Though silent on the shelves as of late, Knoxville's lost (after the founders left us for the wild west) literary journal entelechy has been enjoying a new life on the Web. According to founder and editor Steven Horn, the site (http://www.entelechy.org)—which has been recognized as one of the "Best of the Web" by Snap! magazine and USA Today—receives 1,200 visitors a day and averages 45,000 hits a month. That's quite a lot of business for an enterprise that began locally with the founding, in 1993, of Flat Earth Press as a forum for "new and sparsely published writers."

The first volume of entelechy was released in June 1994 to pretty damn good reviews and solid sales; the second issue, the so-called "Big Black Texas Issue," followed a few months later after a trip by the editors to Austin, Texas. Some recent changes have been made, like Flat Earth Press becoming Flat Earth Media and relocating to San Francisco. In just a short time, entelechy has grown from a local literary journal into an impressive on-line literary presence; the latest issue (the site is updated every Monday) features a review of Don DeLillo's massive novel The Underworld, a link to a listing of Pulitzer Prize winners, an article by Michael Palin on "Wanderlust" from Salon, fiction by Doug Lawson, poetry by Knoxvillian Keith Norris and Gale Acuff, and Paige La Grone's feature on Bell Buckle, Tenn., from the pages of Metro Pulse. (And then there's that article campaigning for equal screen time for male and female private parts in motion pictures.) Regular columnists for the site include Joel Deane, Merrill Gillaspy, Maria Sample, and David Snow, whose credits extend from Wired to CNet.

And, lest those of you who remain defiantly off-line worry that the Flat Earth Media has left you behind, plans are in the works for a third printed anthology to be published in the coming months.

AND...

The considerably more underground—but no less ambitious—latest double issue of Bubba's Live Bait, a locally produced 'zine from Alan "Wolfgang" Coleman, has just hit the stands at the Disc Exchange, Cup-a-Joe, and McKay's. It's numbered issues 10 and 11, so first-time readers don't get the crazy idea that it always runs 96 pages (whew!). The bulk of the issue is Coleman's epic-length tale of his misadventures as an intern at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., this fall, and his take on the cultural offerings of our nation's capital. (Worth the cover price for the stories about the other interns and the alcoholic owners of the boarding house where he bunked, all of which reads like a very grown-up Harriet The Spy.) To order a copy by mail, send $2 to Bubba's Live Bait, P.O. Box 824, Knoxville, TN 37901.

MEET & FETE

The ball keeps on rolling for the newly-formed East Tennessee Jazz Society, Inc. Although it has only been around for a few months, the organization has added the "Inc." to its name since it acquired not-for-profit status and joined the American Federation of Jazz Societies. (In fact, it's surprising that, with the international jazz talent in town and a small club scene that has been well-regarded for at least a decade by big-city critics and fans, Knoxville hasn't had a jazz society before.) The ETJS will hold its next meeting on Sunday, December 14, at Ivory's at 3 p.m. Adoption of by-laws and election of officers will be on the agenda, but also look for good food and a live performance from pianist Court Stewart. For more information call Bob Heintz at 982-6834 or Geoff Matthews at 688-2136.

CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES

After five years of rockabilly handjive, those gutbucket blues hounds the Black Velvet Dogs are calling it quits; catch their last performance at Bouji's Coffeehouse in Maryville on Friday, October 12, along with the wild women of Chunkity (and a special guest cameo by Evil Twin Rus Harper).

Local modern rock vets Jada Blade have crystallized their latest line-up with the addition of bassist Eddie Thompson, formerly of Nashville's Funk Naked. The reconfiguration of the band will make its debut on New Years' Eve at the City Club in Lake City. Plans are to release their first CD, Clean Water, in the weeks before the show.

WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN?

In a dangerous move that perhaps threatens to reignite that whole ugly frenzy of reunion tours that hit just a few years back, former Knoxville post-grunge stomp-rockers Sandbox have promised to reunite and play a set when their friends in Movement (T.A.F.K.A. HyperTribe) come through town for a show at Barley & Hopps.

Sleek modern rockers Big Idea will open the Saturday, December 27, bill; when their set concludes, Idea singer/guitarist Todd Ethridge and his old 'box mates will provide a brutal six-song segue into Movement's headlining performance. Personally, I'm looking forward to it. I just hope Neal Schon and Steve Perry don't get any more "Big Ideas."

Also look for errant Jazz Liberation Quartet guitarist and current Ringling Brothers Circus band member Dave Nichols to join JLQ for a couple of upcoming gigs at Lucille's, Sundays, December 14 and 21.

NOW PLAYING

A list of stuff, in no particular order, that got us through the week...

• 30 Amp Fuse at Barley & Hopps, Sat., Dec. 6
• An invitation to the fifth annual Psychotic Christmas Party, featuring The Plastics, My Very Educated Mother Just Sat Upon Nine Pins, No Love Lost, the return of Beton Brut, and very, um, special guest—Sat., Dec. 20 at World of Gifts (619 Broadway)
• the bemusingly woozy, slurred speech and decadent rock 'n' roll demeanor of Jonathan Fire*eater frontman Stewart Lupton on Shelly's interview cassette (full story forthcoming)
• Nick At Nite's Sid & Marty Kroft fest, Puffapalooza, Sat., Dec. 6
• The Holy Ghosts at McGhee's Irish Pub, Fri., Dec. 5

—Zippy "Send fruitcake...mmm" McDuff