. They seem to be getting good bands in on a very regular basis now and it's a real neighborhood hangout...

Here is their CALENDAR LISTING of upcoming bands.

Monday

more on the News Sentinel/South Knox Bubba/Metro Pulse/Brian Conley flap

The Knoxville News Sentinel's Michael Silence has apologized for the omission of Conley's e-mails in his article from last week. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, get yourself up to speed RIGHT HERE.)

I've written more about this RIGHT HERE.

ATL

I had a nice time. I had to go to a looooooong meeting, but after, I did get to check out the corndogorama at The Earl. It was a very happy crowd, but I only saw two bands.

One was The Woggles (yes, I did keep wanting to call them The Rutles), whose lead singer reminded me a great deal of Bill Nighy's character in "Love, Actually." (One of my all time, ever favorite movie characters. Watch the movie immediately if you haven't seen it.) The band was okay, I guess.

The second one I saw was called, I think, The 45s. They also wore matching shirts, as did The Woggles. Not sure if that was a coincidence or not.

So the music was good but not great. I'm sure there were lots of other great bands playing, but I was only there for a few hours because I was at that meeting for so long before and we didn't get there until 11ish.

I did have one very bizarre encounter there with the ex-girlfriend of the person I went there with, who essentially told me I should watch out for this guy. She didn't elaborate, although I think she would have with only a modicum of encouragement from me, which she did not get. It all felt very freshman-year-of-college to be at a club, with live music, and have a girl tell me this about the guy I came with.

The Earl is a very cool place and I did meet several other very interesting people while there.

Also while I was in Atlanta, I went to look at a house my friend is considering buying. It's a great little house - a craftsman cottage with all the original wood and fixtures. It's only about 1500 sq feet, but it has four fireplaces, including one in the kitchen. I really, really loved this house. It's a big mess at the moment, but with not too much effort, it could be awesome, and really, it's livable now if it were cleaned thoroughly. It had all my favorite small house things, including a good flow through the rooms with french doors, and a bank of windows over the kitchen sink. The original wood windows are all double hung and intact... a great house. I love finding a house like that-- completely wonderful but inderappreciated and underloved. This house needs some love. And window boxes with gerbera daisies.

It's a cool neighborhood too. I really like Atlanta. I may be spending more time there for work stuff going fwd, and I am liking it more every time I'm there.

I did have a bad run-in while there a misogynistic cat. She pounced on me and punctured my arm. But I'm always so beat-up anyway from various horse and other mishaps (I'm a bit clumsy) that it wasn't too big a deal. I have a goal to make this cat like me, though. It's a challenge.

Friday

knox rocks

You can see the last in my series on Bonnaroo RIGHT HERE. It focuses on all the Knoxvillians who were part of the 2005 Festival, and has interviews/footage of Ashley Capps, Todd Steed and the Suns of Phere, Dishwater Blonde and Dixie Dirt.

(For some reason, the person who cut and streamed the video included 30 seconds of traffic and weather at the very beginning, so don't think you have the wrong video - just wait a sec until the traffic guy finishes his spiel and then the music stuff will start.)

Roman Karpynec shot and edited the footage. He and I have more on-air music features in the works, so stay tuned...