You may know literary legend Cormac McCarthy was from Knoxville a long time before he wrote about pretty horses. You may even know some of his Knoxville-based books, like Suttree and The Orchard Keeper. But you probably don't know how many of his stories were drawn directly from the real people and places that populated his childhood and young adulthood. Mike Gibson takes a tour of McCarthy's Knoxville, with a little help from some of Cormac's old friends, and finds echoes everywhere.

Joe Tarr tracks the latest series of court battles over TVA's air pollution, and Eric Winford talks science with Newsweek editor Sharon Begley prior to her Knoxville visit.
Plus: Seven Days, Meet your City, and Knoxville Found.

Joe Sullivan applauds Gov. Sundquist's bully pulpit budget in Insights, while Jesse Fox Mayshark assails the Pass the Buck (er, Public Building) Authority in Editor's Corner, and Jack Neely remembers when we were the tallest place in the world—or close to it, anyway—in Secret History.

David and Lori Deitrick's Knox County may seem an unlikely place for a portal to lands of robot warriors and purple incubi, but it's there nonetheless. Since meeting in art school 25 years ago, the local artists have become among the most admired fantasy illustrators in the country. Mike Gibson visits their magical lair.

John Sewell travels some alien lanes with Guided By Voices' Robert Pollard in the Music Feature, while Eye on the Scene lends an ear to local discs by Atomic City Rhythm Rascals and The Lovejoys. Gena Lewis previews the upcoming CBT production of political playwright George Tabori's The Brecht Files in Backstage. Frau Ally Carte tests the spatzle at Restaurant Linderhof and says, "Achtung, baby!" in Restaurant Rover. Comics fanboy Paul Lewis finds artistic boundaries being stretched by the latest from Michael Chabon and Chris Ware in Pulp.

©1996-2001 Ian Blackburn
Portions ©1991-2001 Metro Publications Inc.
No part of Metro Pulse Online may be reproduced
without written permission, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah.
Metro Pulse Online is best viewed with some sort of web browser.