Urban Churchill Ghosts
The title is a mash-up because the day was a mash-up. It’s the kind of juxtaposition that enriches an urban environment and sometimes leads me to connections I wouldn’t otherwise make. Days like this past Tuesday...
Culture
Old Gray Cemetery 14th Annual Lantern and Carriage Tour
Some weekends in this city just carry too much action. I wrote about the Hola Festival yesterday. Just a bit outside of downtown Greek Fest has been working their Mediterranean magic for years and the two...
Hola Festival 2014: A Feast for the Senses
I’ve made no secret in the past of my love of the Hola Festival. As is the case for several other festivals, it brings a mix of people to downtown who aren’t usually as prevalent. It’s...
Inside the Mechanics’ Bank and Trust Building
I’d never been inside the Mechanics’ Bank and Trust Building before last Saturday and I’d wondered about it. Sitting at 602 S. Gay Street, it’s easily one of the most striking buildings on a street that...
East Tennessee History Fair, 2014
It’s always a fun event and includes so many events that it’s impossible to do them all. I worked pretty hard most of the day and didn’t make it to several major events that I really...
East TN History Center: There’s a lot Going On
Urban Girl and I have been hanging around together a lot the last couple of weeks and it’s caused me to take some fresh looks at some things I’ve allowed to blend into the background. One...
Southern Literature Converges in the City
Last year I wrote a piece about my friend Flossie McNabb at Union Avenue Books. I told, among other stories, the story of how she and I met sometime back in the 1990s at Davis Kidd...
Armstrong/Strong Alley Update: New Art
It’s been a long time since I wrote about the Artist Alley Revamp Project. For the back stories, which started nearly two years ago, start here, go here, here, here and here. It’s been almost exactly a year since I checked...
Written in Stone: Inscriptions on Market Square
Recently a friend asked about the inscriptions written in granite on Market Square. She’d looked at them and found them wanting. Focusing on the three primary, and larger, quotes on the square she noted that they...
Five Plus Six Jazz Ensemble
Knoxville is a jazz-rich city. It shouldn’t logically have a jazz scene at all. As an Appalachian city our heritage runs in other directions from old time to bluegrass, from a bit of blues to country,...