Metro Pulse/Citybeat

Comment
on this story

Seven Days

Wednesday, Oct. 25
Representatives of the Crome Organ Co. from Reno, Nev., pack up the Mighty Wurlitzer organ from the Tennessee Theatre and ship it west for refurbishing. Large organ refurbishing, eh? OK, OK, we'll skip the Viagra joke.

Thursday, Oct. 26
The Public Building Authority says it might not need Mayor Victor Ashe's approval to use green space adjacent to the City County Building for a new jail intake center. Ashe says the city will sue, if it has to. So we might have one of our local governments suing a sub-body of local government over the right to use public space on behalf of another of our local governments. And guess who gets to pay all of their legal bills? So much for "of the people, by the people, for the people," etc.
State officials say TennCare might need $72 million in new funding to stay afloat next year. As an alternative, legislators consider new laws against ailing, aging, or dying.

Friday, Oct. 27
'N Sync performs at Thompson-Boling Arena. Local air monitoring stations report a surge in hairspray and estrogen emissions.
A 1997 TVA report is made public, revealing that the agency's chief administrative officer, Norm Zigrossi, will retire this year with an annual pension higher than his current salary. The news comes just weeks after the agency reported it has made less progress than it expected in paying down its billions of dollars in debts. Those two items, of course, are unrelated—which may be the problem.

Tuesday, Oct. 31
Knox County and Knoxville city officials say they're "still talking" in negotiations aimed at a compromise on growth and annexation issues. County Commissioner Frank Leuthold says, "The fact that we're still talking connotes something. What that connotes, I don't know." Oh. Um, well, carry on then.

Knoxville Found

What is this? Every week in "Knoxville Found," we'll print the photo of a local curiosity. If you're the first person to correctly identify this oddity, you'll win a special prize plucked from the desk of the editor (keep in mind that the editor hasn't cleaned his desk in five years). E-mail your guesses, or send 'em to "Knoxville Found" c/o Metro Pulse, 505 Market St., Suite 300, Knoxville, TN 37902.

Last Week's Photo:
Rounding out our in-depth series on local car-lot mytho-iconography (soon to be compiled in a bestselling coffee-table book, with text by Joseph Campbell) was this image of a dinosaur atop the roof of Patriot Motors on Bridgewater Road in West Knoxville. As usual, we're perplexed by the symbolism. Is it a dash of dadaism? A splash of Pop Art irony? Or, considering that automobiles run on dinosaur remains, a cry of existential despair? Whichever, the first right answer came from Page Rines of Knoxville. And for her trouble, she gets a cube of sticky notes adorned with the logo of the soon-to-be-released Disney film 102 Dalmatians. Congratulations, Page!

Meet Your City
A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend

KNOXVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT TOWN HALL MEETING
MONDAY, NOV. 6
6:30 P.M.
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
620 STATE STREET
Got a complaint, suggestion, or even a compliment for the KPD's efforts downtown? That's what they're looking for here.

ELECTION DAY
TUESDAY, NOV. 7
8 A.M. TO 8 P.M.
VARIOUS LOCATIONS
The presidential campaigns finally end. There's also a full slate of congressional races, along with elections for state legislative offices. Polls are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

KNOXVILLE'S POLITICAL LEADERSHIP: WHAT LIES AHEAD
THURSDAY, NOV. 9
5:30 P.M.
THOMPSON-BOLING ARENA
1600 STADIUM DRIVE
Lots of changes are in store for Knoxville's political landscape—a new mayor and City Council will be in place in 2003, and most county offices will be up for election in 2002. Before all that happens, UT professor Dr. Bruce Wheeler will give a historical overview of Knoxville politics, and local public officials will present their views on what's to come.

The Greening of ET

From Nader on down to local candidates

It's noon on a sunny weekday and Todd Giesecke is wandering Market Square, pushing free bars of almond scented organic soap on the business lunch crowd. "I'll bet you no one's offered you free soap in a while," Giesecke tells a group of men in suits and ties as they walk toward TVA. The soap is labeled: "Corporate Influence Clean-Up Soap. Vote Ralph Nader for President!"

The men smile politely, but they decline the soap, and Giesecke moves on. He and other local Nader supporters are out stumping with two representatives from the Green Party's national headquarters, who are touring the Southeast.

The goal is to woo votes for the third-party presidential candidate, even though none of these supporters believe Nader has a chance of winning next week. But they say Nader is much more than a protest vote, and could be the means to a viable third party that would be a force in local issues as well as national.

"We're riding on Nader's name right now," Giesecke says. "We want to be grassroots. If you get the word out and talk to people, you find they're tired of the two-party system."

"Two-party" might even be a bit of an exaggeration in East Tennessee, where the Democrats often fail to find candidates for many local races, Giesecke says. "This year, I voted in the Republican primary because the Democrats can't even get people to run." (Local Dems made themselves present on Market Square the same day as the Greens, however, with a table and signs supporting Al Gore.)

The Green Party is an international political movement that started about 30 years ago in Australia and New Zealand and has since spread to 30 countries. Greens advocate grassroots democracy, decentralizing power and wealth, gender and race equity, social justice, pacifism and a sustainable environment, among other things.

The Greens hope to garner 5 percent of the vote nationally, which would entitle them to about $12 million in the next presidential election to boost their visibility. This money would have to be used for the presidential race, but Giesecke says much of that trickles down to local races in the form of Green Party literature, bumper stickers, signs—and even bars of soap. A 5 percent turnout in the state would also qualify the Greens for matching state funds, but with Tennessee being Gore's home state (and polls putting the Greens at 3 percent here), Giesecke isn't hopeful that will happen this election.

The local Greens hope to parlay Nader's campaign into something they can build on locally, fielding candidates for Knoxville City Council, Knox County Commission, Knox County's school board, and eventually legislative and statewide offices.

Just getting started this year, the Knoxville Greens don't yet have any candidates or offices in mind. But they hope to make some runs next year. After next week's election, a committee will identify races and districts where the Greens have the best chance of winning, and then try to find candidates. The group has met about 10 times so far, with one meeting a few weeks ago drawing 65 people, while the following week saw a turnout of about dozen.

John Croxton, a lifelong environmentalist who became disenchanted with the Democrats, admits that on the surface the Green Party seems like a tough sell in conservative East Tennessee. "Everyone in Knoxville would probably characterize the Green Party as left-wing, socialist," says Croxton. "But they're not aware that one of our big goals is decentralizing government."

He says Greens are concerned with many issues—annexation, sprawl, transportation—that strike a chord in East Tennessee and were singled out in the Nine Counties One Vision process. "These things on the local level are things people will be a lot more comfortable with," Croxton says.

—Joe Tarr

An Ancient Walk

St. John's Cathedral builds a public labyrinth

When she prays, Karen Gann sometimes has trouble getting the clutter out of her head and focusing.

A few years ago, she discovered a way to help her concentrate—walking a labyrinth. "It makes it easier for me to quiet my mind, so I can pray unencumbered," says Gann, a member of St. John's Episcopal Cathedral.

Gann wasn't the only one at the church fascinated by the meditative powers of the labyrinth, a concept at least 3,500 years old. Later this month, the church will finish constructing its own stone labyrinth in its courtyard off of Cumberland Avenue, across from the old Whittle Building. The labyrinth will be open to the public, no matter what their religious beliefs.

Building the labyrinth is Artistic Pavers, which is based in Illinois. Marty Kermeen, who owns the company, says the oldest known labyrinth was made in Crete around 1500 B.C. However, the form may be much older.

Unlike a maze, in which people must make choices about which way to go and often meet dead ends, labyrinths offer single paths that encourage contemplation. "It is not a maze...a labyrinth is a universal path that leads to a center. You cannot get lost if you stay on the path," Kermeen says. Kermeen—who employs a crew of four—has been constructing handcut stone walkways for 13 years. He used to focus on corporate logos, but four years ago he built his first labyrinth and since then has shifted his business almost exclusively to constructing them.

Kermeen and his four workers painstakingly sculpt each stone in the labyrinth using band saws. The entire labyrinth has intricate patterns, including some mind-boggling geometric puzzles.

The bricks cannot be cut by following a pattern, and the craftsmen hold them by hand, chiseling away at them over heavy saws. Since it's done freehand, it's more like sculpture than a construction craft.

"It sounds arrogant to say this, but these are the historic landmarks of the future. There's so much detail, so much geometry involved that requires a skill level that is so high," Kermeen says.

St. John's labyrinth is the same pattern as one at Chartres Cathedral near Paris. It has 11 paths.

"Some people are confused and think you're worshipping a thing. It's not an alternative thing to worship; it's an alternative way to worship," Kermeen says. "A woman in Shreveport told me it's her phone booth to God."

"The beauty to me is it's non-secular," he adds.

Gann says after a number of people at the church showed interest in labyrinths, St. John's decided to build its own. "We see the labyrinth as a place for quiet meditation, both to the congregation and the public at large. It's part of our outreach to the downtown community," she says.

The labyrinth should be open by Thanksgiving, although the church has not decided what hours the public will be allowed to use it.

Gann admits that not everyone at the church understands or will get much use out of the labyrinth, but she hopes that a lot of people use it in some way. "My biggest hope on Sunday morning is to see kids playing hopscotch on it. I really like the idea of a whole generation of kids playing on it," Gann says. "It's not like stepping on a grave."

—Joe Tarr