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I Feeee-eel...Wet?
About halfway through the James Brown show Friday night, the performance was interrupted so Mayor Victor Ashe could make a special presentation to the Godfather of Soul, proclaiming May 19 to be James Brown Day in Knoxville. The mayor opened his remarks by saying that Brown had "proven he was Soul Brother No. 1 because he had made the rain stop." And it was true, the downpours that had spotted the early part of the evening had petered out shortly after Mr. Superbad took the stage. As the mayor launched into his speech, the rain began soaking the audience again.
Running With the Big Dogs
The fourth item up for bid during the auction that preceded last Saturday's Front Page Follies, the Society for Professional Journalists' annual roast of local public figures, was a Charlie Daniel cartoon. Entitled "I want you," it was a send-up of Mayor Victor Ashe's penchant for snarfing up far-flung areas of the county with "finger" annexations. The bidding started slowly, with a couple of low-rollers dueling over the editorial art, five bucks at a time. On and on they went, until a guy in the back of the room upped the ante from $205 to $300. The first two bidders dropped out, and the guy in the back ended up with the Daniel cartoon for $500. The high-roller was state economic development czar Bill Baxter; the penny-ante types, GOP county law director nominee Mike Moyers and Ashe hisownself. Moyers disputes the "cheapskate" label, citing the difference between "impecunious" and "cheap."
Sister Act
The Follies proved to be a coming-out party for Barbara Womack, the News-Sentinel reporter formerly known as Bob. The statuesque Womack was featured in a number of skits playing characters from Barbara Bush to Sister Maris Stella (the nun who does the St. Mary's TV commercials with Peyton Manning and Chamique Holdsclaw). The piece de resistance, however, came when Womack, who covers Farragut, belted out an ode to the suburbs set to the tune of Shania Twain's country hit "Man, I Feel Like a Woman."
Fast Eddie
So there he is, in living color, occupying page 113 of Big Brother, Larry Flynt's skateboarding magazine. The article, penned by someone calling himself Johnny Knoxville, says Eddie "got his start in business running rum during Prohibition. He spent his spare time racing cars and kicking the living shit out of anyone who crossed him."
Yup, the effortless PR machine that follows our old pal Eddie Harvey is still rolling. Johnny Knoxville, a self-described fan of the LeRoy Mercer prank call tapes, came in from Los Angeles to interview Harvey about being a cult hero.
The interview went like this:
Q: Why are you famous?
A: Huh?
Q: Why are you famous?
A: I ain't famous.
Q: Well I'm doing an interview with you.
A: The only thing I know of is an old boy called me and said he bought an oil filter from me and said that he believed it had blowed up his car. Called me a few names and I retaliated. He threatened to whup my ass.
Etc.
The article ends with a plug telling readers how to order those Eddie's Auto Parts T-shirts with the stogie-puffing woodpecker on the back.
April 20, 2000 * Vol. 10, No. 16
© 2000 Metro Pulse
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